Trip to Santa Fe area

On the road to Abiquiu

OLD Town Abiquiu

I talked to an old man in Abiquiu who is a self proclaimed historian of the town. He and his brother were raised there and worked for Georgia O'Keeffe starting at around 5 years of age. Ms O'Keeffe took a liking to the brother and taught him to paint. He now has a gallery in Santa Fe. Napoleon Garcia, said he always complained that no one knew how much they did for 'the artist' and what she did for the village. She was one of them. One day, someone said 'well,you should write a book', and so he did, The Genizaro and the Artist. The two boys had a hard life. Not accepted by the mother or father's families, or the villagers because the parents were not married and the father deserted them when they were babies. Sleeping in abandoned building, going hungry etc. Napoleon worked for O'Keeffe until a couple years before she died. He had 10 children, all educated and all but two live near Abiquiu.

Area near the Ghost Ranch. My heart is smiling

About 13 miles of one way dirt roads following the Chama River, some high (very high) and some of it right next to the raging river is a monastery. Since it was there and we was there we decided to ck it out. We thought it was years past and unoccupied. Wrong! Very much occupied. One of the priests graciously gave us a tour. Beautiful view from the chapel. Paned glass windows at the top looking out at the red rocks behind the building.