Having looked at the map, it seems to me that Shiprock and Window Rock are an awfully long way from anywhere that I went when I was in NM ... we got as far as St. John's, Arizona (we were looking for a place known as Zuni Heaven (although IIRC Zuni was the Spanish name bestowed on that particular Native American tribe - I can't remember what their real name was). We did eventually succeed in locating it, although it was set well back from the road, and we could only point the camera in the general direction of what we hoped was the right place.

Whilst we were driving through (lots of cotton trees everywhere, I seem to remember), my friend kept an eye out for pawnbrokers' shops: she said that it was sometimes possible to get nice pieces of Navajo jewellery from them (although we didn't manage it on that trip). I have seen turquoise jewellery on sale in markets in Santa Fe: but I never bought any, possibly because there was so much of it that I couldn't decide on one piece over another! There were people selling silver Navajo jewellery around one of the squares in Santa Fe, and I bought one or two bits and pieces as presents. The jewellers' shops were rather more expensive ... my friend persuaded one of them to take out a butterfly brooch which went beautifully with a dress that I'd just bought at a heavily discounted price of $15 ... unfortunately, the dress was one thing, the brooch, at $12,500, was something else ...

I'd like to go back to that part of the world some day. I regret not having bought some of the beautiful pottery that was on sale in (IIRC) Acoma Pueblo: but it was very delicate, and we were concerned about transporting it. We chose to walk back down the hillside from Acoma, a journey that involved scrambling over rocks and trying to avoid the attentions of an over-inquisitive dog. Delicate pottery wouldn't have survived. I suppose jewellery might have been a better choice.

Hermione
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