Our 50th Anniversary Trip to Santa Fe to see “Earth Ships”

The last trip we make was on our 50th anniversary in 2014 where we were joined by Aimee and Clay and Valerie to Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit the city and to check out the houses near there. Valerie got a rental car and drove so she could visit friends in El Paso along the way to and from the trip.

We wanted to see what we heard about the houses, which were being built out of junk. The houses are made with old tires, hay, bottles and cement and called “Earth Ships” and we spent the night in one with three bedrooms. We paid over $300 for one night for the three-bedroom house above to see how comfortable it was and how it could serve all the needs of a family.

The design of these houses has been used in lots of places and in countries where many poor live and can exist on this type of structures. The houses are, supposedly, self sufficient in that the use solar panels to collect all the electricity needed for the family. They collect rainwater in storage tanks to use throughout the year. They received needed signals for their radios and televisions.

The earth ship in which we spent the night
The breezeway of the house in which we spent the night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living and main room inside Earthship
The kitchen of our earthship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A multi-storied earthship had been built near our cottage
Carroll and Barbara at the earthship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A large complex being built for the earth ship and had unusual design
This one had more classical lines and could have fit into almost any community

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on the road from Taos to the earthships
Rio Grande Gorge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valerie and Barbara look at statues in the Morning Star Gallery
Statue at the Morning Star Park in Santa Fe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aimee and Valerie look over the river where they taken a photo many years ago
Clay joins them at the Santa Fe River

Aimee and Valerie wanted to visit the Santa Fe River where they had taken a picture together when they were on ten and twelve years old and they wanted to relive that experience.

After our visit to the shops and galleries in Santa Fe and to the earth ships out of Taos, we drive back to Albuquerque where we had a good Mexican food meal in the El Pinto Restaurant. We had flown into the Albuquerque Airport and we flew back from there to Austin. It was a fun trip but was educational and gave us the opportunity to visit our part of the Southwest that we had missed after we left El Paso in 2002.

Clay and Aimee in front of El Pinto Restaurant

There were lots of plants and foliage that we really enjoyed seeing again after a long absence from that part of the country. We also enjoyed eating at the El Pinto Restaurant in Albuquerque both after we deplaned and again just before we left. We wanted to get our fill of that taste we love.

We finished our trip by flying back to Austin with knowledge about earth ships and enjoying some really good Mexican food which we had not had since we left the El Paso area.

Earthships near Taos, New Mexico

Click on the above  more information on earthships