El Rancho De Las Golondrinas, Part 1, Culture

El Rancho De Las Golondrinas or, "The Ranch of the Swallows" is:

... a "historic rancho, now a
living history museum, dates from the early 1700s and was
an important paraje or stopping point along the famous
Camino Real, the Royal Road from Mexico City to
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Experience the life of another time
in a location unlike any other in America."

Click here for their website and keep scrolling for pics.

We enter the old adobe buildings that are arranged in a square which was common at that time for fortification (yeah, the fighting):

Inside is the plaza, where daily life happened:

Spanish-colonial Catholic alter and such: beautiful, colorful, simple:


Jennifer appreciates the stations of the cross....

...Spanish-Colonial style. These are quite different than the plaster version typical of midwestern churches. The tinwork has a fascinating history as well:


People were shorter then?:


Some sort of wooden water vessel:

Inviting hearth:

Check out the hanging cradle:

1700's living room. Looks good to us!:

I bet that pewter mug would hold some fine spirits:

Personal worship shrine, it appears:

Simple furnishing (probably pre-Pottery Barn):

We were told that this is Saint Isadore - patron saint of farmers:


People were narrower (in addition to shorter) then as well?:

Hunter's cabin:


The general store. Things back then were packaged in strange substances such as earthenware, glass and metal. Today we package things in multiple layers of plastic and sack them in plastic, one-item-per-bag. Someday we will find a way to digest plastic and then we can just eat Wal-mart bags.

The tin smith shop:

The wood smith shop:


Alas, we must depart a simpler past....

...and soak up the dusty plaza, the earthen structure, the intense sky before we re-enter the present.


Stay tuned for Part 2.......