Letterboxing~Quarai Mission Monument

Through our homeschool curriculum, my kids and I have been reading about the Aztecs, the Spanish Conquistadors, Spanish Missionaries and their journeys and explorations from Mexico searching for Cibola, Quivira and the Seven Cities of Gold.

After reading "Walk the World's Rim", we decided to do some exploring of our own and headed 38 miles south of Laughing Orca Ranch to the Quarai Mission Monument.
We were also excited about finding a recently placed letterbox in the park, by one of our favorite letterboxers, Lions Mane. It was a gorgeous sunny day, the sky crystalline blue with nary a cloud. The park had a few miles of lovely paved hiking trails, as well as some 'back country' dirt trails, many under cover of towering cottonwood trees, with leaves turning a sunny Autumn yellow.
We quickly and easily found the letterbox, with only a few scratches from some wild rose bushes (Thanks lionsmane. -grin-). The stamp carving was perfectly hand-carved for the location. And you know what?! We were the First Finders!! Woot! Woot!
After rehiding the letterbox, the kids did some climbing and playing along the trail.

We rounded a bend in the trail and saw the mission church. At one time, thriving Native American trade communities of the Tiwa and Tompiro speaking Puebloans inhabited this remote frontier area of central New Mexico. Early in the 17th century, Spanish Franciscans found the area ripe for their missionary efforts. At our first sight of the mission church we were awestruck.
Not everyone realizes that Spanish missions were not actually churches. They were Pueblo Indian towns, with the church as the focus. The Pueblo Indians were being instructed by the Spanish Missionaries on how to become Spanish citizens.
In order to become a Spanish citizen, they had to be Catholic. That is why the King of Spain sent missionaries to acculturate them. We were all impressed with the size and strength of this structure. We were even more impressed when we discovered that women played an important and crucial role in it's construction.
The inside of the church made us feel very small.
Even my kids were amazed and kept duscussing what it must have been like to live here during that time, especially for the Pueblo people who were having their own beliefs squashed in order to be forced to become Spanish citizens instead, something they discovered they really didn't want. Those small openings you see above the door are not actually windows, but openings for wooden floor joists. This structure had at least two floors.Many aspects of the original pueblo structures were destroyed or covered over, so that the mission would be at the forefront. Two of the Pueblo Indians' Ceremonial Kivas were filled in with dirt, inluding this less common square shaped kiva. It was covered up and turned into a sunny courtyard for the priests. Jax and Jen are peeking down into the fireplace.
We all enjoyed exploring the living quarters of the mission, including this hallway. Because the roof is missing, these rooms and hallways felt like a Labyrinth.
The reason why Quarai is so important is because there is little physical evidence left of history where Spanish settlers came in contact with Native Americans. These mission churches have gone through very little physical change. Quarai, along with Abo and Gran Quivira, are all a part of the Salinas Mission Trail Monuments, and contain some of the oldest church structures in New Mexico.The church is in the shape of a cross, with the altar at the top, two separate smaller altars on either side and the nave(congregation area at the bottom). My 3 monkeys seemingly forgot that we were in a church and decided it would be a fun place to boogy down instead.
We each took turns speaking from the altar and were amazed how well our voices carried into the nave area.
The church at Quarai was built during the late 1620s or early 1630s. It was abandoned in 1677 after a combination of drought, disease and Apache raids drove the residents from the area.
A placard showed how the mission church must have looked long ago.My kids discovered wild gourds growing near the mission church that we were permitted to keep. They are so excited to create gourd rattles, similar to the one that Esteban carried with him during his journeys. It was magical to consider that these gourds may have originally been planted by the pueblo people who lived here.
We sat on a bench and admired the beautiful mission church as the sunlight moved across it. I thoroughly enjoyed the interesting discussions my kids and I shared concerning this unique and interesting place.

On the way back home, we admired the many horses and cows grazing in open fields with the beautiful Manzano Mountains for a peaceful backdrop. For some reason I was drawn to stop and visit with one particular group of four horses. This handsome boy seemed to be the group's leader, and walked up to greet us first.
This beautiful mare was next up to say hello. She was my favorite.The leader horse was a very in-your-face and curious boy. He really seemed curious about Jen's M & M's.I fell in love with this mare, I tell ya. She was so gentle and sweet and reminded me alot of my Baby Doll.She seemed to love the attention and was very affectionate.We really enjoyed spending time with these horses.

Jenna has a special way with horses that calms them and puts them in some kind of trance.Just look at that mare's soft muzzle. Don't you just want to kiss it? I did!Jackson tried to sneak a smooch on one of the two brown horses. They weren't all that friendly, but this one was a little more curious.Jackson grabbed my camera and took a few photos of me loving on that pretty mare.I'm telling you. The thought crossed my mind several times how wonderful it would be to take her home with me.Then there was that goofy lead horse. I don't know what it is about geldings (I'm assuming this guy wasn't a stallion) but they annoy me because they usually stick their noses in my face, nibble my clothes, poke and prod me and are just generally pests. This guy was no different.I think he wanted to kiss me.He had a serious fetish for having his nose rubbed and tickled.I really prefer mares.Isn't she cute?My favorite mare walked away while we were playing with the other horses, and all I had to do to get her to come to me was cluck and say "here sweetie".She stopped grazing and turned and walked to me.I didn't have carrots or cookies, just my voice. And that sweet girl kept coming.I do love my own pretty mare, but I felt some sort of something towards this horse. I felt like I could have walked right up and jumped on her bareback and rode across those open fields straight for the mountains, into the sunset.What a great day.