Arty Santa Fe

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Santa Fe wasn't on our original itinerary, but Sophie who we'd met in Fiji said they were going and it sounded like a really nice place so we decided to go on a slight detour before heading up north. The journey was again long and very hot (in the 90s) but we were starting to get used to it and we'd been able to download some new podcasts by Chris Moyles and Scott Mills (good old Radio 1) so that kept us going. We arrived late in the afternoon and quickly found a fairly cheap motel just outside of town. Ofcourse now we were in New Mexico we had to do the right thing and eat mexican food.... so we did, but dont know if it really counts as it was a burito from Taco Bell (the national fast food chain), but hey they're only 80c you surely cant blame us!

The next day we headed into town to explore. Straight away you could tell it was a really nice quaint little place with a lovely feel about it. The Lonely Planet guide book describes it as "Artisy and aloof, ancient and Tranquil" and for once it was spot on! The main area is around the downtown plaza where there are lots of little shops, museums and its where alot of locals sell their crafts. First stop was the Georgia O'Keeffe gallery, for those who havent heard of her she's a very famous artist who lived near Santa Fe for a lot of her life. I'd studied her work at school so was really interested to see so her exhibition, Gra stayed outside as he'd never heard of her (some people!) so it would have been a bit of a waste of money. I really enjoyed it especially as they had a special exhibtion of Ansel Adams work (famous photographer) on too. We then headed back to the plaza for some late lunch- a very mexican baked potato which we sat in the park and ate. We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the shops and visiting San Miguel Chapel which is the oldest church structure in the US- the walls were constructed around 1610 (pretty old for america), this just happened to be next to one of the oldest houses too.

The following day Gra was in for a treat- we were going for a walk along Santa Fe's Canyon Road. Whats so special about this road I hear you ask, well its basically got a lot of nice art galleries along it. And when i say alot I mean about 100..... and I was planning on dragging gra in every single one of them! Ok so we didnt manage all of them, but we must have gone in atleast half- i dont think Gra minded too much. That took up most of the day so we then went back to the motel where i think we actually managed to write a blog! Then an early night so we were ready to continue our road trip the next day heading north. Santa Fe was a really nice unplanned surprise for us, we would highly recommend going there.

We took one of the scenic routes out of Santa Fe up to Taos. On the way we stopped off at Chimayo to visit a very famous little church. Its fame comes from its healing powers that many believe it posseses. Many sick people visit and leave in good health, in one of the rooms you can see crutches, canes, wheelchairs and assorted other paraphenalia left behind by pilgrims who claim they have found the healing they sought within the old church walls. Many believe the power comes from the "holy" dirt found within the church- you can actually collect some of this dirt and take it home with you (we didnt think this would be a good idea after our last experience with being searched at the airport, how would we explain that one?) We then headed up to Taos, a small village with again alot of art galleries and a very laid back feel. After a walk around we decided to keep moving and carried on driving north in search of our next motel...........

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