Chili Peppers in Chimayo, New Mexico

New Mexico

A strange photo essay by Philip Greenspun

Note: this has been superseded to a large extent by my 117-image New Mexico exhibit and travel guide.

There is a chronic shortage of quality housing in New Mexico caused by the Reagan administration cutbacks in Federal housing programs (actually spending on such programs doubled during the Reagan/Bush years).

Sunset. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Sunset. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Sunset. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Sunset. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Sunset. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

People have to squeeze into whatever accommodations they can find.

Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

Some houses don't even have windows.

Rancho de Taos. New Mexico.

Others are forced to live in Carlsbad Caverns (where one room is the size of 14 football fields).

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Yet their spirit never dims and they ride over the border to Juarez, Mexico for some good clean fun.

Albuquerque, New Mexico Spankys. Juarez, Mexico (across the border from El Paso, Texas)

All the gypsum White Sands National Monument, New Mexico in the world isn't going to fix up some of these old churches Gran Quivira, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, New Mexico .

When you are alone on the Rio Grande

Rio Grande, New Mexico, not far from Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

sometimes you need one heck of a big TV antenna

Very Large Array radio telescope, Socorro, New Mexico

I saw 27 of these dishes rolling around on dual sets of railroad tracks over a 900-square-mile plateau.

People in Acoma have lived in the same houses since 600 A.D.

Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

But I'd rather be a yuppie and live in Santa Fe.

Adboe house and snow. Santa Fe, New Mexico

AAA Map of New Mexico: (151K JPEG) or (391K GIF)

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If you are planning a trip to New Mexico, you might want to read about my summer in Los Alamos and cross-country trip there and back. Of course, for practical information, you'd be much better off with the New Mexico Handbook , my favorite guidebook to the state.

Philip Greenspun's most popular Web books include Travels with Samantha, a Best of the Web '94-winning account of a journey from Boston to Alaska and back, and Berlin/Prague Tale, illustrated with photos of those cities.

If you want a more comprehensive perspective, try Yahoo's New Mexico page or these user-entered related links

All text and pictures are copyright 1994 Philip Greenspun

philg@mit.edu