The City Different

Overview

Santa Fe is an entity unto itself, or as Santa Feans put it, they are the City Different. Its expensive, charming, artsy, pretentious and unlike anything else on earth. It’s so different, that it has set its own style. Adobe houses, decorative pierced tin, rustic furniture, turquoise and silver, and broomstick skirts have made their way from this beautiful city halfway between mountain and desert to the four corners of the world. It’s not Mexican, Spanish, Indian and Anglo. It’s just Santa Fe.

Anything goes here. Food? What do you want? Cheeseburgers or fried squash blossoms? Vegetarian or exotic game? Clothes? The more extravagant, wild, different, crazy the better, all layered with turquoise jewelry. Art? Everything from the ubiquitous howling coyotes to priceless antiques. You can find just about anything you're looking for here.

Quick Tips:

The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the "Original Santa Fe and Canyon Road Walking Map." Its a large-scale picture map of the center of old Santa Fe with all the places you'll want to visit - sites, museums, shops. And, its free at most hotels and many shops.

The second thing you need to do is get off the Plaza. You don't have to go far to get away from the tourists. Wander up the narrow roads. Be a little adventurous and you'll find shaded neighborhoods, quiet restaurants, and interesting shops. Peek into courtyards. Summer gardens are spectacular and many boast fabulous sculpture.

Night life here is limited. Best bet is to get a copy of the Santa Fe Reporter and check the back page for what music is being played where.

Rule of thumb for shopping and dining - the further from the Plaza the more reasonable the price.

Best Way To Get Around:

Restaurants, shops, galleries and historic sites are all within a few blocks of the Plaza. Since the traffic is always terrible, park the car and get out and walk. There are dozens of public parking areas, though you'll have to pay and it runs about per day.

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Mañana Restaurant and Bar

Restaurant | "Manana"

This is one of my favorite lunch spots, primarily because it is rarely crowded and the food is consistently good and reasonably priced. It also has a great deal of charm, which is surprising because it’s a hotel restaurant (it’s part of the Inn of the Governors and just a couple of blocks from the Plaza). They have a beautiful courtyard where you can dine year round, as long as you grab a table near the kiva fireplace in the winter months. High walls, covered in vines and murals, separate you from bustling Water Street, providing a private garden where you can linger with friends over food and wine. The dining room is very southwestern, with pale adobe walls, kiva fireplaces, southwestern furniture and an international wait staff. The bar is dark and cozy. I’m partial to their chicken Caesar salad for lunch, but they have a good assortment of sandwiches, wonderful soups, and local cuisine on their somewhat limited menu. Dinner is steak, chicken and southwestern. Everything I’ve had there has been delicious.

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by Peregrine on August 1, 2000

Mañana Restaurant and Bar
101 West Alameda Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 982 4333

La Plazuela at the La Fonda

Restaurant | "La Plazuela"

Eating here is like eating inside a kaleidoscope. It’s sort of Mexican, sort of Southwestern, and very colorful. All four walls of the large room off the lobby of La Fonda Hotel, are made of glass, as it the ceiling. While the ceiling is shaded against the hot sun, the walls, divided into window panes, are painted in simple designs and primary colors, much like the windows D.H. Lawrence painted for Mable Dodge Luhan. Ficus trees are draped in strings of tiny white lights and the furniture is heavy, dark, and ornately carved.

We had breakfast here. The menu is small and everything has a southwestern twist, even the Eggs Benedict which comes with sauteed tomatillos (they look like little green tomatoes, but have a sharp almost citrus taste) and Hollandaise sauce with cilantro, one of the basic ingredients in local cuisine.

You can order traditional huevos rancheros (eggs served on a tortilla with beans), breakfast burritos, and my choice – Huevos Oaxacas – scrambled eggs with roasted tomato salsa, tiny strips of fried tostadas, poblano chile (a mild chile) and served with black beans and potatoes and tortillas. When the food arrived, it looked as good as it tasted, served on brightly colored plates that pulled their hues from the painted windows. The atmosphere is relaxed and the tables are set far enough apart that you aren’t in everyone else’s conversation. Service was excellent and the price not out of line for Santa Fe.

The La Fonda is a landmark in Santa Fe and even if you don’t stay or eat here, you should walk around the public areas. They have quite a large collection of original art, and even keep a resident artist on staff (the current one did the windows in the restaurant). There are also several shops in the hotel, all a notch above the usual tourist fare you usually find in hotel shops.

There has been a fonda or inn in Santa Fe since the early 17th century when the town was just a dusty outpost on El Camino Real. Over the years it has hosted what sounds like a who’s who of the old west: Sheriff Pat Garrett, Kit Carson, Governor Lew Wallace (he wrote Ben Hur), Archbishop Lamy, and Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman.

