Sky City Tour at Acoma Pueblo

This was one of the things I most looked forward to on the trip. However the reviews were very spotty. Depending on your tour guide you either got a great tour filled with information from a enthusiastic guide or you didn't. I got the latter. Monotone voice. Just the facts on the guide sheet delivered in the driest possible manner. Ignore the first question so that everyone is intimidated and won't ask more. Our guide could speak perfectly normal to the vendors, her friends on the staff, or you if you talked to her on the side. Then she had normal inflection, enthusiasm, and voice level so her excuse that she was soooo tired from doing tours the day before clearly only applied to delivering tour info., not to her other interactions.

But disappointment in tour content and delivery aside here are the pics. See the end of this post for the highlight.

Sky City

View out to Sky City from the sign location. It is the Pueblo on top of the mesa.

View out from top of mesa.

Traditional baking oven.

Street with view at the end.

Houses.

Three story houses where the kitchen switches around based on time of year and where heat is wanted or not wanted.

Another street.

The mission. No pictures allowed inside.

One guy yelled at the tour group to go another way. Clearly not everyone who lives there is for the tours.

Along the route were many people set up with pots and such. These folks were nice to talk to. I almost bought a pot with the intricate lines that are typical of the area.

However I didn't see anything that was a must get until I got back to the plaza at the end of the tour and exited the tour bus. There were two vendors set up. I decided to amble over and see what they had. I was the only one in our group who did and I found a great pot!

This pot showcases three styles of Pueblo walls found at Chaco Canyon showcased on the three doorways that you can see inside of each other.

This is an explanation of the different wall styles. Click on the image to enlarge it for reading.

 

This is the sides of the pot where you see the third style with the more decorative layers of stone.

This is the back of the pot with petroglyphs. I liked this just as much as the front doorways.

The artist - Keith Chino

I've seen Keith's work before at the Colorado Indian Market in Denver. It is a huge show with lots of original artists. He has a pot that is similar in style to this but has a cut out window where he paints a constellation inside the pot on a dark sky background. He had several like that at his booth but I just had to have the one with the doorways inside of doorways. He also had another vase and plate I really wanted to get, which were a different style but alas I had no more cash and due to the location no credit cards.

My piece is called "Ancient Portal". Kicking myself for not getting the others I liked.

One of the things I like about Keith's work is how original it is. You won't find anything else like it anywhere as he uses his own artistic talent to create his designs and pieces. Apparently I'm not the only one who likes it as he stuck this bio in my bag with my pot. I didn't know he had won so many awards, I just knew I loved the pot and a number of his other pieces.

Someone else is going to get the plate and the vase I wanted....