19 Jan Denver for the holidays, Onward to Taos!

Friday Dec 24 – Jan 9

We spent the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in Denver, thankfully getting to see some of my visiting family on Christmas Day — and un-thankfully catching COVID somehow a few days later. We did our due diligence of tracing, but were unable to find anyone else we had seen that had any symptoms or positive tests — so the mystery remains of how we contracted it. We were under the weather for 2 days with headaches, body aches, and fever-like chills, but all symptoms were mitigated easily with a couple of ibuprofen, and we were back to our usual selves, just with a boring 8 days remaining of quarantine. After being together in the van for two solid weeks prior to the holidays — remaining quarantined, together, was not exactly a high point of our time in Denver. But all in all, we’re grateful our infections were mild and we recovered so easily.

However, we were able to extend our stay in Denver for an extra 5 days or so which allowed us just enough time to quickly reconnect with friends and family!

Monday, Jan 10 – Tue Jan 18

We left Denver Monday morning, and headed to our new work-trade host at a botanic gardens, healing center and tourist-lodge property in Arroyo Seco, NM. We found this opportunity through another website similar to Wwoof called HelpX. We were drawn to this property for multiple reasons: firstly – to be located in this region of New Mexico is top priority for at least our winter season. We both are very interested in learning more about Northern New Mexico and are thrilled to be sandwiched between the beautiful town of Taos (<10 miles away) and another bucket-list spot of ours: Taos Ski Valley (10 miles further up the mountains). After spending last winter far, far away from the snow & slopes on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, we are itching to get back out there this year, and there are also several smaller resorts in the area, and we’re hoping to try at least a couple!

Another big aspect that drew us to this property was our host: garden and medicinal extraordinaire, Muna. Even with snow on the ground there’s a steady program of growth and sustainable food practices, plus a massive herbal/medicinal apothecary for us to learn about. We are so excited to get to share in this amazing woman’s wisdom. The work load also includes some projects around the property, which enables us to stay active and entertained with a variety of fixing and organizational work, as well as a few short shifts / week cleaning and turning over rooms in the historic Snowmansion Lodge (200 year old building!). And we’ve been happily assigned to care for the chickens – 11 very sweet birds and closest neighbors on the property! Never complain about harvesting farm fresh eggs!

To top it off, the historic small town of Arroyo Seco has everything we’d ever need — a great organic grocery store just across the road, multiple restaurants and food trucks, multiple galleries… and great views of the surrounding peaks and several hiking trails, and even some hot springs less than 10 miles away! We can’t wait to dive into all this area has to offer historically and recreationally.

So far, we’re loving the flow of life here in Taos! The sun is always shining, making the days comfortable to be outside. We’ve been here for a week now and are excited to see what the coming months bring here in New Mexico – the land of enchantment!