Ray and I got up at 5:30, ate breakfast, showered and dressed. Bonney took us to the Rail Runner, the train that runs between Santa Fe and Albuquerque (not sure if it goes further south after that). It was $8. Such a nice ride, with the views--we sat upstairs. I sure wish we could get one in Georgia!

When we got to ABQ, we asked about buses to Old Town. A nice young man at Customer Service told us which bus to get and where to get it. We went out there, bur realized we had given our ones away to the conductor on the train, who was asking for them. We went back inside to try to get exact change for the bus, but Customer Service doesn't give change, you can't get it on the bus, and the coffee shop won't give it unless you buy something. About this point, we realized we had enough quarters to pay, so went back to the bus stop and got on. Not the prettiest part of town.

We passed a post office right before our stop, so we walked back to it. Ray wanted to mail his absentee ballot, but it didn't open until 10! Really, the post office wasn't open yet. Then we walked to the plaza, Old Town. Santa Fe is much nicer and more crowded. This was mainly shops, although we did go in an old church. And we enjoyed sitting in the shade some. We decided to walk to the Art and History museum, even though it was getting hot. Surprise! it is closed on Mondays. Some nice sculptures we could look at and admire though.

Walked back to the plaza, found an open post office (didn't open til 11!). Decided we needed a cool beverage, picked a restaurant in an old house and had bunuelo and a muffin, as well as cold tea. Did a little shopping. Met Bonney, Hank, Nick and decided it was time for lunch. Went back to the same restaurant and had a salad.

We drove about an hour and a half west of ABQ to a Pueblo called Sky City, where the Acoma tribe lives. They have lived there since the 1100s, the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement in North America. There are only 13 families who live there year-round now. No electricity or running water. It is on a mesa, but they can drive up now. Many families live somewhere else but still have a family home there.

A young man (a student at KU) gave us an extensive tour and told us the sad history of Spanish massacre and enslavement, although they have retained a small amount of Catholicism. They celebrate St. Stephen's Day with feasting and dancing--he said there will be about 600 there for it in September. They have an old mission church built by the Spanish using slave labor. Many people in their cemetary have Spanish or English surnames: Chino, Hernandez, Edwards, even though they are also Acoma. The beams for the church were carried many miles from a nearby mountain. 40 feet long and straight. They could not touch the ground after they were cut, so were carried by relay teams. The roof is 30 feet up, so it would be hard to figure out how they go them there hundreds of years ago. They built the mud walls up to 6 feet high and then gradually raised first one side then the other.

We had to have a camera permit to take pictures. Bonney took them and will share them, I hope. There were some things we could not photograph, like the inside of the church.

Many native Americans did not have the right to vote until the 1970s, even though they were nominally US citizens. I did not know that.

There were two young Russian women, who I spoke to a few times. I would have liked to ask how they came to be at Acoma all the way from Russia. The others on our tour were Americans, mostly from New Mexico, as far as I could tell.

They sold beautiful and reasonably priced pots and jewelry.

We rode a shuttle bus up but walked/climbed down the old stairway. It was pretty hairy, but fun. I leaned on Nicky.

But that was not all the fun we had yesterday. We drove back to ABQ through some rain and took the tram up Sandia Mountain. Chris met us there and we had dinner in a restaurant at the top. It was gorgeous, even though very overcast. While we ate, the lights came on in the city below and we went back down in the dark. I was more terrified going up than coming down, but it was exhiliarating too. Ray and others got up and went outside to look often, but I stayed in. It was cozy and beautiful. Ray and I shared a rum and fruit juice drink called a Sandia Sunset. yum. I had shrimp scampi that was tasty.

I slept most of the way home and went right to bed. Someone called my cell phone at 4:30 (6:30 Georgia time) and woke me up! He was looking for Leon but did not hang up when I told him he had the wrong number. "The early bird catches the worm," he said...