West Again: New Mexico

Three days ago we dropped the hook in Bernardo, New Mexico. It may or may not be on your map. In addition to Kiva RV Camp and Horse Motel, there is a nice traditional building that may have been a business, a house next to it, a hog farm somewhere down a nearby side road, the obligatory decaying mobile home, and a cell tower. We will be here through the Fourth of July. Our particular location in the park makes wifi service unpredictable which might disrupt my unpredictable series of irregular blog posting from time-to-time, depend on it.. Keep checking in, I think the blog with the most views wins a pony.

First up on the parade of adventures are the Mission Communities of the Salinas Valley. I will not attempt to do the history as it is relatively complex native and Spanish. (You can learn everything on the "net" of course.) I love sauntering through the ruins of the past. Watch for the book of the same title but with less passion.

Above is the Church of San Gregorio de Abo. (Abo is the designation of one of three settlements along about 40 miles of the valley. The others are Gran Quivira/Las Humanas and Quarai) The Spanish arrived in the valley in 1591 and found long established native villages. The church complex is all that has been excavated. A large village was located to the left of this photo and is a series of mounds built over time. Architecture in the area is rock rather than adobe. It was plentiful and easily worked.

We also visited Quarai, The Church and convent of Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Quarai.