Blogs from Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, North America - page 20

Motorhome News from North America 39 25th March - 4th April 2007 From the Texan Heavens to the Depths of the Earth in New Mexico We have been ‘on the road’ in North America for 450 days now, yet each day is still too short and each week not long enough for all we set out to achieve. It now becomes clear that we will never see it all; we cannot absorb all of the dramatic short history of this continent’s rapid change, but perhaps at least we will have satisfied our curiosity about some of the American myths we English cling to. Our week started in Davis Mountains State Park, a delightfully wooded area set amongst the southwest Texas hills, with magnificent mountain walks on rocky paths where mule deer grazed peacefully amongst the cactus ... read more

We poke around Durango in the morning. Find a squished penny machine at the train depot—our first one of the trip! There’s a cool historic hotel right downtown called the Strater. Durango reminds me a little of Nelson, British Columbia minus the liberal atmosphere and open pot smoking. We journey through the incredible northern New Mexico landscape towards Santa Fe. The dry shrubby landscape gives way to red rocks and mesas. I see why Georgia O’Keeffe was so inspired by the area. In Santa Fe, we stay at the El Rey Inn right on old Route 66. It’s a fantastic 1936 motor court motel that retains much of its original character and is clean and tidy (not skanky like so many old highway motels tend to be). Although there was a scary looking he/she/man/woman/shim staying ... read more

What a strange and wonderful place Santa Fe is. It's a mix of native american/mexican cultures, with a good dose of posh american spa culture thrown in. And the adobe pueblo architecture makes it unique - every building from drive-thru coffee huts to banks are the same style. They have the only Hilton Hotel I've ever seen with massive garlands of dried chillis hanging from every brown adobe archway. We walked around the main plaza, poked around the Native American turquoise and silver stalls and CJ entertained us on the bandstand with his rendition of 'IT'S A BANDSTAND SHOW... WOOO'. I contravened our budget regime by ordering a turquoise necklace (oops) and we had a fantastic (new) mexican meal. The next morning, after picking up the necklace, we headed off in the wrong direction completely, but ... read more

WARNING! It's been a long time since my last entry, so this will be a long one. In fact I'm pretty sure this blog will be the meat and potaters of the road trip: I'm in New Mexico and I have less than two weeks to get across Texas, have Christmas, and then burn up the Mississippi to end up at last in New York - alot of driving, not a lot of tourism. As last time the photos are also on Photobucket It'll also be a long entry because I have seen and done a huge amount since Vegas, and I have finally parted company with Richard, my dutch travelling companion. I have a bit of time to be a bit more descriptive now... Starting from Vegas, we woke up late and walked out of ... read more

On the way to Santa Fe: We drove all the way through Texas. It was a really long trip, that's when you realize how big Texas is. The scenery also changes dramatically. We drove through some desert and oil fields. You could drive for more than 100 miles and not see one town, one gas station.... total nothingness. Once we crossed the border to New Mexico, total scenery change again. Completely different architecture and culture. Santa Fe is a colorful city full of arts and crafts. Beautiful furniture and woodwork are everywhere. Art galleries line up along several streets and all kinds of art is displayed everywhere, indoors and outdoors. We went to a "Pueblo" named Taos which was described to us as an authentic indian town that was still active. We went there with high ... read more