After Moab

So we were aiming for Albuquerque, but couldn't make it before the late evening, and found a hotel for the night in Bloomfield, outside Farmington. All five of us stayed in the same hotel room, but in order to pretend that only two people were staying and save us some cash, Garon and Alice booked the room and for some reason pretended to be professional business people on their way to a conference, (they did a lot of talking about their 'brief'), and Kaia, Charlotte and I sneaked in though the back. Everyone was completely knackered from the hours of driving, it was good to get to a hotel. Nearby there was a lot with a sign up saying 'Adult Video Store', and a sign that said 'Jesus is Watching You' directly opposite. Mixed messages, New Mexico!

We got into Albuquerque the next day, and basically seemed to meet all Garon's relatives one by one. Every one of them was lovely, and clearly very glad to see Garon. He is clearly the golden boy of Albuquerque! We got some good New Mexican food, and I don't remember quite how this happened, but apparently we ate five dinners that night, such was the hospitality we received.

We went to visit Garon's pueblo, the Santa Domingo pueblo. His Mum is Native American and lives in the pueblo, and his Dad is a lawyer who specialised in Native American law, so that's how they met. We had a great time visiting the pueblo, and finding out more about Garon's family and childhood, and seeing all the windows in the street that Garon broke when he was a kid. We met yet more of his relatives, also very glad to see him. His Grandma gave us four girls a small handmade ceramic pot as a leaving gift, really kind of her. I'm going to be mortified if that gets broken on the journey back... They're very enclosed in this particular pueblo, keeping strangers out and keeping their traditions to themselves to try and keep their culture strong. We were really lucky to be able to visit.