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El Camino de Dios |
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"Going up that river was like going back in time"
--Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) in "Apocalypse Now" |
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You could say the same thing about State Route 76 in New Mexico. When you turn east onto SR76 from SR68 at Espanola, you leave what passes for "civilization" behind. There are no more gas stations, convenience stores, or Burger Kings.
Little English is spoken in the tiny settlements along this route, although most of the residents can speak it. |
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Within a few minutes you arrive at Chimayo, the Lourdes of America as it's sometimes called, a place so holy that people travel there from all over the hemisphere to eat the dirt, which is thought to possess healing properties. One |
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reader on Beliefnet asked me what makes it so holy. I can't really answer the question, but I suspect that many Native American sacred spots and traditions have been incorporated into the practice of Catholicism in this area. Every year, hundreds and sometimes thousands from over 100 miles around this place drive, walk, or even crawl there, but unfortunately, we didn't even have time to stop, being the rushed and time-poor citizens of modern "civilization" that we are.
Pushing on from Chimayo, we also bypassed the chapel of San Antonio de Padua in the tiny hamlet of Cordova as we continued back in time and upward in elevation, eventually coming to the beautiful mountain town of Truchas. We also had to pass on that place's Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Sagrado Rosario, as we needed to push on to our main objective, San Jose de Gracia, in the village of Las Trampas., |
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Experts have called it the most perfectly preserved Spanish Catholic church in the United States, and one's experience of it is not large, but very deep. While the bulding is small, it dominates the little pueblo the same way the town of Chartres is dominated by its cathedral. Step inside and you're transported back over 200 years, to 1776 when construction on this little gem of a church was completed. |
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Read on
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