On a Walk in Santa Fe

It's hard to believe that our month in Santa Fe is almost over.  Of course, missing most of the first week due to car problems in Shreveport, Louisiana, made the time go by even more quickly.  Santa Fe is an interesting town filled with aging hippies (lots of graying ponytails on both men and women), artists, and retired liberals relocated from somplace else.  I've only met one "cowboy" in a stetson and boots and he turned out to be a retired IT consultant from the East Coast.  With a graying ponytail.

As we walk around town, Jack and I have noticed that Santa Fe appears to be a very homogenous city, which is just a politically correct way of saying it's very White.  I haven't checked the demographics on race here but we've seen very few African Americans or Asians and the local minority appears to be predominately Native American.  Almost everyone is friendly here and the people we meet enjoy talking about what they love about area, what brought them here, and why we should consider relocating to Santa Fe.  



I've told Jack that I'm not sure that I could settle in this desert environment.  I miss the many beautiful shades of green in the Midwest and the simple pleasure of driving with the sun shining through the leaves on treelined streets.  I'm missing lawns, trees and shrubs right now.  A typical street in Santa Fe looks like the picture of the adobe house below.  

 Most homes don't have lawns or paved driveways.  They use gravel or dirt for driveways here which, with my middle-class Midwestern filter, seems messy and poor.  It just isn't appealing to my eye.  Outside the Center of town many of the streets are dirt roads, even in neighborhoods of million dollar homes with street names like "Mansion Ridge Road".  For my Joliet friends, imagine neighborhoods like Timberline and Twin Oaks with dusty Land Rovers and BMWs parked on dirt driveways.   

While I miss the green of the Midwest I sure don't miss the humidity.  Jack and I love the dry air, the clear skies and the view of the mountains as you walk down the street in Santa Fe.  We're still adjusting to the altitude which has affected us more than we expected it to.  Sometimes I find myself huffing and puffing just walking around town which is pretty humbling.  It makes me appreciate my good health and want to preserve it.  Running is a struggle so I just try to go slow and put one foot in front of the other.  Local people have told us that it can take several months for your body to produce enough red blood cells to push more oxygen in this high altitude.

  

One of the great things about visiting or living here is that art is all around you. Whether it is a giant sculpture carved from a tree trunk on a main thoroughfare, original artwork for sale on the walls of a local restaurant, or a bronze sculpture in a courtyard, there is always something new and beautiful to notice and enjoy.  



 A person could get into a LOT of trouble buying art or jewelry here in Santa Fe.  I told Jack that he is just lucky we're traveling in a Volkswagon Passat that is packed to the roof, not a Winnebago.  There are so many beautiful, unusual things for sale!  I'm not sure how all of the galleries stay in business - there are so many of them in a concentrated area.  Of course, when a small sculpture is almost $4,000 you only need to sell one or two a month to pay the bills, I guess.  Our landlady told us that she hosts small art openings for new artists in her home in exchange for a piece of art.  That's a novel way of acquiring original art that I would never have thought of myself. 

Santa Fe appears to be a very spiritual town and religious imagery is everywhere.  Christianity, Native American, Goddess worship and Eastern religions all find a place here. 

                                       

I like the open acceptance of all religions and the fact that people talk about things like faith and entering the Age of Aquarius in the same breath and with total sincerity.  I'm sure that bigotry and narrow world views are here, we just haven't run into it. 

All in all, Santa Fe is a great place for a vacation or to stay awhile.  It's full of history and charm.  Good food, Happy Hour that starts at 3:00 p.m. (what kind of jobs do these people have?), art, and some terrific hiking only 45 minutes away make Santa Fe an excellent destination for a girlfriend getaway, a family vacation or a romantic trip for two.  Add it to your bucket list!





A Welcoming Santa Fe Oasis

Getting to experience how other people in the United States live has been one of the things that Jack and I have enjoyed the most during our almost six months on the road.  It isn't always easy, especially for me.  As anyone who knows me would agree, I'm not the most relaxed person in the world.  I'm getting used to being on the road although it is harder than I thought it would be.  Every part of the country has a different energy and we've learned to adapt. From the fast pace of New York City, to the laid back vibe of New Orleans and now to the oldest state capitol in the country, Santa Fe, we've tried to live like the local people do and adjust to their ways of doing things. 

Santa Fe has a completely different kind of feel than any of the places that we've stayed these past few months and our rental house seems to exemplify that feeling.  It's an adobe home in an older part of Santa Fe that has no central air conditioning or heat.  To enter the home, you go through beautiful wrought iron gates that close in front of a large double wooden door.

