Tucson (arizona)--Albuquerque (new Mexico)

Hello everyone,

Finally an update from the next part of my trip. It is from Tucson (arizona) to Albuquerque in New Mexico with visits to the Zuni, Chaco and Acoma pueblos.

Total cycling distance : 22 601km or 14 125 miles.

I cycle north from Tucson through the beautiful Catalina Mountains and the Apache reservations. I was unlucky because several of the small museums were closed.

I visited the Gila Clif dwellings and hot springs in the Gila Nat Forest just north of Silver City. This region is high altitude 6230ft or ca 2000m. This and a very cold weather front made it hard to travel hear. This days I had minimum temp from 19 F or -8,6 C.
The Gila cliff dwellings are natural caves where the Mogollon people lived and the end of the 13th century. They made some beautiful stone houses there. Not really pueblos but related. The strange thing is that after all that work they left after 30 years. Why is not known. We do know there was a big drought going on in that time and a lot of people were moving. Maybe they were attacked by hostiles. Also it is not known where they went. It is fun to make theories about that.

I did a good hike there and on the third morning I visited the very hot hotsprings. I was a luxury to warm there after several freezing nights. The bad thing was I had to cross the cold river twice to get there. So when I was back at my bike I had cold feet again.

I stayed with Dominique and Joelle in Silver City and they invited me to go to a play (a musical) named : Fittler on the roof. A very good one indeed. I was really glad they took me. Greta, Dominiques girlfriend, played in it.

When I left Silver City I started to hail but it did not last very long.
I went to the very beautiful and scenic Catwalk in Glenwood. It is a path build by the CCC in the 30s along a creek in a canyon. A must see if you are in the neighborhood.

On monday, I crossed the Alpine Divide at on altitude of 8550ft or 2500m. I had to camp near snow and I lost my grip for my pots and pan. I left it out to dry but an animal took it during the night.
The houses are smaller here and look more like the ones from Switzerland so it was a bit of a familiar sight here.

Next I went to the Zuni pueblo which was a disappointment. The zunis still live there and try to sell their handwork. (gold and silver juwelery). In 5 minutes I known where the shops were but museums and so were a different thing. And because they performed dances today they were closed to the public. So I left without learning much. The next few days I learned this was more the case. The nativs are very protective and do not share much about their religion.
I did learned that a sacred lake was threatened by surface coal mining. There were a lot of articles about that in the visitor center. I was surprised to read Belgium was mentioned there. One of the reason for the mining was not to depend of foreign resources. The tribe said there were many places where you could buy or find coals so there would never be a monopoly. Belgium was than mentioned as a place. This is right we have a lot of coals back home but they are 2500 ft or 800m under the ground. This makes it very expensive to get them and because there is not a possibility for a monopoly (that argument is also the truth) we closed the last mine in 1992.
This was a very big thing. In a few years about 20 000 people were at the risk of being unemployed. (At least half of my older family including my father did work in the mines.)

After weeks of massive strikes, street violence (at one time a police officer felt so threatened that he fired gunshots in the air) the gouverment announced big social benefits so my father and thousands of others were retired after 20 years underground labor or 25 years above ground labor. My father was 42 years old but many of those were only in the mid 30s. This was at the height of the social influence in Europe.

I also visited a wolfsanctuary where a CS member Tim gave me a special tour. Thank you for that. The sanctuary provides shelter for wolves/dog hybrides who ones were kept as pets. Ofcourse this does not work out because wolves are very territorial and have a social structure in their pack and can be very dominant.
Their website is :www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org


After this I went to El Moro or also known as Inscription rock. It is a big sandstone rock with a spring. So travelers through the desert came here to rest and get water. Because sandstone is soft many of them left their inscriptions. From petroglyphs from for Christ to the Spanish conquistadores, English settles, soldiers, expeditions and so on. It was magnificent. The views on top of the rock where there is also a ruin of a pueblo are worth the climb.

El MALPAIS just a few miles further is than formed by an ancient vulcano. It left many caves. I had a storm there and it snowed during the day. So I just went caving for an half day till the weather was better. Very nice. I recommand this if you are nearby.

On sunday, april 12th, it was Easter and I spent it with a family. Jeanie was my CS host. The family had French, Osage and Cherokee roots and told me a lot about their habits, the discrimination, the way of the land. It was nothing short of amasing to learn so much. I got a souvenir from them.
They told me about how a tribe decided to go to war or not and what was done when the soldiers or warriors came back. Many problems came when during WW1 so many healers died in combat that performing the ceremonies became difficult.

On monday and tuesday I visited Chaco NP. A religious centre of the Anasazi or Anchestral Pueblon people. They florished from 850 to 1150 and build hundreds of pueblos in this distant and remote valley. Some of the buildings were 5 stories high and were considered the biggest buildings in the US till the invention of steel when they made those buildings in 1898.
The scenery here is with the best I ever saw.
Their trade relationships went as for as central Mexico.


On my way back with little food (because I stayed to long) I had another Tstorm with snow and hail. I managed to get out and find food on time.

I also visited Acoma pueblo nicknamed sky city because it is build on a high rock at 8000ft. It is the longest continously inhabited pueblo. There is no water, elektricity or any kind of services. You can only visit it on a tour. The tour is not very good.
My strict personal opinion is that the people who live there or working for the pueblo and must live there so they can say that it is inhabited. Less than 50 people live there.


I stayed for 3 days in Albuquerque where I rested and had a good time with fellow CSmembers. Seeing live music, traditional nativ dances,...

So this is it for now.

greetings,

nico