Indian Pueblo Culture

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Centre is marvellous. It's owned and operated by the 19 pueblos of New Mexico. At the moment there is an exhibition of women artists from the pueblos, as well as the permanent exhibition that takes you from the very earliest times of pueblo Indian settlement, through to the current day. It goes right through the Spanish coming to the area and the impact of that coming as well.

It's a great place, and left us both with a really strong and rich appreciation of the pueblo culture. It also left me wondering (although I know the answer) why oh why don't we have something like this in Australia that both celebrates our own indigenous people, and educates white Australians?

The best part was the dancing. The dancers were from the Zuni people and were just awesome. And we were allowed to take photos.

The Eagle Dance














The Buffalo Dance

New Mexico

Driving into New Mexico is like every western movie that you've ever seen. At any moment, the cowboys are going to come over the nearest rise, galloping, the Sheriff's posse after an outlaw. Turn in another direction, and you know that really, it's Bonanza, and that you've wandered onto the Ponderosa, that Little Joe and Hos are coming, and that Pa is back at the ranch. It's even possible that Zorro may appear in the Hispanic areas.

After Arizona, the land flattens out and is less red. There are still the hills that appear to be sheared off and that rise out of the plains at strange angles, but more than anything this is plains country. Between Flagstaff and Albuquerque is the country of the plains Indians – the Navajo and the Apache. In and around Albuquerque and Santa Fe are the lands of the pueblo Indians. Where as the plains Indians moved across the country side, the pueblo Indians built more permanent structures and stayed more or less in the one place. (and boy do I hope I've got that right).

UFOs come to New Mexico. In the south west corner of the state is Roswell. Mulder and Scully from the X-Files hang out there. In the movie 'Independence Day' this is where they kept the aliens, and where Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum had space dog-fights and shot 'em down. Roswell is a haven for UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists. In 1947, something was found at Roswell. Initially the US military released a statement saying that the wreckage of a spaceship had been found, then four hours later it released another statement stating that it was just the remains of a weather balloon. That was enough for conspiracy theorists and UFO freaks – ever since then Roswell has been synonymous with 'they aren't telling us everything and it's a big cover up' and 'there are really aliens here already'.

In addition, Los Alamos is in New Mexico. This where the Los Alamos National Laboratory is located - the home of the first atomic bomb in World War II.

So New Mexico has some interesting – even if some of it is kinda quirky - stuff.

Albuquerque is the junction of two major highways in New Mexico - Interstate 25 running north – south, and Interstate 40 running east – west. They meet and cross bang smack in Albuquerque, effectively dividing the city – and the state – into 4. The guidebooks tell us not to be out off by this – but honestly, it's difficult not to be. Everywhere we go, it seems that we're on a freeway.

Leaving Arizona

Tomorrow we're moving on. We've got a week organised in Albuquerque in New Mexico. So, before we leave – here are

Andy's Tips for Arizona

1.Go. Don't miss Arizona. It is spectacular.
2.The prices vary enormously – so consider staying in a cheaper town and traveling. Flagstaff worked well for us. It's really friendly, very cheap – as a tourist – and central to North Arizona.
3.Use the National Parks services at the Grand Canyon. And leave a tip. These folks do an awesome job and do it with humour and generosity.
4.Don't stay near the railway tracks in Flagstaff – having seen all the trains going through town, I can tell you – you'll be sorry.
5.Don't go anywhere Sedona. You won't like it. I want it to stay as undiscovered as it can possibly be, so that when Amy and I win the lottery we can come back to it as it is.
6.Go out early and come home early afternoon – it gets hot.
7.And for goodness sakes – don't go to Chloride!

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon appears out of no where. After we paid our admission to the Grand Canyon National Park, we drove towards the carpark to get the shuttle bus – and came around a bend in the road and there is it........by the side of the road, as the trees clear......The Grand Canyon.

It is the most breathtaking and awesome sight that I've ever seen.

The National Parks Service do a great job. There are a series of shuttle buses that take various routes through the park. They stop at different spots throughout the park, and run every 15 minutes. So it's easy – pick your sight seeing route, hop on the bus and take a free tour. The bus drivers know stuff – so we heard all sorts of interesting information about the forests as we drove from place to place. At the different stops there are park rangers who give talks and answer questions. So we'd get get off the bus, look around and at some stage there'd be a ranger talking. At the pueblo – ruins that go back to 1150 – this was great. The ranger talked at length about the people who had lived there, the hopi indian legends associated with the ruins and the archaeological dig that has been taking place. She was great. And all this was included in our admission price to the National Park.

I can't describe it – so I'm going to let the photos make an attempt instead.

Sedona

Sedona is one the most beautiful places that I've ever been. The desert earth is red, the trees are green and the landscape looks like it's been carved out with a sharp knife. This is the place that we buy land a house when we win the lottery. Words can't describe Sedona- so here are the photos.

Adventures in Health Care

Then I got sick. Really sick. After trying to convince myself and Amy that I only had a cold, and I'd be fine, it became apparent that I didn't have a cold, and that I wasn't going to be fine.

We all hear horror stories about the US health system. The doctor I saw was nothing but professional and capable, personable and thorough.

But ti took us a huge amount of time to get to see him, and what surprised me even more was how long it us to get out of the surgery, after he'd seen me and prescribed.

