It seems the longer we are here, the more we find little gems hidden in various corners of this city. I’ve really grown to love this place. When we told people we were coming to Santa Fe, their first response was always, “Why?” The simple answer is that Pam and I love to travel, and we haven’t been here before, so why not? After all, we were born on this earth, so where ever we are, we are home.
The long answer is that for a long time I’ve been fascinated by a place near Taos, New Mexico that is a community of quirky, offbeat artistic types who have built “Earthships” that are completely independent of society’s infrastructure. I first saw/heard about it when Dennis Weaver (McCloud of TV fame) got involved with them well over 30 years ago.
All electricity is generated or captured from the sun. Waste systems simply recycle everything. All water used in the home is captured rain water. The homes themselves are built with recycled goods like tires, rammed with earth, stacked on top of each other like bricks. Then bottles are inserted in the walls to create a stained glass effect, then covered so the final product looks like adobe homes. No tires are visible in the finished homes. The thermal mass created by the tire walls allows each home to heat and cool without other heat/cooling devices. They even grow their own food since each home basically has it’s own hothouse.
Truly, it’s an amazing place. But to get there, we needed to drive through Taos, and then cross the Rio Grande Gorge. That was as stunning thing to see too. Since we haven’t seen the Grand Canyon, this must be pretty darn close! Wow – that’s one big hole in the earth! There is a bridge to cross, and you can get out and walk it… and lots of people were doing it… very very cool.
Today we took a drive down south to Albuquerque. It’s a large city, with an historic “Old Town” featuring a grand old church, surrounded by several blocks of adobe structures hundreds of years old. Like Santa Fe, the Old Town buildings are filled with art galleries, shops and restaurants. We wandered around some of the galleries and shops. Many have a tourist feel, with lots of Route 66 memorabilia. About the only nod to Breaking Bad, an AMC television hit, was a couple of shops had pork pie hats, Walter’s hat of choice for his Heisenberg alter ego.
We strolled across the central square, being guarded by a couple of 12 pound mountain howitzers, a relic of the Civil War. When the Confederates out of Texas invaded New Mexico, they brought these guns with them. After a defeat, the Texans retreated, and buried the guns near the church. Twenty-seven years later, a Major Teel, who led the Texans, returned to Albuquerque to show where he had buried them. Recently restored and placed in “Mountain Carriages” they now guard the square from marauding tourists.
The Church of San Felipe de Neri was founded in 1706. A flood wiped out part of the church and it was rebuilt with five foot thick adobe walls to prevent any further flood problems. It’s still in use, hosting services many times a week. The interior looks much more modern than the Cathedral in Santa Fe. There are no impressive stain glass windows, but it has an impressive feel to it anyway.
We only stayed a few hours, and didn’t explore the modern Albuquerque much. We drove over to the University of New Mexico, looking for their iconic entry statues, but we couldn’t find them! Drove all over the campus, but no luck. (Turns out I was confused – they are actually at UNM in Taos!)
On the road back to Santa Fe we stopped into a couple of pueblos, but neither allowed photos to be taken. We found Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument on Cochiti Native Indian land. It’s a strange world, with oddly formed “tent-like” rock formations. It’s in the desert, with posted warnings to be ware of rattlesnakes! We hiked up the trail and saw pretty spectacular views. It takes a couple of hours, but a neat walk into the desert.
I have to mention dinner. We went to a Spanish tapas restaurant called El Meson in Old Town Santa Fe. It was one of the best meals we’ve had in a long long time. Wonderful wonderful food. A delightful hostess. A terrific waiter, knowledgeable and helpful. Very nice live music. A magnificent experience.
Today we set about exploring a few more places we have not seen. How about this mailbox? Just a tad unique eh? It’s out on Airport road, a couple miles from the town center.
Santa Fe is steeped in history.It’s origins go way back to before the Spanish came to America, but the town that exists today is laid out in the typical Spanish way, with a main square with government buildings on one side, shops and home around the exterior, and religious sites within close proximity.
