The Landscapes of New Mexico(뉴멕시코의 풍광)

[여행의 낭만]

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The Landscapes of New Mexico(뉴멕시코의 풍광)

Augustino. c. Paek(백충기 아우구스티노)

Loretto Chapel<1873> / San Miguel Church<1610> / Miraculous Staircase

I like to travel very much. I have traveled many countries; 3 weeks in Mexico, 3 weeks in India, 12 days in Taiwan, 2 weeks in Sri Lanka, 2 weeks in Peru, 1 and half month in China and many places of the United States.

I love to travel alone with a backpack. I've been always interested in the ruins, cultures, history and the way of life of other countries.

Today, I would like to talk about my experiences at the state of New Mexico.

As you may know, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas are located in the southwestern area of the U.S.A.

In the past, these 3 states were Mexican territory before the Mexican war in 1800's. It was known as ‘The Battle of Alamo’, The story of ‘Alamo’ was made a film by John Lee Hancock. After that war, the 3 areas became the territory of the U.S.A.

Those 3 states are very wide, wild and waste highland. It is about 1000ms high from the sea level. People call it ‘Prairie’ The climate of this area is dry, windy and hot.

You can not see any mountains, rivers or even tall trees in here.

If you drive this area, you can find that the road is all straight to 4~5 hours run.

You can only see lots of useless dry bushes, small nameless plants and cactuses. But you can see thousands of oil pumps, countless windmills(producing electricity), boundless cotton fields, large ranches, a huge number of horses and cows wandering about..... The capital of the New Mexico State is ‘Santa Fe’.

Albuquerque, which is also one of the cities in New Mexico, is larger than Santa Fe. Santa Fe is the oldest city in the U.S.A. built in early 1600's. Which was the Mexican period. Another name of the New Mexico is ‘The Land of Enchantment’

One of the attractions in New Mexico is the unique house style, named ‘Adobe style’. Every building is made of red clay(mud bricks and mortars). It has no roof but it's very beautiful.

There is the oldest cathedral in the U.S.A. named ‘San Miguel Church’ built in 1610.

Loretto chapel(1873) is famous for its ‘Miraculous staircase’ - 720° turns and leads to upstair choir seats. It's made of only woods, and there are no pillars, or no iron nails. The staircase was built, used without any modern carpenters' tools. People believe that he who built the staircase must be St. Joseph's spirit. St. Joseph is the father of Jesus Christ.

He was a carpenter of Nazareth as you know. The Pueblo and Navajo Indians used to live here, so Adobe Style must be an Indian style.