We love blue corn!

It has that different taste, kind of sweeter and nuttier than other corns. It's easy to find. and can also be used for offerings. There are very pretty bowls made by the Zunis that are perfect for holding the blue cornmeal and sit among their lovely fetishes.

Going back to tortillas, I want to introduce you to the world of tacos by suggesting the book "Taco Table" by Lois Ellen Frank. She is a formidable Native chef with a PhD in culinary anthropology. One can't go wrong with her!

Lois talking about herbs in her garden

At Seven Directions we love working with her to create unique experiences for guests who are interested in our New Mexican Native American flavors and in the history of ancient culinary traditions and ingredients. The experience begins with a tour through indigenous herbs, some touching and sniffing, engaging hands-on chores, and irreparably ends around the table.

A guest at work, grinding corn in a metate

Corn, metate, and blanket. Photo by Lois Ellen Frank

You can't find this but here!

Decrepit buildings telling their own tales

When I was coming to the Southwest during my vacations I used to travel all over the Four Corners in search of the places I had read books about. I was totally taken by this land and by its uniquely weird history. Friends often followed me from Italy.
One summer a girlfriend who actually lived in Milan in the same house I used to live in, joined me for a long road trip. I accepted to take her to the famous icons of the Southwest, Chaco, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and the list goes on. On our way north from Santa Fe we had to go by Tierra Amarilla, near the peaceful yet stunning Chama Valley. I had just read a book about this small town and its history caught my attention.  I didn't know how many similar stories I would have read over the years!
Here I wanted to find a building that had a fascinating story that now, honestly, I can't even recall! So, I told my friend about it and she got intrigued. For days I went over all the places on our itinerary and she was eager to begin the trip of her lifetime!
We drove round and round and finally saw THE building! An old decrepit thing with nothing that could remind me of the legendary historic facts. Bare, falling down, grey cement. Oh well, I thought, I tried.

The best part of the story was my friend's remark. Very tactfully, knowing how involved I was in everything Southwest, she looked at me and asked: is the trip going to be all like this? I can't forget her facial expression! No digital cameras then, so no photos for you to laugh at.

Years later another friend wanted to go with me on one of my expeditions thinking I knew so much that the trip was going to be a very exciting one. Indeed we went, among other places, to the Grand Canyon which covered with snow and freezing cold but empty offered quite a different picture of this natural wonder. But I had more in my plan. I meticulously researched the roads we were going to drivealong to get from A to B and marked the weirdest spots I could find.

So, we arrive somewhere along Route 66, past Flagstaff, Arizona. Nothing was there but vast areas covered by dry brush and windy. I suddenly announced: we have to stop here, it must be fantastic! She walked with me for a while and then kindly announced that she would let me continue on my own. Didn't she understand the special place we were at?

Remember the old Roman maps where on the African continent's silhouette instead of place names, that they ignored, one would read HIC SUNT LEONES (HERE ARE THE LIONS)? Well, on an old and..guess what...decrepit building I read this

Here, in the middle of nowhere, once upon a time someone had a small zoo, really! I then learned that I was not the only one to stop at Two Guns because I'm not alone in loving creepy places with a lot of history. Two Guns is not the regular ghost town, it's a no-town. The picture above shows the only standing wall in the whole area! That's it, period. But if one is stubborn as I am when it comes to travel in obscure places and reads about Canyon Diablo (its main street was named "hell street" due to the high number of murders carried out on the site...how nice!), Apache versus Navajos, first tourists and much, much more, will agree with me that this stone wall was worth it.

Here's the back of the...wall

However, I also got a fun photo, one of many of Route 66

I didn't lie when I told you that the area didn't really offer much in terms of scenery!

Up on the mesa...

"The valley of the Rio Grande River north of Santa Fe is a wide basin that was a lake in some remote past. It is closed by the softly jagged range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the green domes of the Jemez hills to the west and northwest. The bottom of the basin is hot and barren: sand, cacti, a few pinon trees hardly rising above the ground, and space, immense, transparent, with no fog or moisture." This was 1944. 

