Santa Fe, I think I love you...

Roswell , New Mexico.

Unfortunately, I checked into a motel in Roswell which had good reviews, but must have changed owners... not good, the worst room so far! I will make a point of inspecting the room before I pay, next time. No matter. For some reason, probably to do with the UFO myth, I thought Roswell was a small place... wrong! Big place, and rather uninteresting. My feelings coloured by being over tired, methinks...



Was a little unsure of my next destination, but decided to head for Santa Fe. A nice drive, although no green dots on my map this time. Road had many caterpillars moving about on it, large, up to about the size of a little finger. Some must survive, but what a daft place to wander about!

Arrived in Santa Fe early afternoon and checked in. Pleased to find that there was a bus stop outside the motel, so dumped my gear and took the bus downtown. $1 for an all day pass for old folk, $2 for the rest... Brilliant price and frequent service, so nice not to have to drive again.

Very impressed with Santa Fe, such different architecture here. Many buildings are quite recent, but thankfully retain that earlier style. No high rise at all.



Just near the bus dropping off point in town was a massive community centre, showing a collection of mixed artworks by local people, some famous, some unknown. So good!



A quick walk around to get a flavour of the place, felt very nice indeed.

I pretty much hate souvenir shops, tourist traps, but the quality and variety of arty items on sale here in town was impressive. Could not afford to go inside, but enjoyed looking in the shop windows, almost a first for me!



I liked it so much, and with the easy bus service I decided to stay a second night. Next day I headed back into town, this time to the art gallery. Love the murals painted back in the 1930’s, financed by a Federal emergency relief fund, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal which employed people to do artistic as well as manual construction work.

The artwork inside is very strong too, with some early paintings that must depict real local scenes, before the rise of Disney!



The afternoon was taken up by a ride to Albuquerque, on the local “rail runner” train. Once again, a good value public transport service at just $7 return.



Things do seem to be orientated a lot more to meet human scale needs here, most roads even have pedestrian footpaths!

A quick visit to Albuquerque, a few photo’s and back on the train again. Downtown, the area seems to be undergoing a lot of road works and building alterations... I spoke to one resident who said something to the effect that government money was being wasted on some projects. Dunno, but the place was kind of quiet, many businesses seemed hard to access by the ongoing “improvements”.

Very nice theatre, KiMo, has been preserved, a mix of Native and Deco styles!



some more pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152733593734120.1073741840.682004119&type=1&l=24793e7a64

To be continued.

Good show! In a PM of a few hours ago I suggested Chaco Culture National Monument, which is west of Santa Fe. Dirt, but perfectly passable road, going to Park Boundary and a fascinating community of ruins out in the middle of nowhere, showing evidence of a long gone sophisticated civilization. You could wrap that into a visit over at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, also a special place, and Navajo territory. Again, look up nps.gov. If you spend more time around northern New Mexico back road, some of which is rather like a third world country, not necessarily meaning that in a negative way, you may want to visit Taos and its famous Pueblo. This suggestion would be in an easterly direction, but a gorgeous drive is to take US 64 east from Taos toward Raton, on the route of the Southwest Chief. Beautiful mountain scenery descending into the high desert and then you could head south back to Santa Fe.

Hi,

Many thanks for those suggestions. I am a little unsure about dirt roads... I know they can be easy driving, but with a hire car I am not decided. They exactly state no unpaved roads ... If things did go wrong and the car broke down, I could be in a mess. A few years back I had no such qualms, or maybe I did not read the hire agreement, and drove a great route from Canon City up to Cripple Creek, along a former rail line, the phantom canyon or some such name.

I have left Santa Fe now, and will probably take in Taos today...

Cheers,

Ed.

Ed,

Any chance you'd want to try the Million Dollar Highway into Ouray, CO (also known as the Little Switzerland of America)?

Spectacular Place!

I see. Go with my other suggestions or perhaps the one to Ouray.

Hope you have a good time at Taos Pueblo. Lots of neat architecture and a good free guided tour. Don't forget to go out to see the huge bridge over the Rio Grande just northwest of Taos and if you have the time, ride the Cumbres and Toltec railroad. A beautiful ride, lunch at the halfway point and they will bus you back to your car at the origin point. Sounds like you are seeing a lot of America that is really beautiful.

Hope to see you in a few days in San Francisco.

Lived near ABQ for two years and totally loved it there. I miss it greatly. The architecture in Santa Fe is protected by ordinance. What did you think of the Railrunner as it sped in the Median of I-25?

Hi,

The railrunner seemed a fine train, walking pace in the first and last few minutes at Santa Fe due to road sharing and crossing considerations.

It felt more like a European run service... passengers treated as thinking adults rather than sheep... get on, buy a ticket, get off, no fuss, no stupid I.D. nonsense! No cafe car either, but one can't have everything!

Glad the architecture is so restricted in Santa Fe, makes for such a nice change!

Ed.

I used to live in Clovis, NM, northeast of green alien town. New Mexico is unique due to diversity of cultures. Unfortunately, I didn't explored then all.