The paperwork is phenomenal. I kept thinking of Libby, my doctor in Geelong, and that she'd never put up with the paperwork required. And that she sees patients every 15 minutes.

We signed in and I expected to have to fill in medical history, and so we did that. At the same time we filled in paperwork indicating that we didn't have insurance (although our travel insurance will cover it) and that we'd be paying cash.

We waited about 50 minutes, during which time the waiting room filled up, and I got fainter.

Then we were told that I'd been approved to be seen – I'm not sure who or what approved me to be seen by the doctor – and so we would need to fill in more paperwork so that I could be processed. It wasn't medical history – it was about insurance and costs and waivers of this that and various others.

Amy began remembering another of the reasons why she loves Australia as much as she does, and I began to black in and out in the waiting room.

All up we waited just over 2 hours before we got into a room, and then it was another 20 minutes or so till a doctor came in. Along the way, a clinician came and took my temperature and blood pressure and the like. She clearly had no idea what she was doing. The doc was a good guy, who diagnosed with me an upper respiratory infection, and prescribed killer antibiotics to take care of it, a spray to take care of the wheeze in my chest, and a suitably evil tasting linctus to take care of the cough at night, and help me get some sleep. Amy got to smile knowingly – all along she'd be telling me I had an infection.

And this, dear Australian reader, is where I walk out of the consulting room, pay the bill and leave – right? 'Fraid not. Not in the US. The doc told us that he had to do some paperwork that would then be scanned, photocopied and submitted. (I don't know who or what it was submitted to). He suggested I take a seat in the waiting room while all this was done, and they would call me again.

Roughly 40 minutes later – after Amy had told them that I was really sick and having trouble - I was still blacking in and out – I got to fill in more paperwork, sign more papers and pay the bill. Then they handed over my prescriptions and we got to leave.

Getting my prescription filled at Wallgreens was similarly complicated. I'll never ever complain my chemist at home in Geelong again – his jokes are awful, but I've never ever had to wait more than 15 minutes. In fact 10 minutes is a long wait. At Wallgreens it took over an hour.

Then - over 4 hours after we'd left – we came back to the hotel room and I went back to bed. Somewhere in there we organised for another 4 or 5 days at our hotel. 3 days later I was well enough to get out of bed, and now – nearly a week later – I'm pretty right except for a bit of a sniffle, and a tendency to tire really quickly. Thank goodness for antibiotics and Amy's love and care.

On The Road Again

Who knew there were so many different sorts of desert?

We headed out of Las Vegas on the inevitable freeway system. It was the Saturday of a long weekend so we figured the traffic would be better than than on the Sunday – and boy were we wrong! Almost as soon as we got out of Las Vegas and into the desert the traffic slowed..........and slowed..........and then slowed even more as we crept towards the state line with Arizona. There were no indications of road work – and who would be so silly as to do road works over long weekend?

The road winds through hills in a single lane. You can see where the freeway is being extended – there's some amazing engineering taking place to put bridges across gorges – and still we crawled. For over an hour we inched forward until we saw it – the Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam sits right on the border of Arizona and Nevada and is the result of the damming of the Colorado River. It's an absolutely spectacular piece of engineering – this huge dam constructed high up in the mountainous desert. The road goes right across the top of the dam – and everyone slows down as they drive across it. That's what held the traffic up for miles and miles – rubbernecking.

After Hoover Dam, the road descends onto flat plains, and then slightly hilly plains across the desert. This desert has a beauty all of its own. There are small green scrubby bushes spread through it, and as we climb higher, they seem to get taller and more tree-like.

It's quite a hike from Las Vegas to Flagstaff and the petrol gauge was dropping, so when we saw a turn off that showed petrol and restrooms (see – I'm getting good at this – in Australia we'd look for the signs to the toilets, but in the US it's restrooms) we took it.

And that's how we came to Chloride.

Chloride is a tiny township. There's a bar, a tourist centre (that's what the sign called it) and some locked up abandoned stores and houses. It's in the middle of the desert. There's a trailer park - and lest any of my Australian readers equate this to a caravan park – don't!!! This trailer park was full of old mobile homes in varying states of disrepair, Sitting out the front of the bar were 3 dudes who watched us drive in to town......and later watched us drive out again.

We pulled into the tourist centre and asked for the restroom, and where was the petrol? The creepiest fellow that I've seen in a long time just about screamed us 'We don't have gas!!! You'll have to go to go to Kingman!!!!(The nearest large town)'. Okkaay, we said.....and can you tell us where the restroom is? The normal looking woman behind the counter with the creepy guy began to answer and to direct us down the back, but the creepy guy was having none of that 'No!! I told you, the rest rooms aren't working! They're backed up!!!!!!' So we we drove out of town – past the guys in front the store, past the trailor park and back to the highway. We used the restrooms at Kingman.

The closer we got to Flagstaff, the higher and more hilly it became. The higher the hills, the higher the trees became until we were driving through some really gorgeous pine forests. We rolled down the windows and the smell of the pine forests was glorious. Ken told us where to turn off and we got to Flagstaff.

Flagstaff is an old western town that grew because it's where the railway is. It was also a key stop on Route 66 across the US before the highways kicked in. When we were looking on line there were lots of hotel reviews for places in town that said 'hotel was fine, but it backs onto the railway line and I didn't get any sleep all night'. The town has about 48,000 people, Northern Arizona University, and a really good feel to it. We liked it immediately.