New Mexico and Florida are both in the United States but from the mountains of northern New Mexico, the contrasts with Southwest Florida can be startling. Taos itself is a small town, and kind of funky. The town is an art center. There are more galleries than churches. You can feed yourself pretty well on a weekend simply by going from one gallery opening to another and trolling on the hors d’oeuvres and wine they put out.
The social center of Taos is the local Wal-Mart. Everybody goes there and you hardly ever get through the store without bumping into friends and acquaintances. The corporation wanted to put in a huge, warehouse-sized super Wal-Mart, but the town’s merchants pressured the politicos to turn down the idea. It would wipe out the local stores, they feared. The same thing applies to banks. There are no branches of national banks, such as Bank of America, in Taos. The local banks have the town to themselves. They’re very good banks and the people working in them are uniformly friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.
Personally, I would rather retire to New Mexico than Florida...
Naples, Florida, used to be a small town, but it’s grown into quite a sizable city. Local residents urge the city to put in sidewalks; they don’t regard sidewalks as “uppity” affectations. People are much friendlier in Taos than in Naples. They smile at each other on the street and say hello. Cars stop to let pedestrians cross the street, even in the middle of a block. Naples was like that once, but the city’s growth has smothered most of that small-town warmth. Nowadays, when you smile and say hello to a stranger on the beach, the stranger looks startled and hurries away.
There are no high-rise buildings in Taos, nothing taller than three stories. But just north of town is Taos Mountain, which stands more than 10,000 feet high and gives me the feeling of a guardian spirit, somehow, protecting the town. You get mystical feelings like that in the mountains of New Mexico. It truly is a land of enchantment, as the state’s motto proclaims.
There are the Sangre de Cristo mountains to the east of town, and when sunset paints them red you understand where the name came from. The mountains almost seem alive: as you watch them during the course of a day they never look quite the same from one hour to the next. Clouds dapple their wooded flanks with shadow. During the “monsoon season,” when there are brief rain showers most afternoons, gray clouds can hide the peaks. In winter, snow covers the mountains, much to the delight of skiers and ski-resort workers and owners. Taos Ski Valley, Angel Fire and other ski resorts are all within a half-hour’s drive from downtown.
The beautiful Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico.
Florida, of course, is notoriously flat. I think the highest point in Collier County is an overpass on Interstate 75. We have water skiing in the Gulf, but winter sports in Naples consist mostly of watching football on television. There is tennis both in Naples and in Taos, and there are some differences between the two. At more than 7,000 feet, it’s sometimes hard to catch your breath, of course. But although the air is thin, it’s also clear almost every day (except for the “monsoon” showers). The ball goes faster and flies farther in Taos. When we get back to the Quail Creek Country Club in the Naples area, hitting a tennis ball feels like socking a wet brick, until we get acclimated to the thicker, wetter atmosphere.
In general, New Mexico is much poorer than Florida. Like Naples, Taos is heavily dependent on tourists. The town began as an Indian pueblo, but early in the 20th century it became an art center; everybody seems to be a painter, and art galleries line the main street. The current economic recession has hurt Taos. Galleries and restaurants are closing. Construction of new homes and condominiums has ground pretty much to a halt. But that will change, in time.
Meanwhile, there are spectacular sunsets almost every day: bold, strong reds and violets slash across the sky. Sunsets in Naples, over the Gulf, are just as beautiful, but in a softer, more pastel way. They are two very different places, but both are part of this vast nation of ours.
The seismic changes in the US economy are creating a real estate boom in New Mexico as large employers relocate and establish operations in the business-friendly state. While many areas of the country are suffering, some, where housing is employment driven are doing well. One such area of prosperity is New Mexico and there are real estate bargains still available. New members can search foreclosures free with a trial membership Click here for Bargain.com.
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