The San Miguel Mission is the oldest church in the USA that still is in use today. Services are still held here every Sunday. It was first built in 1610 but was subsequently destroyed twice and the structure today was constructed in 1710. Some parts of the original 1610 church still exist. The Tlaxcaltecan Indians of Mexico, brought to Santa Fe by the conquistadors, were the principal people who built all three iterations of the chapel.
The bell inside the church was cast in 1356 in Spain. It sits on a rugged structure just inside the door of the church and you are encouraged to strike the bell. It gives off a wonderfully full sound, echoing throughout the church. Both Pam and I took a shot at being musicians! I mean, come on – how often do you get to touch something that is nearly 700 years old, let alone whack it with a hammer? Here is a short video of Pam’s playing.
Across the alley from the chapel, is a small adobe structure, used by the Tlaxcaltecan Indians while they constructed the chapel. It’s considered to be the oldest house in the USA. (I’m not sure how accurate that is, since the Taos Pueblo has been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years… but granted, the Pueblo is more than simply a house.)
Afterwards we went to the State Capitol, a more recently constructed circular building that houses the offices of the Governor, the Lt Governor and various other government officials, as well as the Legislature. It is an absolute must-do if you ever come to Santa Fe. You can tour the whole building. You start off on the top floor in the office of the Governor. There is a mini-museum, right in her office, showing the prehistoric beginnings of New Mexico. As you wind your way down the circular building’s three floors, the art goes from Old West, Spanish Colonial, to mid century, to modern. On the main floor was a recently opened gallery of modern quilted items. It’s an amazing place!
Since it was our anniversary, we naturally spent some time in a local casino! But about midnight, we went back to the main square and took a few pictures of the St Francis Cathedral and the Loreto Chapel all lit up. Obviously it’s been tough to show everything we’ve seen here in Santa Fe in the blog posts. There are even more shots up in our gallery, that are not referenced in the posts, so if you are interested in seeing other interesting items that we’ve been seeing, they are up there!
Saturday we took a drive south to Roswell for an overnight stay. The drive took about three hours, it’s around two hundred miles, through cattle country. Lots and lots of cattle, with the odd sheep and llama farm mixed in. The land is not as mountainous as around Santa Fe, but with rolling hills, and dried arroyo beds cutting through the landscape it was a very scenic drive. It turned out to be an easy drive, with very good roads.
Roswell is a town of about 50,000 people – and much larger than we expected. The alien theme is apparent almost as soon as you drive in, with Galaxy Car Wash – Galactic Sushi, it’s how we roll… etc. There are little aliens peeking out all over the local businesses. Even the large chains get in on the act! Arby’s proclaims that “Aliens are welcome“, KFC proudly puts the Colonel right beside a towering alien, and even the USPS gets in on the act.
I thought the USPS R2D2 post box was one of the best alien icons. It was really well done, with a great paint job… and hey, he has his own website! (Although when I went to it, I was denied access, which is not all that surprising. I’m not a Jedi Master yet – I can’t whack the little globes with my helmet on… YET!) Even the local community center got in on the whimsical act… this carving is right in front of the main doors.
There are of course, lots and lots of shops and “museums” dedicated to the Roswell Incident of 1947 (or 1957 if you believe the government). The first we entered was called Area 51, and wouldn’t you know it, they required Pam’s help right away. We hadn’t been in the place for more than five minutes when a call went out for a nurse to assist with an alien who had gone into cardiac arrest. The doctor in the lab had gone for coffee, and only the guards were left. It’s not easy being a nurse on vacation!
Afterwards, a couple of friends invited us to relax and have a few beers. They were pretty grateful, and they told us that the government has been keeping them there since the crash. They give them old computers, so they can’t access the internet, and it’s been tough for them, since Facebook was their idea.
At any rate, the next stop was the museum, which was not very well done. They now charge five bucks to get in, but the displays look like a high school got together and did it for a science project. It’s kinda sad really, because a lot of the evidence they have, could really be persuasive if they did a more professional job. I get the impression that most people in Roswell don’t really take it all that seriously. Although one store in particular had a fellow who did seem to be serious about the whole thing, he was definitely in the minority.
The city itself has put up a museum and cool statue of Dr. Robert Goddard, the man who basically figured out how to launch rockets. They have kept the tower that he repeatedly launched liquid fueled rockets from, right in the spot from which he did the experiments. And that’s right on Main Street, across the street from Arby’s!
