Chapter 1, Verse 2: Old Town - A Place for Old Things!

As I approached Albuquerque, I crossed a storm plain. After a brief shower, I entered a valley.

While the picture doesn't do it justice, the valley was really beautiful. I could still hear subtle thunder behind me as I came closer and closer to metropolitan Albuquerque. I love how in the Southwest everything is adobe or at least adobe styled. Even the overpasses here are painted in a pale salmon adobe color and accented with a turquoise stripe or Navajo pattern.
Once I pulled into Albuquerque, I immediately made haste to Old Town. I wanted to see the street merchants and browse through the jewelery. However, since it was late, I knew I would be challenged to find any still out. While the streets were sparsely populated, I still was pleasantly emerged in my surroundings. Old town is beautiful. There were so many area to explore and things to look at.
This old Catholic covenant was amazing. If you inspect the photo closer, you can see the preacher/father wearing his robes. You will notice that his robes have the Navajo influence. I think this is very cool. The garden was really nice too.
As said before, not many street artists were still out when I came by. However I did find a nice lady willing to let me photograph her jewelry. As I looked around at beautiful Old Town, I kind of sadness set in. I was overcome by the thoughts of the Native Americans of this continent and how a rich culture has now almost been reduced to nothing. All that is left is a few proud who must use the art of there culture to make money. I'm sure that the color combinations are pretty, I know I like the visual texture of the stones, the silver work is amazing, but I feel embarrassingly uneducated about the Navajo culture and felt like just another tourist looking at shinny pretty things.
That evening I got some Mexican food in Old Town. I ordered a "Christmas Chimichanga" which had both red and green chili on top. I sat there and listened to the Flaminco guitarist play and roam the room.

In that moment, I felt free. I let myself slow down. I had no thoughts of Rolla, my life or of my future. In that moment, I was just myself, and I was happy.