Hiking and mint tea with faeries

Went for a long hike at El Morro National Park/Monument. It was incredibly gorgeous. I took a million pictures (all pics here are from the hike) and it's really difficult to pick which ones to show here… landscapes, rocks, flowers, ancient ruins. It was also a good workout with a 200-foot initial climb and lots of climbing in and out of structures on top of the mesa. The mountain, I believe, has been deemed a national monument because at the bottom, near a fresh pool of water explorers and conquistadors chiseled their names into the rock. The conquistadors beat the Americans to this part of the US and their engravings are the oldest. Except for the Zuni hieroglyphs of course, those surely pre-date the others.

After the hike I went to an art gallery opening across from the park. I was told about it from some people at the hospital. The art was an interesting mix of traditional-inspired art and modern whatsit's. When I arrived a man was just starting to read a story of his (from a collection they were selling there). It was about a paraplegic shot at the rally in Berkley in the 60s who lived on the reservation. There was a lot of free-love and marijuana in the story, and some pain and angst. Very beat. Then we wandered around, looked at the art, drank iced tea and mint leaves and ate some snacks (hooray free food!). The people-watching was extraordinary. Some guys were there from the nearby Zuni Mountain Sanctuary, a gay community (mostly men), a community known for being bizarre and alternative, a sometimes nudist colony, also called The Faerie Community. I met a guy named Balance who was wearing a teensy vest and a skirt and really young transman named Zion I think was hitting on me. The “Faerie” guys were dressed… I'm not sure how to describe it… shredded halter tops, wrap-around skirts, braids, Zuni jewelry, it was really awesome people watching. I was really having a great time. I talked to a guy about his sand paintings, a cowboy-type with a big belt buckle, a bigger belly, and an even bigger ten-gallon hat. He wasn't from the area. He told me about how his painting were the earth and started telling me about these esoteric artsy things that just made me smile and nod and think to myself, “I have to remember to wrote about this gallery opening in my blog!”