Roswell is not all aliens – another famous citizen was John Chisum – one of the early cattle barons. He was portrayed in the movies by no less than John Wayne, so you know he had to be something special! He was contemporaneous with Billy the Kid and was instrumental in having Pat Garrett track him down. They were apparently on friendly terms but had a falling out when Chisum failed to pay Billy what he felt he was owed for his part in the Lincoln County Wars.
The drive back to Santa Fe was in a bit of rain, so we stopped in Encino and took this picture of an old clunker of a house. Encino seems to really have hit the skids, with most shops and gas stations and homes crumbling. It’s population is only 94, but it did have a famous citizen, the 8th Governor of New Mexico! It fell into disrepair as a result of the rail line discontinuing the depot there…
It was a fun couple of days, though, and definitely worth the drive to see everything.
Today we decided to head over to Canyon Road. It’s a street that is completely dedicated to art galleries and shops. There are a couple of antique dealers, but most are galleries – traditional oils, water colors, sculptures. There is every style you can imagine, Impressionist, modern, traditional, Western, Oriental, Cubist.
There were lots and lots of huge bronzes – life size horses, pigs, buffalo, dogs of every breed imaginable, cowboys sitting on their horses, Native Indians in full regalia. There were life size statues of children, adults, and fantasy characters. A life size Mark Twain, clutching a copy of Huckleberry Finn, made an appearance, sitting on a bench.
There were these fascinating wind devices – a whirligig for lack of a better word. They ranged in size from three feet high to twenty feet at least. Some ran with water, some ran pumps to move the water, some needed as little as two miles an hour of wind speed to get them to move, some were brightly colored, while others were in a patina-ed copper color. One seller had a whole field of them – literally hundreds in one location. Completely fascinating to sit there and watch them turn. This movie should give you a good idea of how they looked.
There was Oriental art – Buddha lounged on the grass, sat cross legged or towered above us. Hand knotted rugs and complex Thai textiles were featured in another gallery. This picture of Bhudda’s face was on a statue at least 20 feet high. You might be able to see it briefly in the movie above.
Pam was most fascinated with the animal bronzes I think. She loved the ones of dogs and cats and turtles and bears and bison and coyotes and… well you name it, and it was done in bronze. But this bronze of a couple of Native Indians was probably her favorite. The details on the bead work on the moccasins and jacket were exquisite – all done in bronze mind you!
We had a light lunch at Cafe Grecco’s, right on Canyon road. It was an Italian sub, which was really a paninni with lots of pastrami, beef, and cheese. Very tasty, with a locally brewed root beer.
Santa Fe has really surprised us with the amount of art that is EVERYWHERE! Every corner you turn, every street you walk, every building you enter, artwork is just there. It makes this city very pedestrian friendly. You can stroll anywhere and just admire the many many works of art.
We started the day by checking out the Georgia O’Keefe museum. It’s a smallish building, with about six galleries. They cycle the works on display every few months. The majority of works on display today were on loan for this exhibition, so no photographs were allowed of the works on loan. We managed to take a few of works that were part of the permanent collection, and were allowed to be photographed. She seems to be have been a bit anti-social… One quote displayed was “I wish people were all trees and I think I might enjoy them then!”
She moved to New Mexico from New York City where she was an up and coming artist. She wrote about New Mexico, saying, “When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country. I’d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly. It’s something that’s in the air – it’s different. The sky is different, the wind is different. I shouldn’t say too much about it because other people may be interested and I don’t want them interested!”
She was a risk taker – coming to a place that was quite wild, by New York standards. She trudged about the mountains, alone, carrying her easel and paints with her, finding vistas that inspired her. A pretty cool woman, and damned fine painter.
Just across the street from the museum, is an education center, that contains her archives, and is a teaching center for students of art to learn technique, use of color etc. It’s a wonderful building, with lovely landscaped grounds with a beautiful old tree out front. I caught the sun peaking through the branches.
After seeing the museum we wandered toward the main square and were struck by all the fascinating buildings we saw. The adobe construction is just cool to see. Love this one of the church. It feels like I’ve seen this kind of church a thousand times in old western movies. And here it sits, still in use!
