The morning started with a visit to a Hobby Lobby and a Tandy Leather store before we visited El Rancho de las Golondrinas – the ranch of the swallows – now a living museum with buildings dating back to the 1700s. It was a stopping point along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road of the interior from Mexico City to New Mexico.

This ranch was a fort at one time and the residents lived and worked in rooms around the internal plaza.

In addition to the ranch buildings, a number of buildings from other locations were transported or rebuilt in a small village on the grounds. While walking to the village area we came across a bull snake. Not poisonous but an impressive 5 ft or so in length.

In the village we visited a blacksmith’s shop, a governor’s house, a mill and a chapel along with a pen housing goats.

We needed to be in Chama this evening so that we could ride the steam train tomorrow morning. We left in good time but encountered a bit of a delay when we picked up a bolt in the rear right tire at 4:30pm. The air was escaping the tire quickly, but our trusty new GPS located a tire shop 2kms down the road and they were able to fix the tire right away for $15. Thirty minutes later we were on the road and arrived Rio Chama RV Park. This campground is a short walk from the train station and is train themed.

We decided to walk to the train station to orient ourselves and had a great dinner and a beer on the patio at a restaurant in town.