Chimayo, New Mexico

El Santuario de Chimayo is the holy shrine in northern New Mexico that is the destination of tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists annually, particularly during the Holy Week culminating in Easter. It is a place of tranquility, faith and hope. The custody and care of El Santuario is delegated to the Sons of the Holy Family who also tend to the parish of Chimayo. Both El Santuario and the parish are for the benefit of both the citizens of Chimayo and all those who wish to visit in peace.

When we were there about 500 teenagers arrived for a pilgrimage as 1000 women just ended their pilgrimage. I was happy that we arrived in time to see the outdoor mass that was being held..

One of New Mexico's oldest restaurants is located in Chimayo, Rancho de Chimayo Well known for serving traditional New Mexican cuisine. How do I know that...........well sister and I had a wonderful meal at this hacienda many years ago. I was quite sad to see Rancho de Chimayo is closed for construction and will re-open in July 2009. Guess that's just a great excuse to come back to this historic Inn.

The annual pilgrimages to the Santurio de Chimayó continue every Easter weekend. Most pilgrims start walking in Santa Fe, twenty-seven miles to the south, but others come the eighty miles from Albuquerque, walking part of the way barefoot or crawling the last few yards on their knees (a common tradition in Spain and Latin America). Over 300,000 people visit this sacred site every year.

Outdoor Mass area

Today Chimayó is famous for the weaving's of the Ortega and Trujillo families. Many shops contain their work as well as fine art and crafts from the region. Way to rich for my liking love to look though.

Forks on the RV road

I am posting this again cause I think I jumped the gun a bit sharing with you our next move.

also knives and spoons...........think while making our way north to Gunnison, Colorado. I'll do a few restaurant reviews. We'll be taking our time and will have the opportunity to get off the beaten track, translated to mean US interstates. Unless ya wanna hear about truck stop food NOT!!!

Mr Doodles has never been in this area of the SouthWest...............several years ago sister and I took this similar trip.................we called it our Thelma & Louise adventure but didn't get arrested or kill anyone but saw some amazing sites and beautiful part of the country, OH and the food cannot forget about the food.

click on the map to get an enlargement

As you can see in the above map we will be taking some back roads north thru the Petrified Forest as well as Canyon de Chelly, a little out of our way but well worth the trip to check out. This canyon in Northern Arizona was made well known by Ansel Adams famed photographer. So we are hoping weather will be kind and we will be able to spend a couple a days hiking and photo taking in the Canyon. We will head down south to find our way over to New Mexico on I40, eventually winding our way north to Taos...........going thru Santa Fe with a side trip to Chimayo, where I know of a very good Mexican restaurant..............hope it's still there. It will be good to revisit this area cause it's one of my favorites.

This adventure begins Cinco de Mayo.......................actually we headed out a couple a days early due to very high wind conditions.