On the trail to Espanola

Today's day trip was north through Espanola, on to Abiquiu. We stopped at the Chimayo Trading Post which had been written up in our guide book. It mentioned that the hours were sporadic as the single owner was getting older. Our luck did not hold out and it was closed. We consoled ourselves by heading over to El Paragua for lunch. It's a windy day and a lot of dust was moving around in the air so we opted to eat inside. Great choice. The mojitos were magnificent, my chimichanga was more than one person should have to eat and Kevin's posole with side beef taco was superb. They also give you this light, fried bread to eat with your meal. Usually there's a dispenser of honey left on the table (you tear off a piece of bread and pour a little of the honey over it) but in this place it was a small bowl of apple/pear preserve. The preserve was homemade by our waiter's mom (owner of the restaurant) and the mint in our mojitos was fresh picked from her garden next door to the restaurant. This is the type of place where the locals come to eat and, for a town of only about 1000 people, it was jumpin' at lunch.
Look and drool.

This is Roberto, our waiter, son of the owners.
It is very difficult to be Paleo in New Mexico. Everything is corn, beans, rice, flour tortilla this, corn taco that. People don't seem to notice us pulling the stuffing out of whatever the wrapper of the day is. We eat the insides and leave the 'wrapper' behind. Our consolation is that the Margaritas and Mojitos (made with agave nectar, not sugar) lean more to the paleo side than not, right Janet?
After lunch the drive north continues to Abiquiu, part time home of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe. It is current a small village with mostly native inhabitants. Not much to see but we had to stretch our legs. The tour of O'Keeffe's home was $40 - yes you read that correctly, it's not a typo, and had to be booked a month in advance. Get the feeling they don't really want to show you around? The guy at the tourist centre was rather whiny, complaining that the village didn't get enough recognition in the written literature about O'Keeffe for all the help they provided her in the 40 years she lived there on and off. Oh well.