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| Road to Sky City on top of the mesa |
I'm a big fan of Trip Advisor when I'm planning any kind of trip (you can find my reviews under BlueSkyMom), so when I was looking around for things to see in New Mexico, I found Sky City.
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| Acoma Pueblo looking over the valley |
Sky City has some great reviews and some horrible reviews. The day before we went, someone posted a scathing review of the place because it was closed unexpectedly and the tribal police/security were very rude.
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| Outside the Sky City Cultural Center |
Needless to say I was a bit nervous, I also knew that we would have to pay admission and a photography fee. I explained to the kids that we were visiting someone's neighborhood, where real people lived. These strangers were being kind enough to let us visit their homes and we all needed to be respectful.
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| Our tour group led by the only female guide. |
You know, I was managing expectations :) The first pleasant surprise was that the Pueblo was actually open! I had mostly convinced myself that the Pueblo would be closed to tourists, but we got lucky. We paid our fees and Nadim tied on his camera permit so we were all set.
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| Street within the Pueblo |
The Pueblo is located on top of a mesa and our tickets included a shuttle bus ride to the top. Sky City has been used as a set in movies, it was a production team that built the first dirt road up to the Pueblo and a second production crew built the paved road years later.
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| Ladder facing north |
There were many traditional elements of the Pueblo intact, the ladders leading into the Acoma people's places of worship and small windows made using Mica found on the valley floor then dried over several years.
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| Window made from Mica |
But the Pueblo is a living place, not a museum.
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| Walking in the Pueblo |
The day we visited was right after a community celebration and there were many, many people working on their homes. Trucks were parked all over the place and as our tour group walked by locals would come out of their homes and sell handmade items.
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| Water basin used historically for the Pueblo |
We bought some Concho Cookies and an Apple Pie. The cookies were awesome, too bad we ate them up before I could take a picture :)
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| The dome structure on the left is a bread oven |
There was even some new construction going on, the workers kindly turned off their generator while our tour guide was speaking.
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| Traditional turquoise trim, these are the colors of New Mexico |
On the mesa there is no running water or electricity. Now about 10-13 families live there year round, tribal leaders included. Most people live down in the valley north of the Pueblo, but they all maintain their Pueblo homes for use during festivals and feast days.
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| Catholic church |
As with most of the Southwest, the Catholic church has a very heavy presence in the Pueblo. We heard the locals' version of history, which differs greatly from the official version. You know the whole "The Indians loved Father Whatshisname, and built him the church to glory God, etc, etc." Well not so much, try "You either build this for me, or we'll kill you" - there's Christian kindness for you.
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| Heading down the mesa |
Once the tour was over we had the option of riding the shuttle to the valley floor or going down the "safest" of the traditional staircases. Guess what we chose??
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| Steps going down, down, down |
Yep, the staircase of death..
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| The scariest part of the staircase |
..ok, so we didn't actually die, but I sure wouldn't want to have to use the staircase to carry up containers of water on my head like the women did in the past.
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| Almost down |
I was so relieved when we got to the normal part of the stairs and then out onto the road.
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| The road back to the Cultural Center and lunch |
Sky City was a great stop on the road to Taos and well worth the time investment. Now we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us...
Tally ho :)
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