The next morning we set off early with the intention of making as much distance as possible towards Texas, as we would like to cross over from El Paso into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, for a day trip. I mean, hey, you can't come this close to it without giving it a shot, right? What's wrong with that?
But New Mexico, the state we're currently in, is HUGE... so we have a lot of driving ahead. A lot!
We wanted to avoid the disasters of the time-wasting Hopi experiment of the day before, which had received rave reviews in Lonely Planet by a writer who either never actually went there or who was on acid at the time, but we also wanted to give the Native American Indians another chance. Hoping the author of the New Mexico chapter was much more accurate than the Arizona one, it was with some sense of dubiousness that we planned our route to include a visit to the Zuni people.
Alas, this author, too, had clearly been drinking from the same poisoned chalice as the Arizona one, and we endured another pointless waste of time. Instead of 'impressive, delicately inlaid silverwork, stone houses, beehive-shaped mud ovens and impressive murals' as promised, we again found a rundown, ramshackle shanty town - and again those ridiculous "no photo" signs. We could've seen the 'impressive murals' if we'd been prepared to waste half of the day waiting for the published tour at 2pm (run by the Visitor Centre and at a cost of $12), but we gave it all up as a bad cause and made our way back to Highway 53 for hopefully much more interesting adventures.
By now it was early afternoon and we hadn't made much progress from our original starting point of Gallup, New Mexico. We decided that the El Morro National monument probably warranted at least a quick, cursory look (I mean, hey, we'd been to the Zuni's - it couldn't be as bad as that), so we hopped out of the car and made the short walk to "Inscription Rock", where you can see graffiti several hundreds of years old. It was pretty good, there's a small pool of water there made solely from melted snow (and as a result with some sort of chameleon like creature in it - they look like fish but they're not). By now though, it was mid afternoon and time was really getting away from us, so we set off again. It was not long though til we saw signs for "Sky City", and this intrigued Agnieszka somewhat, so we decided to have another 'quick look'.
"Sky City" is the pueblo of the Acoma people, and is apparently one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in North America. It sits some 7000ft above sea level and some 367ft above the surrounding plateau. Now to be perfectly honest, by this point, the words "pueblo" and "Native American peoples" are starting to strike fear and dread to my very inmost being, as the famed pueblos of the Hopi's and the Zuni's have been, well, lets be frank, complete rubbish. Literally. But I decided to give the native people one last, and absolutely final, chance.
And to be fair, this one was actually ok. We took the guided tour from the Visitor centre (as that's the only way you are permitted to see the thing) and we should've taken the opportunity to buy a photo permit (as that's the only way you can take pictures) - but we thought we'd be sneaky and just take them anyway. Alas, because we didn't have a permit, we weren't even allowed to bring our cameras, or even our phones (in case they have - as they do - cameras on them). I mean, how sad is that? And our guide, who really was a little Hitler, was really psycho about only allowing those with permits to take pics anyway, and he would readily shout out at those using cameras (who had managed to smuggle them on to the tour) without permits dangling from them. His 'Hitler'-like traits were also demonstrated in his explanations and questions, e.g., he'd show you something, like the water system or something, give you the blurb about it, and then bark out "Questions? Water systems. Questions? Water systems." And heaven help you if you wanted to ask about something other than water systems! It got so bad that people were laughing about it behind his back, and one bloke actually went up to him and said, "Let me know when I can ask a question about the architecture". Sheesh. Some people need to develop a little flexibility, eh? Or at least, take a chill pill...
By the time the tour was over it was getting on for 6pm, and we still had a couple of hundred miles to go. We walked back down from the mesa, enjoying a nice chat with an American Pom (who was quite cute but very young) and then set off for Las Cruces.
The driving was good but long! It wasn't until at least 11pm (and we didn't even stop for dinner, only petrol) when we finally pulled into Las Cruces KOA. Oh boy was I knackered!
Anyway, here are some pics of the Acoma stuff, including our tour guide. Don't worry, I didn't take them illegally, I just downloaded them from the internet...
Our lovely tour guide
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