La Plazuela is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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by Peregrine on March 26, 2002

La Plazuela at the La Fonda
100 East San Francisco Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 982 5511

Farol

Restaurant | "El Farol"

El Farol is noted for its tapas and its music. Located on the upper end of Canyon Road, it has a long porch where you can sit and people watch in warm weather. If you want a little more quiet, there is a patio in the back and a room with windows that open onto the patio, as well as two small dining rooms. It also has a public parking area right across the street, making life a whole lot easier for those of us with cars.

Its open for lunch and dinner, but its claim to fame, other than the tapas, it its rep as an upscale local nightspot – for upscale you can insert expensive. You can get a regular meal or order hot or cold tapas. I had the one of the tapas sampler platters, a selection of offerings from the tapas menu, and while it was good, it wasn’t fantastic. The price at $9.50 wasn’t out of line, but it was the same price as a glass of wine!

Music ranges from flamenco to R&B with a little country, blues, and Latin thrown in, and you can get a monthly calendar of who is playing when. The music is performed live in the bar, a long, dark affair with a miniscule stage that doesn’t look strong enough to support the players. I’ve been there for Flamenco night (Wednesday). The drumming of feet and castinets and the rhythm of the guitars amid swirling skirts certainly gets the blood flowing. However, the waitress told me the weekends "really rock." The talent is local, like most of the patrons, and it does get crowded so if you go, go early to get a seat.

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by Peregrine on March 28, 2002

Farol
808 Canyon Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 983 9912

Vanessie of Santa Fe

Restaurant

While there is quite a bit of theater and concerts during the year, there seems a limited amount of "nightlife" in Santa Fe, considering it is such a tourist town. The one place friends kept insisting was THE place to go is the piano bar at Vanessie.

I'd been here for dinner – its an upscale steakhouse with steak, chicken, lamb, and seafood done very well – and I'd been there for wedding receptions, but never for the music.

The piano bar is very local in clientele, more so than some because it's just west of the tourist route on San Francisco. High ceilings and lots of contemporary art on the walls and, in winter, fires in the fireplace. The pianists are great, the drinks good - at least the after dinner brandy was good - the music is varied - everything from Broadway to classical to popular - though it can get a bit schmaltzy at times. They have two regular pianists and occasionally have guest singers. You can sit at little tables (our choice), around the piano itself, or at the bar. An oversized mirror behind the piano is slanted just enough so you can watch their fingers tickle the ivories.

All in all, it proved to be a fun evening.

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by Peregrine on March 30, 2002

Vanessie of Santa Fe
434 West Water St Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 982 9966

French Pastry Shop & Restaurant

Restaurant | "The French Pastry Shop "

Tired of chile and beans? You’re in luck. There is a little French bakery and café on E. San Francisco, just steps from the Cathedral. Crowded tables, enticing case of pastries, gorgeous baguettes, quiches a mile high, crepes for a meal or filled with fresh fruits to end one.

We settled down at a heavy wooden table for two in the back and sipped coffee and nibbled croissants while the world bustled by outside windows draped in Provençal-patterned fabric. Inside no one seemed to be in a hurry. Patrons were settled in behind newspapers, read books, sipped coffee or worked their way through pastries.

There is quite a good menu chalked on a board behind the counter and on strategic spots on the wall. The inside wall, completely enveloped in a huge brick fireplace decorated with industrial-sized copper cooking pots, make the place feel like your sitting in the kitchen, always the heart of any home. Even in the bright light of late morning, it was cool and a little dim inside, just right for settling in and slowly sipping a café au lait.

Oops, my cup seems to be empty. Garçon, encore, s’il vous plait.

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by Peregrine on March 31, 2002

French Pastry Shop & Restaurant
La Fonda Hotel Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 983-6697

Guadalupe Cafe

Restaurant | "The Guadalupe Cafe"

If the legislature is in session, you’ll find a few politicos amid the locals at The Guadalupe Café (it sits right next to the State Capital). Housed in a small adobe, it has the added attraction of actually having off-street parking behind the restaurant. The draw for me, other than the food, is the patio where you can sit and watch Santa Fe pass by. The interior, which has three smallish rooms, can get a bit crowded. The tables are tiny and closely spaced, to the point where it’s hard to wedge yourself in, which is why I usually go in summer and eat outdoors.

The food is Southwestern, and there are warnings all over the menu that the chile is hot and since it is an integral ingredient, no, they won’t take leave it out of the food, but there are several items on the menu for non chile-addicts. I ordered the eggs Florentine which you can have with Hollandaise instead of the chile and cheese sauce, and you can get homemade muffins or granola and I can certainly vouch for the breads. While I’m not terribly fond of sweets for breakfast, my fork did stray to the Blue Corn Pinon Nut French Toast my husband had ordered. In fact, my fork wandered across the table a couple of times. Awfully good.