These are the words of Laura Fermi in her captivating book "Atom in the family" describing Site Y where with her husband Enrico and the two children she moved to, and where Enrico Fermi was to continue working on the atomic bomb. Later she adds "There the ancient Indian pueblos and Spanish villages rest under the shade of long-lived trees, seek the gifts that the river bestows upon the land, and accept the sterility of the desert, the inexorability of the New Mexican sun." (Italic is mine)

I ran through the book to get to read these chapters about New Mexico seen through the eyes of fellow citizens who lived here an experience unique in the world. Maybe not a happy story, as we now know. But at the time nobody, not even Fermi, knew how fatal for humanity  the final outcome was going to be.

The book is a kind of "family story" that starts in Italy at the beginning of fascism and of the love between Laura and Enrico. It is full of funny remarks from this woman that couldn't imagine what her husband would have taken her through. Enrico was an extraordinary physicist from his early age, Laura was able to grow a family in the middle of wars, horrors and changes of countries leading a normal -if possible- life with her two children and putting up with her rather unusual husband's personality. 

Laura and Enrico Fermi in Rome

Her accounts of Enrico receiving the Nobel Prize just before migrating to America is so down to earth and hilarious!  It is a fascinating book!

Writing about the beginning of the Manhattan Project, Laura says "General Groves and Oppie went to see the school...." Oppie??!! Guess who this was: none other than Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the other father- with Enrico Fermi- of the atomic bomb! Oppie owned a ranch, Perro Caliente, near Pecos, New Mexico. He knew the area well and was therefore able to suggest Los Alamos as the perfect place to hide the laboratories.

Enrico Fermi

Enrico was Italian, Oppenheimer American of German origins. Scientists came from many different countries creating a truly scientific melting pot. Initially the count of scientists required to carry on the difficult urgent task was just over 100. They ended up being 6,000! Yes, family included.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer

     Everybody moving to Los Alamos to work on the bomb had to ride on a train that would stop in Lamy, the tiny station still in use today, some 20' from Santa Fe. By car they would reach the capital where at 109 East Palace avenue (a plaque is on the wall of that office), just a few steps from the over 400 years old Plaza, they would leave their identity, receive an ID number, and continue on for 35 miles to their new home. This short stretch could take hours since the roads were often in very bad conditions.

I highly recommend visiting Los Alamos. 


The drive is fantastic with views spanning far into the horizon and over the Pajarito Plateau. 

View from Los Alamos with the Rio Grande

You cannot imagine that up there on that mesa in the 1940' the world was being changed. Forever. 

Here you can see some of the historic buildings, including the Ranch School founded in 1917 as a (wealthy) boy summer school. The writers Gore Vidal (now living in Rome...ahh, the Italian connections!) and William S.Burroughs were here! How did they think of coming to this literally out-of-the-world place, I wonder? 

The Ranch School, the beginning of Los Alamos

My friend Georgia, who owns Buffalo Tours, can guide you through the amazing history of those times pointing out who worked here and who lived there. You'll be amazed!

And then there is Edith Warner, The Woman at the Otowi Crossing. This is the title of Frank Water's book. A different view of those same years. From the perspective of the people living in the area. Another must-read book! It can be found in any bookstore whilst for the other one you have to browse the Internet for online bookstores selling used books. I found it!

Otowi Bridge

Fewer people were going to her Helen's Tea Room for lunch since everything was changing and  traffic on the road "kept increasing. Creaking buses. Shiny black government cars. Military jeeps and half-tracks......Mysterious cars; one did not know what they were about. One morning a Government car stopped. An Army officer got out and pretended to inspect......Something about him was vaguely familiar......They had sat in the kitchen, talking of a small ranch he owned near Pecos...Oppenheimer. Yes, that was his name."

Have you heard of Jim Chee?

Tony Hillerman

You must get to know him!
Navajo Tribal police officer Jim Chee, along with Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, is a fictional character in the breathtaking mystery novels of the great writer Tony Hillerman.

