LOS CARROZAS
SPANISH CHRISTMAS RONDA

Pueblo de Acoma was waiting for us for a rather peculiar guided tour. Saturday 21 was another long tiring day. Several times we loaded everything on the vans and downloaded it again. We toured small roads through the desert and major highways filled with traffic entering the city of Albuquerque. And with such a tight agenda, we were unable to enjoy any stretch of the old Highway 66, even though we were driving along side. Paco & Ángel with the abuelita who asked us for a song and then got emotional. After the morning presentation, we visited the Pueblo de Acoma. The map at the hotel made it crystal clear: we were right next to Highway 66 and we had to take advantage of it. And from Ácoma directly to Albuquerque for another presentation. The church was practically full. Enrique explains what Christmas rondas are. The group rests in between songs... ...while Edmundo & Natalia provide the explanations... ...and Manuel & T...

Manuel, Álex and Edmundo with their hosts. The farewell from our hosts in Tularosa on the morning of Friday 20th was most emotional. They had ordered breakfast prepared for everyone, as well as some burritos for the road, although more than one could not wait and ate the burrito right there... Breakfast at Panadería Loredo's. The hats at the dining room were very successful. Family photo before leaving Tularosa for Acoma. After the emotional farewell, saying goodbye to our friends from Tularosa, with kisses, hugs and some tears, we settled in the vans and went back to the New Mexico roads that had so much impressed us, with those endless straight lines (Who said that parallel lines never touch each other?) and those splendid landscapes. Once again, each zambomba takes its seat in the van, with the belt tightly fastened. Santiago ended up adapting to the local driving mode, especially after his incident with the police. The panoramas of the Amer...

Interior of "San José Apache mission church". Henrietta is one of Tularosa's collaborators in the organization of our activities. She is an expert in Apache culture and offered to show us an interesting church in the Mescalero Apache Reservation. "Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, bless your people". Offerings for Saint Kateri. The "San José Apache mission church" is full of paintings, photos, statues and objects of interest related to the history of the Mescalero Apaches in the area. One of the statues is of Santa Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint of the Catholic Church. Listening to Henrietta's explanations. The representation of Christ in the abside is as a Native American. Santa Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, in one of the stained glass windows of the church. From the Mescalero Reservation, we returned to Tularosa on time for the performance in the church of San Francisco de Paula Enriqu...

On stage of the gym and auditorium of Tularosa Intermediate School. One of the most grateful and enriching experiences we had during the trip was at the Tularosa Intermediate School. The kids, from 10 to 12 years old, behaved very well, were very interested in our music, and actively participated throughout our program. They watched with interest, and accompanied us to the rhythm of the Christmas carols. When we finished singing, they approached us to see and play our instruments. More than one was surprised to see the arrabel, all made of bones. For many of them, it was the first time they saw a zambomba... and it's not so easy to play it! Then, we left for the south, passing Alamogordo, to enter White Sands Natural Monument, a very peculiar dune system, with surreal landscapes, as if we were going through the snow. Just seeing this landscape, anyone would think that it is snow... ...and the truth is that this fine gypsum sand also serves to ...

Between Santa Fe and Tularosa we enjoyed spectacular panoramic landscapes. The previous day had been exhausting : early wake up, breakfast, transfer to the senior center, presentation, lunch, trip to Abiquiu, presentation, dinner, trip to Santa Fe and intensive night visit, ending up with a late bedding down. So it was not surprising that many members of the group fell asleep like little angels in the almost 4 hours of travel we had to Tularosa. When we woke up that same morning, outside it was... -9ºC! (16ºF) We were impressed by those roads with tens of kilometers of pure straight stretch. The anecdote of that morning: technical stop to not pee. Zambomba and cazalla, road companions ... David Greenwald, historian and archaeologist of Tularosa, had recommended that, if we had time during the trip, we should visit some petroglyphs along the way before arriving, so there we went. Carved on volcanic rock, there were many of them all around. ...