Veronika in the Valles Grande Caldera

From Bandelier, we visited briefly the Valles Grande Caldera, not far from Los Alamos, home to the Manhattan Project which built the first atomic bomb. A caldera is a hole created by a volcanic eruption, and the Valles Grande Caldera is a huge one. When it erupted around 10 million years ago, it exploded with such violence that rocks landed as far away as Kansas. After the dust had settled, a huge flat circular valley was left. Today it is an open grassy plain used for cattle grazing.

The Black Mesa

The Spanish established Santa Fe as the capital of New Mexico in 1610. The Catholic missionaries were extremely active, and within 10 years 50 churches had been built, many of which are still in use today. Natives were persecuted for practising their religions. In particular, the San Juan Pueblo leader Popay went into hiding in the Taos Pueblo, from where he planned the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. After a nine day siege of the Governor's Palace in Santa Fe, the Indians drove the Spanish out of New Mexico. When the Spanish returned in 1692 under Diego de Vargas, the last rebel Indians sought refuge on the Black Mesa. Since it has a water source on the tope and steep cliffs on all sides, they were able to keep the Spanish at bay until a peace of sorts was agreed.

Another view of the Black Mesa, with "smoke signals" 8-)

Just outside Santa Fe is a place called Shidoni. This is the location for a bronze foundry, and it has an impressive sculpture garden. Unlike most of the other sculpture gardens we've visited, everything at Shidoni is for sale, albeit at fairly high prices.

Menacing rain clouds (so much for the "high desert") at Shidoni

The sculptures at Shidoni range from realistic representations of human and animal life in the South-west to strange impenetrable abstract pieces, it's well worth a visit. During the day, you can even watch the artists at work at the onsite foundry.

Giant eagle at Shidoni

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