I discovered these two guys the first time I visited New Mexico. I immediately bought most of Hillerman's books available to take home to Milan for my cold winter months. It was a way to keep close to the land I love while working like a maniac 24/7.

Luckily Hillerman wrote many books, enough to keep me hooked for a while. His books taught me a lot about the Navajo culture. They intrigued me so much that I started searching for more. It's an endeavor that never ends, believe me.

What really captured me were his meticulous descriptions of the Southwestern terrain. You can feel his passion for this special area in every line he wrote. It was like looking at a great picture and feeling part of it.

During my summers in the Southwest I traveled a lot. I love going off the beaten tracks. And suddenly I "saw" all the places so well described by Hillerman! The arroyos, the barren land, creeks and dry winds, and what he calls  

 "big country with long views and a wealth of empty spaces".

Wouldn't this be the perfect tagline for a tourism campaign? It's true that in some famous spots, like the Grand Canyon, emptiness is not an option. But still, many are those where one can feel it.

So, I invite all of you to grab a Hillerman book, and then go! Go out in the vast Southwestern space and look for the kind of places he describes so well! Following mysteries and murders you will be taken on a fantastic journey of the Four Corners area, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.
But what's even most important, you will learn about the local Native cultures because the big genius Hillerman guides to the solution of any of his intriguing cases by taking the reader by hand through the interpretation of that highly complicated and rich culture. Is there a better way to learn?
To be fare, although one often links the author to the Navajos, he also wrote books about Hopis, Zunis, and Pueblos tribes. Therefore, depending on where you travel, pick the book that is right for the place you visit.

Adam Beach

Last night I finally watched one of the few movies based on one of Hillerman's books: Skinwalkers. Thank you Robert Redford for producing it! What a trip! Here you see the land, the medicine men, sandpaintings in the makings, and of course my beloved Jim Chee, played by Adam Beach.

A scene from Skinwalkers with Wes Study (Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn)
and Adam Beach (Navajo detective Jim Chee)

There is a Tony Hillerman Library in Albuquerque, N.M. This is the Facebook page for some updates on events that remember the fascinating writer: http://www.facebook.com/HillermanLibrary?ref=ts

Come with me!

Wanna come with me? I'm ready for my next jaunt!

There are things that stuck on your mind for no particular reason. This is one. Long, long ago I was having a massage. My back was really hurting, so I asked for a strong man to push hard into my muscles. The Universe heard me.....he had hands so big that almost scared me.

As usual, despite the massage requires to be relaxed, I wanted to know who he was, where he came from, just about everything he was willing to tell me. Not only he spent time in Sicily at the NATO base but he had just left a job as a rancher's hand -BIG hand- in Cuba. The one in New Mexico, where no "Buena Vista Social Club" is around! But Cuba has a great history that I will tell you once there. Of course Native Americans have been there for hundreds of years. That's always a good thing.

I regularly stop in Cuba (population 1,000!)  for lunch at a great local diner with the coolest sign, before heading to Chaco Canyon but never thought that this town, or its surroundings, offered so much.

This is a typical mistake travelers often make (me included, alas!): go from A to B without thinking about what's in between. What a waste. One is not likely to go back anytime soon.


Yes, that's where I want to go, Cuba, New Mexico. I may stay at a ranch or at a charming B&B, I may hike-slowly, very slowly..., in the Santa Fe National Forest for some green, definitely go to El Cabezon, the strangely rounded volcanic mountain, and the Ojito Wilderness, the newest area designated as a wilderness in New Mexico. Why go to Arizona or Utah, I wonder, when we have such amazing places right here in New Mexico? And mostly empty!

El Cabezon, isn't its shape amazing?

Yes, this is in Ojito Wilderness!

And this!

                   

This too!

I will leave exploring the Jemez Springs area for another adventure, too much to see there.

I promise we'll have a sunset like this one!

I have some time free from work in the middle of June. 

I'm going! What about you? 

Patagonia is just around the corner

Think South-Eastern Arizona when you feel that you have enough of a cold winter. Not only it's a bird paradise but it's warm and kind of a world apart.