There is a small courtyard with a fountain and tiled walls outside of the front door.

A screened wrought iron door closes over the painted front door.  The painting has something to do with feng shui but I'm not sure about the meaning of it.

The living room is heated by a fireplace and has a ceiling with large log beams called vigas.

The doors to the guest bedroom, bathroom and closet are all painted and the guest room has local art hanging on the walls.  In fact, there is art everywhere  

throughout the home.  There are lots of spiritual images and bright colors.

I especially love the kitchen.  The kitchen has another fireplace and has French doors that open to a second courtyard.  It's a cheerful place to cook and to eat.  There is a giant island that is part storage shelf and part counter top.  I like to sit at the counter and sip a glass of wine while I watch Jack cook. 

At the end of the house is the master suite.  The bedroom also has French doors that open to the patio but it has been too cold to sleep with them open.  All of the doors and windows in the house have  decorative wrought iron bars over them that lock, I guess because the windows are so low to the ground, unlike the homes in the Midwest. 

The bedroom has a gas fireplace, a loveseat, a stereo and a television in it.  It's almost like a little apartment.  Jack and Coco and I watch t.v. or read there in the evening.  The bathroom Master Bathroom has no heat (I can't imagine what that would be like in Winter. Yikes!) but the floors are heated. 

We love being in this little home and don't feel the need to be out and about all of the time because just being in the home is restful, like a mini-vacation.  If we do want to get out and see people we are about two blocks away from the Railyard District which has at least ten restaurants, lots of shops, and a Farmer's Market.  There is a walking path a block away and hiking trails are just a ten minute drive.  Jack and I feel lucky to have found this little casita and are grateful that the owner chooses to share it with renters through VRBO. 

Exploring Bandelier National Monument

Jack and I arrived in Santa Fe a few days ago after car problems stranded us in Shreveport, Louisiana for three days.  We drove overnight through Texas and arrived early the next day.  It's taken several days for us to acclimate to the altitude and we've pretty much stayed close to our new "home" during that time.  The house we rented is an adobe home in an historic neighborhood.  It has a beautiful patio that is a great place to sit and enjoy the sun and warm weather so we did a lot of that. We took a walk around town, found a yoga studio, and explored our neighborhood a bit. Yesterday, we felt like we were ready to get out into the great outdoors so we decided to head out of the city and explore Bandelier National Monument.

Bandelier National Monument is located about 40 minutes outside of the city of Santa Fe which made it an easy day trip for us.  Most of the trip is highway driving but there are some parts of the drive with steep drop offs on the side that were a little scary to me.  (Of course, I'm a terrible passenger in a car so it doesn't take much to scare me!)  The scenery is beautiful which makes up for a lot.

What makes Bandelier so special is that there is evidence in the area of human activity dating back more than 10,000 years.  The canyon and mesa area was formed by violent eruptions of the Jemez Volcano more than a million years ago that spread volcanic ash up to 1,000 feet thick over a 400 square mile area.  Over time, the volcanic ash compacted into soft, crumbly rock that erodes easily.  Ancestral Pueblo people used tools to enlarge some of the small natural openings to make dwellings in the cliff face. 

It is an easy hike on a paved path to reach the cliff dwellings.  Even though it was Sunday afternoon, the place wasn't swarming with people so Jack and I could take our time climbing into the cave rooms which are called cavates. 

I really wanted to climb into the cavates but thought that I might not be able to go through with it due to my fear of heights.  Or, I should probably say my fear of falling.  Going up is always fine, it's just coming down that is hard for me.  My girls still tease me that the only reason I was able to get down the Chichen Itza pyramid in Mexico was that there was a girl more terrified than I was and I had to help her climb down.  Which is actually true.  Otherwise, I might still be sitting on the top of the pyramid with my back pressed against the wall!  I try and conquer my fear whenever I can but sometimes it's a slow process and I hate to go through all of that angst in a crowd of people.  Jack is really patient and will always stand by to talk me through it which is nice.  Since the park was quiet I was able to take my time climbing the ladder up into the cliff rooms.   

There is not a lot of room inside the cliff dwellings as you can see by the picture of Jack who is sitting inside one of the cavates.  His head is almost touching the ceiling even while sitting. They were so small that I was afraid to go inside while Jack was in there so we took turns.

One of the dwellings had several small rooms and Jack took a picture of me sitting in what seemed to be a window.  I was so pleased that I was able to climb up there - and get down without crying. 

 

Later, we walked along the stream and looked at the ruins of what was once a thriving city on the mesa.  It was a great afternoon and we hope to get back to Bandelier and do some more exploring before we leave Santa Fe.