Bison and Navajo
Next stop after a beautiful drive (see pic): Pagosa Springs with more hot springs, having its source from the deepest mother spring in the world, over 1000 ft (330 m) deep and therefore mentioned in the Guiness Book of World Records. Since the bathing complex was pretty crowded because of the long holiday weekend and the beautiful weather, the group split up after lunch in the Visitors Center and we joined a couple of other people for a beer tasting and a brewery tour in nearby Riff Raff Brewing Company. There are three breweries in the little town of Pagosa Springs and this is one of them. They just start canning and the brewmaster admitted that he's still experimenting a lot and was overwhelmed by the success of the brewery.
After the tasting the bus drive over to Durango was a pretty quiet one, but we didn't miss Chimney Rock - an important ritual native american place (see pic), without stopping there. Arrived to Durango at about 5 pm and were distributed to three different, similarily gorgeous historic hotels: General Palmer Hotel (1898, see pic), Historic Strater Hotel (1887) and Leland House & Rochester Hotel. Durango is a quaint, pittoresque town with an attractive main street, but less "western style" (as we assumed), but "artsy-chic" with unique stores, bars, breweries and restaurants. At El Moro we enjoyed a fabulous dinner with cocktails, Colorado wine and food mostly prepared with local ingredients.
Before the meal we had a presentation in the Toh-Atin Gallery, where the owner H. Jackson Clark not only offered appetizers and drinks, but - much more interesting - introduced us to Native American Art, especially the art of weaving navajo rugs. Gorgeous pieces of woven fabrics in abbundance in the store, old and contemporary, different patterns, just beautiful, but, unfortunately, far out of our price range. Also, pottery they sold was just extraordinary.
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