Everywhere you look in New Mexico it’s Mexican roots bleed through. Gardens where a gnome might stand instead have statues of the Virgin Mary or Christ. Their dead are still a part of their life and the cemeteries are well tended and festooned with bright plastic flowers, religious iconography and trinkets. It’s a sort of ephemeral vandalism.
When driving through the mountains rocks come at you frequently and from all angles and all the road signs warning you of this and other things are all shot up by red necks who drive along shooting out of their car windows. The signs with people or animals on them get the worst poundings.
A great wildlife spot is a wild boar, small and hairy like a spaniel on steroids, they move like the wind. A less welcome one would be the bears who are attracted to minty breath so no gum then!
About 40 miles from Silver City there are a set of caves (Gila Cliff Dwellings) where native American Mogollon And Puebloans lived. These tribes were the forefathers of most Indian tribes as we know them today and for a short time in their history they lived in these caves. You climbed high into the cliffs up and down treacherous pathways to explore the cave dwellings, for the most litigious society in the world they don’t do much in the way of health and safety so make sure that you have your tramping boots on! You will also have to negotiate some ladders to get around the dwellings. Once you’re up there though you get highjacked by the past and by the beauty of it all.
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