My First Love

Pueblo del Arroyo Ruin, Chaco

Let me tell you that it’s not at all easy to stay away from working. I spent my life as a workaholic in a long and happy career in strategic and marketing communications which took me around the world and allowed me to accumulate tons of memories and fun facts that nobody wants to listen to. I ran a photo studio and had some really exciting years with my gallery in London that I proudly called P&A Collections-North American Folk and Native Art! Therefore I think I’m entitled to be considered an important witness of the hardship of becoming a non-working gal.

Although you think that you want to be free, have time to do whatever you like without the anxieties and deadlines that a career requires, then try having full days, weeks, and months for yourself. Not that easy, at least for me. I missed my adrenaline.

Hence my tour company was born, Seven Directions|Cultural and Sustainable Tours.  It quickly became my life passion.


While designing itineraries I feel the places I describe as if I were there again, I remember that time with friends and how I enjoyed seeing the excitement in their eyes and that other time when I met an amazing person who over the years taught me so much about life in the Southwestern desert.

Canyon de Chelly

I fell in love with everything Southwest since my first trip in 1978 when I stumbled upon Canyon de Chelly, Painted Desert, and, of course Monument Valley. Back then things were quieter with less people one finds today (tip: travel to these wonders in the low seasons).  Canyon de Chelly is where my heart is, and soul, and dreams, and still today it’s where I go whenever I can. Rather than huge and vast spaces I prefer to see boundaries. What I cherish about this canyon is that it’s closed in by gigantic rock walls, fire red with black perpendicular strikes due to the iron brought out by heavy rains. 


One feels so small in that canyon and yet empowered by the majesty that it inspires. You can hear the voices of the ancient people who for centuries called the canyon their home. The cliff dwellings built in the natural caves are in themselves a work of art. The bed of the canyon where the river flows in the winter months has small patches of orchards with the beloved corn depicted in many Native artifacts. You often come across a group of wild horses that run free and eat from the trees the freshest leaves and they totally symbolize that freedom we are all longing for. 


I started reading about the history of this canyon that is somehow similar to that of many other sites in the Southwest. Ancient civilizations, crops, geology, rock art suggesting interpretations of the life of those ancient people. But it’s the compelling history of the Diné, the Navajo people, that sets this canyon apart. Their defeat by the Anglos, and their return “home”. I wonder why a master filmmaker hasn’t yet been inspired by it. A piece of advice: when you get there for the first time go to one of the outlooks, don’t try to imagine what to expect. Just go and then open your eyes. I’d love to hear what you felt!