A note: On August 12 John & I flew into Denver, CO, making Colorado my 33rd state visited this year. Over the next few days we drove to Santa Fe, NM and looped back up to Denver. This #34 NM post is appearing before my #33 CO post - watch for CO soon.
In 1540, Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, became the first European to enter New Mexico. In 1598, the first Spanish settlement was established on the Rio Grande. Then, in 1610, Santa Fe was founded. The United States acquired most of NM as a result of the Mexican-American war. Sitting at 7,000 feet above sea level, Santa Fe is the nation’s highest capital city. Though New Mexico was made a state in 1912, the city of Santa Fe will be 400-years-old in less than two years and was previously a Pueblo village for centuries before Spanish rule. The Mission of San Miguel, built by the Tlaxcalan around 1610, is the oldest church in operation in the U.S. Directly across the street from the church is the oldest house in the U.S., built in 1646.
A flood of adventurers, entrepreneurs and neer-do-wells poured into the area when the Santa Fe trail opened in 1821. Spanish rule had collapsed but New Mexico was still a part of Mexico. The city was a rowdy place known for bars, brothels and easy fortunes. In 1846 the U.S. declared war on Mexico and claimed New Mexico. NM first became a territory and finally attained statehood, along with Arizona, in 1912. In the 1940’s the first atomic bomb was built in Los Alamos, and don’t forget about the UFO sightings known as the Roswell Incident. We followed the Santa Fe Trail along I 25 and flirted with Route 66 but saw no aliens.
Santa Fe’s Plaza, a square block bordered by Lincoln Avenue, E. Palace Avenue, San Francisco Street and the Santa Fe Trail is the nexus of town now and for centuries. Downtown Santa Fe is all adobe and tans and browns, its Spanish-Pueblo look is mandated in this historic city. It was confusing to get around sometimes because even the gas stations and fast food restaurants can look alike. We would like to have dined at Coyote Café but luckily for our bank account we had no reservation and were directed to the rooftop cantina. The food was terrific. We enjoyed BBQ duck quesadillas, “El Portal” tacos (pork) and ceviche washed down with margaritas and sangria. The joint was jumping. After dinner we strolled around the historic streets and listened to live music in the plaza (a nightly occurrence in the summer) and returned to our hotel exhausted. I suspect the altitude contributed but it was a full day none-the-less.
Santa Fe was selected as the first city in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Art is a tremendous part of life in the city. There are more than 250 galleries and museums. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was small, crowded and worth a visit. I’m a huge fan of folk art and the Museum of International Folk Art on Museum Hill did not disappoint.
Driving in Santa Fe is not pleasurable. Traffic crawls along and there are few or no places to park in the downtown area. Our lunch destination in the Inn and Spa at Loretto thankfully offered valet parking. I highly recommend Luminaria. Our meal was delicious, subtly spiced, beautiful. To accompany our meal I ordered a bottle of Gruet Sparkling Wine. Gruet Winery is located just down the road in Albuquerque. I was first introduced to their sparkling wine in San Francisco and remember it more for the price point than the wine itself. That’s unfair because it’s quite good with the bonus of being very reasonably priced. When I looked them up on the web I discovered that price point is something they pride themselves on. I was unaware that they make a chardonnay, syrah, and pinot noir also. I’ll be looking for them!
We were seated outside in a lovely covered area backed up to a wall and were amused when the wind picked up and glasses started blowing over. Our table was more protected than the others and our fellow diners fled indoors table by table leaving us alone with the waitstaff who were busy taking down umbrellas and lanterns and doing their best to secure things. We rode out the williwaw finishing our wine and sharing a dessert. It was short lived and though we did see a downed tree it appears no serious damage occurred.
It has long been a desire to attend the Santa Fe Opera. That was fulfilled with a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd. The Opera House was beautiful and the setting was spectacular. The opera company was first rate and I certainly enjoyed Teddy Tahu Rhodes interpretation of Billy (rumor has it, he takes off his shirt in all of his roles). This is the second time I’ve seen him, the first was at Sydney Opera production of Streetcar Named Desire in August 2007, where he was a threatening bare-chested Stanley.) I wasn’t enthusiastic about the Billy Budd libretto, it’s not a story I would choose to read and the bleak darkness of it all was less than inspiring. That being said – I had a great time and will hopefully return to see another opera. Site Santa Fe is showcasing art installations in various areas of the city. The parking lot of the Santa Fe Opera has dozens of Plastic Bottle Sculptures hanging from light posts. Interesting…. The true items of interest, in my opinion, are the pre-opera tailgate picnics. I’m in for that next time! As is the norm in the situation some go all out with candles and flowers and some don’t. As a visitor traveling sans crystal & china my table won’t be appropriately decked but I’m hopeful that a local restaurant’s carry-out will more than suffice.
A note about lodging (Hilton options): We stayed at the Hampton Inn on Cerrillos. It offered all that we were looking for but it was not convenient. Santa Fe is a sprawling city. Next time I would opt for a better location. The Hilton downtown is beautiful and is walking distance to the Plaza. The city offers a free shuttle bus to Museum Hill and other destinations so perhaps that’s the better choice. There is also a Hilton property north of town on the other side of the Opera House. Depending on my plans (ie Bandelier, Taos, Los Alamos…) I would seriously consider staying there even though it’s also a casino (yuck!).
Facts of interest:
- At a single point, New Mexico’s border meets Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
- The Anasazi, an ancient native people, lived in New Mexico for 1,300 years. More than 25,000 Anasazi sites have been found in the state.
- On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb ever to explode on Earth was set off in a test at a range near Alamogordo.
- Each year in October, the Whole Enchilada Fiesta is held in Las Cruces.
- From USA Today 8/14/08: Las Cruces: Fossilized imprints of a jellyfish-like creature were found by an amateur collector about 20 miles northwest of Las Cruces. Scientists estimate they are 290 million years old. Jerry MacDonald noticed the impressions of the soft-bodied chrondrophorine medusea on a mudstone slab. New Mexico Museum of Natural Science and History Interim director Spencer Lucas said it was a rare marine find.
- NM is known as the Land of Enchantment or the Colorful State
- Ristras, the colorful strings of dried chili peppers, are draped in entries and doorways. They’re supposed to ward off evil and welcome visitors.
- The Pueblo Zia is everywhere. It’s the radiant symbol visible on the quarter pictured above, license plates, the NM flag and the State Capitol building is built in its design.
- The huge Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is known worldwide, but several other balloon events are held in the state.
I struggled with my choice of song for the state. John lobbied for Marty Robbin’s El Paso based on the line “out to the bad lands of New Mexico… “. He sang it constantly and I know it will be the musical cue to a flashback of this trip but the song is called “El Paso” and the narrator does end up in Texas. I’ve selected Johnny Horton’s, Out in New Mexico as my OFFICIAL song for NM (click on the link for a video on YouTube that show a welcome to New Mexico sign that looks just like the one I have posted. Why do people shoot at signs?) Thanks to www.CowboyLyrics.com for leading me to Horton and giving me several runner up options.
I was floundering without guidance from my favorite book sources but managed to collect several suggestions for this state. Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop came up but I was resistant because I had just read My Antonia by Cather for Nebraska and wanted to go with a different author. By default & out of laziness I picked up Death… because I had it on my shelf. What a stroke of luck! It’s well written and engaging and elucidates on the history of the area and is set precisely where I traveled. 
No comments:
Post a Comment