As we wandered, we took more and more shots of more and more bronze sculptures. It seems no building is complete in Santa Fe without four or five bronzes surrounding it. And some even have them on the roof! How about this dragon surrounding the whole building? Is that cool or what?
After walking around for a couple of hours, we got in the car and discovered a place called Canyon Road – it’s a place where there is – wait for it – a lot of art!! No really – it’s kind of an artist’s enclave. There are loads and loads of art galleries, sculpture galleries, antique shops and outdoor whirly gig displays. We’ll be coming back here tomorrow for a stroll.
We then took a drive up the canyons above Santa Fe. Beautiful homes are nestled in the cliff fronts. It’s part of the Santa Fe National forest and the road leads to one of the local ski hills. Here’s a brief movie Pam took as were ascending the road.
Well, today (Wednesday) we arrived in Santa Fe around 2 in the afternoon. It’s not a huge city, about 70,000 people. It’s only the fourth largest city in the state, but it is the capital. We found our time share very easily. It’s a really nice unit. Granite counter tops, very nice cabinetry in the kitchen, two flat panel tvs, a large living room with a fireplace, and a lovely big bed. WIFI is provided for an additional fee via ATT – the one negative for the unit. We’re on the fourth floor, but we don’t have much of a view since we’re surrounded by trees.
We put our bags in the room, and came down to the big central square that has been the center of Santa Fe life for over 400 years. The square is a bustling place, with a stage for free nightly concerts. There are food carts selling burritos and fajitas for 5 bucks. The people are there with their dogs, listening to a guy gently strum his guitar. On another side a Native American plays a version of the pan flute doing an amazing version of the House of the Rising Sun. There are locals selling handicrafts ranging from silver and gold jewelry to blankets, textiles, and hats, ceramics and pottery.
The St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral dominates the skyline, one block off the square. Inside is an alter from the original church carved in 1620. The stain glass windows feature many of the saints. Outside, large scale bronze statues of St. Francis dot the courtyard and gardens. Santa Fe has a lot of art, and a lot of museums to see.
We wandered through many stores, set in buildings that have been there for hundreds of years. The adobe buildings are everywhere here. They are striking to look at, lending a serene look to the city. The New Mexico Museum is one of the adobe buildings just off the square that is very striking. I think I’ve taken at least thirty pictures of it, from every angle!
The shops are almost outnumbered by the galleries. It’s clear that Santa Fe is a haven for artists. Georgia O’Keefe, the great American modernist painter who lived to be nearly 100 years old, lived most of her adult life here in New Mexico. There is a museum dedicated to her, which we’ll check out tomorrow. Her style of bright colors, and large scale images of small things – an amaryllis flower over four feet wide, for instance – has influenced generations of painters.
Here is a sample of some of the ceramics they are selling — do you think Pam might be taking one of these home??
The weather is very nice, although the evening did get cool. The altitude is close to 7000 feet, so the air is a little thin. We won’t be jogging for a couple days yet!
It seems the longer we are here, the more we find little gems hidden in various corners of this city. I’ve really grown to love this place. When we told people we were coming to Santa Fe, their first response was always, “Why?” The simple answer is that Pam and I love to travel, and we haven’t been here before, so why not? After all, we were born on this earth, so where ever 
we are, we are home.
All electricity is generated or captured from the sun. Waste systems simply recycle everything. All water used in the home is captured rain water. The homes themselves are built with recycled goods like tires, rammed with earth, stacked on top of each other like bricks. Then bottles are inserted in the walls to create a stained glass effect, then covered so the final product looks like adobe homes. No tires are visible in the finished homes. The thermal mass created by the tire walls allows each home to heat and cool without other heat/cooling devices. They even grow their own food since each home basically has it’s own hothouse.
Truly, it’s an amazing place. But to get there, we needed to drive through Taos, and then cross the Rio Grande Gorge. That was as stunning thing to see too. Since we haven’t seen the Grand Canyon, this must be pretty darn close! Wow – that’s one big hole in the earth! There is a bridge to cross, and you can get out and walk it… and lots of people were doing it… very very cool.
