Part Eight: Arroyo Hondo to Questa
We left our creepy community center early in the morning and we were not sorry to leave. We left some money on one of the tables for our night’s lodging with the hope that, by the time we return next year, someone will have fixed the smoke alarms! We gathered outside the closed bar and assembled all our gear. I noticed some very nice shadows on the wall of the bar. I didn’t realize that I looked so Western!
We began to climb out of the deep (hondo) valley. We walked along the highway shoulder for the first part of the morning, but I was glad when we turned off on a dirt road heading for San Cristobal. The views were spectacular but I did not take many pictures as I was carrying on fascinating conversations with my fellow walkers. There is a commune near San Cristobal and we stopped to talk with some members who were out fixing a fence. We spent some time sitting on the porch of the little church which was unfortunately not open. A young man who lives next to the church came over to say hello. He invited us over to his house and we sat for a while on the porch of his little adobe house and drank coffee with him and chatted.
After a very pleasant visit, we walked through the mountains all afternoon to reach Questa. We spent some time at the Church of Saint Anthony which is a very beautiful structure. The church had fallen into ruin but the local people came together and volunteered their time and skills to rebuild the church. Everything from the quartz in the hanging chandeliers to the adobe bricks of the walls and the artwork was made by the local people. After admiring the church, we headed over to the comfortable parish hall to spend the night. It was a GREAT improvement over the Hondo community center as you can see from the picture. We spent the night and then set out to cross the endless sagebrush plains in order to reach Costilla.
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