Monday, June 9, 2008

Eye of the Beholder

My traveling partner and I had arrived in Taos on the previous evening. This day began with a sumptuous breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs with hot sauce, spicy potatoes, fresh fruit, and strong coffee, in the kiva-shaped dining room at our hotel, the Best Western Kachina Lodge & Meetings Center.

We spent the next several hours viewing art, buying souvenirs and gifts, and sampling New Mexico wines around the quaint Taos Plaza. At mid-afternoon we enjoyed enormous salads and iced tea in the shady courtyard of Caffé Renato, where I also snapped almost a dozen architectural photographs. After we paid our bill, my friend drove our car back to the hotel, and I set out on foot looking for more architecture.

As always, in New Mexico, several ornate doors captured my lens. I snapped some views of one with a curved top, against warm adobe and a cobalt sky. But when I moved closer to better capture the carved details, I found that this door led nowhere. It was merely laid against the wall – an optical illusion visible only at close range.

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