Bound for Santa Fe

Santuario de Guadalupe

October 21, 2017

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We have traveled north to Santa Fe. What a beautiful city. We can’t get enough of looking at the adobe architecture with its soft lines and earthy colors. Downtown Santa Fe is very walkable and has a great deal to offer. We started our day at the Railroad Station Farmers Market where we found a wide variety of fresh ingredients for our weeks cooking. My favorite vendors had chiles roasting in a rolling metal cage over blistering heat. They made the market smell so good. I was also impressed with the number of different dried beans and we were thrilled to find watermelon radishes for the first time since we left New York.

We stowed our lovely veggies in the Jeep and took a walking tour of historic Santa Fe.

This city is full of beautiful churches.

The first one we came to was Santuario de Guadalupe on  Guadalupe Street.  Established in the 1770’s on the banks of the Santa Fe River it is the oldest shrine in the United States. The beautiful adobe chapel is a museum that celebrates the  history of the New Mexican santos and houses the art collection of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Downtown Santa Fe La Fonda on the Plaza

We continued our journey to the historic downtown where we found the Plaza, the park at the center of Santa Fe. The Palace of the Governors forms one side of the Plaza and today being Saturday the Native American Market was busy with vendors of silver jewelry, pottery and wood carving. The market was doing a brisk business on this beautiful day.

we loved the adobe architecture.

The Palace of the Governors is adjacent to the New Mexico History Museum. Admission to the museum includes entrance to the palace itself. We enjoyed the museum and learning about New Mexico’s development as a tourist destination by Fred Harvey as the railroad moved west. Harvey’s hotels provided clean and comfortable accommodations and prided themselves on customer service. The hotels offered tours to the region’s cultural, geological and archeological sites making them attractions that drew tourists from all over the world.

We left the museum and continued along the Plaza passing the La Fonda Hotel with its famous bell tower.

Cathedral basilica of St Francis of Assisi

We came upon the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and around the corner Loretto Chapel and its miraculous staircase.  Spanish missionary influence is very apparent in Santa Fe.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely coffee shop and tired but happy walked back to the train station to pick up the Jeep.

October 22, 2017

Taos, New Mexico

Today we decided to take a drive up to Taos to see the Indian Pueblo that at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We drove the high road enjoying expansive mountain views, tiny towns and beautiful adobe architecture.

Beautiful views of the Sangre de Cristo mountains from the High Road

Taos Pueblo is an active native American community that has been continuously inhabited for more than 1000 years.

Two of the large adobe houses date from that time. The adobe on the exterior is replenished as necessary and the interior walls are whitewashed with a naturally pigmented mixture. We learned that the buildings as originally built did not have doors or windows. The large ladders that are present on the pueblo buildings were used to access the dwelling through the roof. This design provided protection to the original inhabitants. Living in the pueblo means embracing a traditional way of life without the conveniences of electricity or running water. There are about 150 people that live full time in the community. Pueblo homes are owned by specific families who have passed them down for generations. Homes are heated with wood stoves or traditional adobe fireplaces. Water is collected from a stream that flows from Blue Lake which is on restricted native land.

Taos Pueblo

Many of the homes have shops and studios in them. We visited a bakery where Fred enjoyed his first experience of pinion coffee. Tourism and the trade of traditional crafts is the main source of income for the pueblo. We enjoyed seeing heavy silver and gemstone jewelry, drum and rattles made of hides and a unique shiny form of pottery made from micaceous clay.  

We enjoyed the tour given by a local high school senior who explained some of the culture of the pueblo. Members of the community are multilingual speaking a combination of English, Spanish and Tiwa, the native language.  

Taos Pueblo culture is thought to have originated with the Anasazi. There is evidence of Spanish and Anglo American influence in the history of the pueblo which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Santuario de Guadalupe

100 Guadalupe St.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

New Mexico History Museum and Palace of the Governors

113 Lincoln Ave

Santa Fe, New Mexico

La Fonda Hotel

100 East San Francisco St

Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

131 Cathedral Pl

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Loretto Chapel

207 Old Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Taos Pueblo

120 Veterans Highway

Taos, New Mexico