Gran Quivara

We picked up sandwiches to go at The Grove in Albuquerque and drove out of town, heading east. Amarillo! Now that would have been a real surprise trip! But we turned south. M was remarkably content not to try to diagnose our route or possible destination.

We had our lunch at a picnic table at Quarai, one of the Salinas Pueblos, but we didn't explore. We did stop 30 minutes later at Gran Quivara and walked around the ruins, before continuing our mysterious trip southward.

These old stone structures seem to capture the 17th century cultural overlap that marks so much of the southwest - between long-existing pueblo cultures and newly arrived Spanish missionaries. The Franciscans built churches within the pueblos and, at least for awhile, appeared to have tolerated or allowed the native people to continue their own spiritual practices. For a while.