New Mexico vs. Colorado

Tuesday and Wednesday were tales of two cities.

Tuesday night we were in Chama, NM a small railroad town that exists along the axis of one road. We met people from numerous ethnicities in this town of maybe 1,000- Israelis, Native Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and Caucasians (even Yankees!). I talked to a lady who, once she find out I was going be a physician told me TMI: that she been married 4 times and told to me all about her relationship with her father. Also Chip, my dad's new best friend, was Rasta-looking guy whose eyes lit up when he talked about his high school age son. These folks were mostly poor but very close to each other. New Mexico is full of towns like this surrounded by mountains, cacti, and sagebrush. The Native Americans were friendly, hawking their goods but willing to engage us even if we didn't make a purchase. They said they lived in pueblos on their self-governed land so that they could have plumbing and electricity in their small collections of homes. My summary poor, arid, beautiful, and friendly.

Then as we drove north across the AZ-CO border things began to change. Suddenly there was grass and the ground rather than desert shrubs. The trees that were bushy in NM stretched into tall stately aspens and pines. Not only did the trees grow in size as we headed north, so did the houses. The adobe huts and trailer homes were few and far between and the log cabin vacation homes on hundreds of acres of land were around every bend. Durango is a small town of aroudn 15,000 with tourists probably doubling that. The town is idillyic- kids biking through downtown on their way home from school, snow covered mountains at the end of every street, and the Victorian/Craftsman-style homes are so well kept that my only conclusion is that the neighborhood association is run by nazis. We met a man named Rich in the Steamworks Brewery who was a chemist by trade who used his skills to help vineyards and brew houses perfect their fermentation processes. He gave us tons of local knowlegde that he had accumulated from his self-imposed 2 month vacation every year, sounds like France! All this to say, southern CO, Durango included, is a beautiful place full of verdant fields backed by unnamed 5,000 foot peaks with towering trees- almost perfect. I caught myself thinking several times- is this what the Native Americans thought heaven (or their version of it) would look like? Because I'd sure be happy if looked like this. The people here were not as effusive as in Chama, they spoke to us but it seemed like they were doing us a favor. The priorities here are the environment, outdoor activities, and culture. The population is not as mixed as in Chama, mostly white and mostly very fit!

There are great things about both places. My inner voice wars about which I like better. Do I chose culture and education over a place where there is much greater need but also more community? I think this battle is not unique to these two places. Most physicians end up choosing the Durango-type place for the sake of their children, but I think Chama can be a wonderful place to live too, it's just a different kind of education. Anyway, lots of thoughts but much more to see.

Just getting started...

There are lots of things to narrate already. Its amazing how striking the mountains, snow, and gorges are here in northern New Mexico. I thought this was going to be a more subtle beauty than the likes of Colorado and Utah, but this is impressive. We played the part of tourist at a millennium old pueblo in Taos where we bought gifts for our loved ones and ate what must have been a calorie-busting fried bread topped with cinnamon. After driving through flash snow storms we arrived in Chamas, NM where we met the locals at Foster's Bar (est. in 1881). It was great to experience their hospitality through their less-than-full-toothed smiles and recommendations for restaurants and lodges.

Deep thoughts: Language oftentimes is used to comfort humans in a big, big world. Rocks and snow-capped peaks don't describe the enormity or what I saw today. There are peaks innumerable that make me look like an ant, most of the mountains with snow on them would kill me to scale, and I think a "cap" connotes something much smaller than what I saw today. I think that we humans like to comfort ourselves that we have a lot more control over our destiny and environment than is actually true and language allows us to believe those illusions. Stand at the foot of a mountain, look at the ocean from a shore, and gaze at the stars and realize that you are small.