In my five days jaunt I was amazed by what I found. First, Patagonia! My friend suggested going there and I thought she may have made a mistake! But Patagonia exists, right there in the heart of this wonderful corner of Apacheria. This is the place to go if you are interested in the history of this great Native tribe. And sadly it is also the place where the legendary Chiricahua leader Geronimo

finally surrendered in 1886 at Skeleton Canyon (sic!).

The small village of Patagonia is a green oasis and artist's hamlet with lovely accommodation and restaurants.

Nearby the Nature Conservancy offers hummingbirds and numerous birds species a safe area that can be easily accessed by birds fans.

The variety of landscapes is amazing! Empty desert grasslands, ranching pastures, rocky terrains and huge boulders where Cochise Stronghold is located, the 9,453 feet high Mount Wrightson (great hikes!) and the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains, wineries (man-made!)...and the list goes on.





If you are a history nerd this is your place. Apache Wars, Buffalo Soldiers, the historic Gadsden Hotel named after the famous Purchase and the proud owner of an authentic Tiffany stained glass mural, the Apache war chief who-never-surrendered Cochise who gives the name to the region-Cochise County, the first Spanish expedition led by Coronado in 1540, military forts, traces of Paleo Indians times.

A jewel not to be missed is the Amerind Foundation, the "anthropological and archaeological museum and research center dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Native American cultures and their histories". It houses one of the finest private collections of Native American art and artifacts in the country. In the middle of nowhere!

I remember wandering in the Dragoon Mountains after visiting the museum, gorgeous, trying to find my bearings. My friend left earlier and I was traveling on my own feeling very adventurous. The road took me to an intersection, a perfect cross with nothing in sight. Then BANG.. I suddenly focused on a small coffee place, on the south-east corner! The guy who welcomed me, a surprisingly loquacious Apache, brewed me a fresh coffee and kept me there for over two hours with fascinating stories. This kind of unexpected things is what makes road trips the most enjoyable way to travel!

Did I forget something? No doubt. But this is just a quick overview of an area that I want to share with you. It is perfect for a long weekend. I recommend it to everyone as there is something for every taste and interest. Lots of wonderful guest ranches to stay at too. Unfortunately the one I stayed at was lost to the dramatic fires that happened last year. I will never forget it.

I'm sure you would like to ask me why I don't mention Tombstone and Bisbee. Simply because they are so famous that you know about them! Both towns are in this area and worth a stop. Today Tombstone is very Hollywood-esque but Bisbee is quite enchanting.

Tip: don't be tempted to set foot on nearby Mexican land, kind of dangerous these days.

Chirp...chirp...

Remarkable…who? Those ladies in Taos! Part 2

This year Taos Tourism dedicates the entire marketing campaign to the RWOT (Americans love acronyms, only insiders get them though). Let me help you: R for remarkable, W for women, O for of (a small “o” would have been more accurate..) and T for?  Taos!

Susan Shelby Magoffin

My plan to write about my enthusiasm for most of them has changed. Too much is too much. On www.taos.org/women you find all you want to know about them.  But I can’t refrain from offering my five cent tip: if you believe that behind every great man (I’d add: behind great legends) there is a great woman, then go behind the man to discover amazing female characters.

Josefa Carson

When in Taos, check-out Kit Carson’s wife or Lucien Maxwell’s daughter, and read Susan Shelby Magoffin’s diary describing her extra-extra-ordinary experience on the Santa Fe Trail (and in Taos!), also an important feature in the life of the Sisters of Loretto. The poor nuns traveled and suffered everything one could possibly imagine for three months, two just on the Santa Fe Trail, before landing in mid 19^th century Santa Fe. 
What amazes me is how beautiful they were! No make-up, no hair stylist and yet their beauty went hand in hand with their strong personality and intelligence.
The list goes on and on. I found so many wonderful female spirits along my wanderings through the Four Corners area, women with guts, creative spirits, independent mindsets, courage, whether they came on covered wagons, worked on archaeological digs, or went out there looking …looking for something different.