Warm greetings from beautiful Phoenix. Slowly but surely, I am getting back into civilization and I finally have time to tell you about our exciting road trip :)
I already told you that Petra, Rudolph, and I drove from Las Vegas through Utah to southern Colorado to explore the landscapes.
Typical driving routes in New Mexico
Afterwards, we continued towards New Mexico to explore the desert. And I can tell you: it was worth it!
The national parks in the desert impressed me incredibly: the endless expanses, the tranquility, the rocks, the warmth, simply beautiful. And above all, so different from what we know in Germany, or how we imagine the rest of the USA.
Our first national park in New Mexico was Chaco Canyon Park. What makes this park special is not only its beautiful desert landscape. Much more, the park was once a center of Pueblo culture over 1000 years ago. Many years ago, Indians built their houses in the New Mexico desert, and some of these former houses in Chaco Canyon Park were very well-preserved. I had no idea that the ancient Indians already had so much knowledge of house construction...some of their houses were even made of bricks. In my opinion, cleverly built compared to many of the wooden houses of Americans today, many years later ;)
Entrance to the national park
Picture in front of old wall remains
Walls built over 1000 years ago
Endless desert
In Chaco Canyon Park, we also went on a proper desert hike. I never thought that the desert could impress me so much. And above all, it can really clear your mind...apparently a bit too much ;) Because unfortunately, we got a little lost during the hike! And in the desert, it's not easy because everything looks the same, you can quickly lose your bearings...but after 3 hours of wandering, we eventually found Rudolph ;)
Desert rock
After so much nature, we decided to add some culture in New Mexico. So we headed to Santa Fe, a small, charming city in northern New Mexico. And it was worth it! Santa Fe was completely different from what I have seen in other American cities...In Santa Fe, you still meet many Native Americans who descend from the 'First Nations People', the actual Native Americans. Some of these First Nations People still speak their own original language and live in a more traditional way. We were lucky to have conversations with some of them, even though they are not as tourist-friendly as other Americans. Unfortunately, many of the First Nations descendants seem quite broken. They live on the streets, are unemployed, and consume a lot of drugs. You can still see the anger and pain they feel from what the European immigrants have done to the Native Americans. They feel deprived of their land and cheated out of their culture. And yes, it is terrible how the immigrants treated the Native Americans! It can never be repaid, even though the First Nations descendants now receive money as compensation. Nevertheless, I find it sad that even generations later, the pain is still palpable and the descendants have not figured out their lives yet...difficult to solve this problem.
In Santa Fe, the First Nations descendants seem to maintain their own little world. The city is very charming, the buildings are more rustic and pretty compared to the skyscrapers in other cities. Religion and Native American art can be found on every corner. Of course, the city is also heavily influenced by Mexican culture, as most Mexican immigrants who manage to enter the USA legally or illegally settle here.
Charming main shopping streetPeople living on the streets By the way, Santa Fe is located 2.2 km above sea level (in Germany, we are at sea level). The air was accordingly thin, you really have to get used to it. But the sunsets were magical, the sky seemed so close. Even the moon and the stars seemed so much closer...crazy. Especially at night, spontaneously finding a beautiful place for the car and sleeping under the starry sky is simply magical! Colorful sky during sunset
We visited the Meow Wolf Museum in New Mexico because it was recommended to us by many Americans. Americans are crazy about museums, by the way. While Europeans might prefer to see buildings, nature, and cute shops in cities, for Americans, the highlight of every city is a few good museums. And they can be quite crazy, as we experienced in Meow Wolf. We walked through this colorful giant house with 3D glasses and were supposed to solve the case of a missing family who was ultimately abducted by aliens. A totally crazy place, too crazy and exaggerated for me, but Americans seem to love it.
Not even the cake in the museum was good ;)Colorful colors in the museum By the way, in Santa Fe, we had a warm meal for the first time in 3 days. Let me tell you, it was a feast. You really learn to appreciate proper nutrition! It's not that we were starving in the car...but most of the time, we had chips, bread, and cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Things that can withstand heat and actually taste good :) But believe me, when you eat chips all the time, you eventually stop enjoying them. Sure, we could have stopped more often to eat something else along the way. But especially in New Mexico, there are only things like McDonald's on the highways, which probably wouldn't have been much better than our unhealthy food ;) And do you know what a luxury our daily showers are? After 3 days without a shower (during which we were sweating from hikes and desert temperatures), finding a shower at a gas station was another huge luxury! It's crazy that there are still many people worldwide who have to go much longer without a shower...I hope that in my future showers, I will remember how great it is to have this luxury. Generally, during such a road trip, when you live in a car and have very little, you realize how little you actually need. And how much unnecessary stuff, to some extent, you have at home that you constantly hold onto. 2 pairs of jeans instead of 7 are actually completely sufficient. You can even live on 4 square meters without really missing much. On the contrary, I find it liberating to have less stuff in the back of your mind that you have to take care of. The more clothes, pieces of jewelry, and electronic stuff I have, the more can break, get lost, and the fuller and tighter the place becomes. But of course, who in our Western world's everyday life can and wants to free themselves from that and permanently switch to 4 square meters? Petra has chosen this path, she lives permanently in her car. And in some respects, I envy her a lot for it. She can go wherever she wants at any time. She always has everything important with her, and she can and must discipline herself so that she only gets a new pair of shoes when the other ones are worn out. Food is never wasted, she always knows what she has in a small food box; she only buys new food when the box is empty. Petra can change her location at any time, her most important things fit in a backpack. She constantly changes her places of residence or the countries she visits. Very exciting, in my opinion...however, the price is quite high: I can tell that Petra envies me for having close, dear friends with whom I stay in touch during my journey. Also, for having a fixed place to live, where I can always return and at least know which country feels most like home to me, seems to be missing from her traveling life. Every lifestyle has its price...2 different lifestyles traveling together So, before I get too philosophical again, I will now tell you about what we saw after city life :D We went to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.This is also a beautiful desert nature reserve in northern New Mexico. The difference here, compared to many other places in New Mexico, is the beautiful rocks and hills. It's best if you see them for yourself :)Chalk rocks in the middle of the desertBetween big rocks, I seem even smaller :D By the way, while we were walking through the desert park, Americans drew our attention to the need to be careful because of dangerous snakes on the way...we were aware of that. But when someone panicked and shouted that there was a dangerous tarantula, we got a little uncomfortable. Since the cute tarantula didn't want to make room for us, we walked past it and even survived :DCute tarantula on our way However, I couldn't sleep anymore after an American once again informed us about the dangers while we were making a campfire. We had found a nice spot near the desert for Rudolph, and we wanted to have a cozy campfire marshmallow grilling evening. Then, in the middle of nowhere, a car drove by and alerted us that there were many scorpions in the area and they were under the stones of the fire pits. Yay :D2 women get the fire burning :)American campfire specialty: Marshmallow with chocolate and butter biscuits I then spent the whole night checking that no one would get into the car. After all, my control paid off because, as you can read, I kept everyone away ;)But so that you can survive reading this without a collapse from reading a novel, I will stop here and tell you more about Arizona & co in the next few days!
