Taos is a multilayered town - artists, musicians, ex and current hippies, tree huggers, political activists, hispanics, native americans, caucasions(or anglos as they refer to us here). My instinct to relocate to Taos to write has proved to be fruitfull. I'm in a writer's group and I've discovered several more as well as SOMOS(Society of the Muse of the Southwest - an organization totally devoted to writers from all different genres), James Nave's writing salons, Julia Cameron once lived here (and I think still visits - she and James were business partners - or maybe still are?)Natalie Goldberg (of "Writing Down the Bones" fame)lived in Taos for a long time and now lives in Santa Fe. And I'm sure many more that I haven't discovered yet. I just found out yesterday that the writing group instructor has a published book, "Beside the Rio Hondo" (maybe more, too, I don't know...)(Her name is Phaedra Greenwood).
I've already mentioned the plethora of coffee shops (I've found another - Cafe Noula next to the Don Fernando Hotel on the Plaza). On my recent trips to Santa Fe I've discovered that there are six casinos and four wineries on the way - I'm not going to read too much into that ratio. The ride takes an hour and a half so that's about one for every 10 mins. Someday I'll plan on going on a vineyard tour - not as grand as the wine country in California, I'm sure, but the closest I've come so far to wine tasting country.
Here's one of the odd (and frankly disconcerting!)things I've discovered about this area of Northern New Mexico: for all their progressive politics, green friendly construction and percentage of dwellings totally built entirely from recycled materials (earthships)their recycling center is definitely below par. Being an avid recycling enthusiast(I do get a distinct pleasure from my trips to the dump)I loaded up my car on my first visit to Bertha Rd and had seperated all in seperate milk crates (left over from their use of traveling clothes drawers). Although they did have bins for glass(they put all colors in the same one!), cans, and corrugated cardboard - they had none for plastics of any kind or for paper - unless it's white? No area for plastic bags, paper bags, styrofoam, etc. I had to go back home with 3/4 of the now refuse materials in my car - because here's another thing - the location for bagged waste materials is in a totally different location - about 10 miles out of town... Luckily my landlady co-owns a storage facility close by and she has kindly been taking my accumulated bags to her dumpster. Go figure? Upon inquiry I've been told that the nearest place to recycle plastics is in Esplaniola - 45 mins away.... I'm not that dedicated. Although maybe I could plan it on one of my trips to Santa Fe.
A noteworthy observation about the town is the diversity of fences and walls that divide structures. Of course there's some ordinary wrought iron work fences, and I've seen a few stockade type however here's a description of directions somewhere that I recently read: "first you come to an adobe wall fence, then a lattila (thin tree branches(aspen?)wired together fence, then an iron fence with holes at the top - after this take your next right". Several of the museums in town (6 of them) have walled areas surrounding them - historically these were done for protection from either the Natives, Hispanic or Anglos - depending upon who was fighting whom. A guess fences do make good neighbors....
Of course one of the other truely unique aspects of Taos is the fact that all commercial buildings have to be built in adobe style (even Micky D's, Walmart and Wendy's) - many with the ubiquitous turquoise trim seen in many tourist books about Taos. I've noticed that some of the seemingly poorer inhabitants of the town live in more traditional stick built ranches and of course the ever popular mobile home - so I guess it's definitely a sign of class and prosperity to live adobe style. Speaking of which I have yet to visit Taos Pueblo - one of the most famous in New Mexico. I hear there is a spectacular Christmas Eve Lighting service that I'll have to check out.
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