Lunch is mostly sandwiches and salads, and dinner runs from steak to enchiladas. Being a local place and a bit off the Plaza, its reasonably priced. The most expensive dish I saw was $15.00 for shrimp on the dinner menu.

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by Peregrine on March 30, 2002

Guadalupe Cafe
422 Old Santa Fe TRL Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 982-9762

Plaza Restaurant

Restaurant

It’s kitsch with the look of a 50's diner. The food is good, the servings large, and the hot coffee just keeps coming.

The Plaza Restaurant, which has been in this prime spot on the Plaza since 1918 (and, I was told, under the same family management since 1948), serves local food to local people – the kind like you and me who have to work for a living – though tourists do find their way here. The no nonsense décor includes a choice of red vinyl booths, a long low counter with silvery stools also covered in said red vinyl (alas, they don’t swivel – I tried) or, our choice, tiny tables for two wedged between the booths and the counter.

The clientele is a mix of the three cultures that formed Santa Fe: Indian, Hispanic and Anglo and the waiter is as likely to ask if you want more coffee in Spanish as English. The food is great and the servings enormous. It was a tough choice between huevos rancheros or the breakfast burrito but in the end, my husband settled on the chile relleno omelette while I ordered an extra plate and fork. The omelette consisted of a green chile stuffed with cheese and folded into a three-egg omelette smothered in more green chile and served with hash browns and beans. No, it was not particularly hot (spice-wise) but it was not bland by any means – bear in mind that I put chile in or Tabasco on most of my food. With a couple of warm tortillas and bottomless cups of real coffee (no fancy lattes here), it was enough for two.

You can also get eggs any way you want them, a variety of breakfast meats and assorted breads. If you have lunch at the Plaza Restaurant, try one of the local beers.

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by Peregrine on March 21, 2002

Plaza Restaurant
54 Lincoln Avenue Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 982 1664

Celebrations

Restaurant

After a morning of gallery cruising on Canyon Road, one needs sustenance. We found ourselves about halfway down Canyon Road when hunger overcame cravings for art. Fortuntely, Celebrations was only a few paces away.

Like many restaurants in Santa Fe, Celebrations is housed in an old adobe house with more charm than room, or as I like to think of it- cozy. The dining areas consist of a small room filled with linen covered tables, a smaller room filled with same, and a small bar with an exceptionally good wine list.

There is also a patio and even though we were there on a blustery March day, the clear plastic covering the open sides and the crackling piñon fire in the corner kept us toasty while we enjoyed our lunch. The chef, who hails from New Orleans, cooks up an interesting mix of New Mexican and Louisianan food with a good dollop of standard American fare.

Lunch has mostly salads and sandwiches and a couple of NM dishes that I’ll need to go back and sample. The spinach salad I ordered had an incredible honeyed red bell pepper bacon vinaigrette, while my husband settled for more a more southerly chicken sausage gumbo with a corn muffin. Lunch with wine cost us about $30.00 for two.

Celebrations is one of the more casual and reasonably priced places along Canyon Road. Dinner ranges from rack of lamb to crawfish Etoufee and for the budget minded, they have a prix fixe "Early Bird Special" for $12.00 that looks enticing – served between 5-6:30 on weekdays. They also have a Sunday Brunch friends say is worth stopping for.

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by Peregrine on March 21, 2002

Celebrations
613 Canyon Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 989 8904

Madrid

Attraction

Madrid (that’s MAD drid) is a kick. It’s a wide spot on the Turquoise Trail, a bit north of halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The hippie influence of the 70s is still far more in evidence than its roots as a company town for the coal mines. Black tailings on the hills and a few tumbledown miners’ row houses are still in evidence, but most of the old wooden buildings have been renovated for shops, artists’ studios and eateries. You can find a variety of hand made items here – from to weavings to pottery to paintings. Tired with shopping? Stop by the Mine Shaft Tavern for a brew or catch a melodrama at the Engine House Theater (they used to repair locomotives here) and throw marshmallows at the villain. Old Coal Mine Museum also has a variety of displays portraying the town’s past. Madrid also hosts bluegrass and jazz festivals in the summer, but be warned: summer crowds can get thick enough to clog traffic (there are no sidewalks to speak of and very little parking) so go early or go in spring or fall.

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by Peregrine on August 8, 2000

Madrid
Turquoise Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico

Zozobra / Old Man Gloom

Attraction | "Zozobra"

I usually avoid festivals in Santa Fe because I really don’t like crowds. I do, however, make exception for an autumn ritual called the Burning of Zozobra that takes place every September. The event is still more local that touristy. The first time I went, I found it awesome and a little spooky, like slipping back a few centuries and witnessing the remnants of a pagan festival glossed over by Christianity.

Zozobra, or Old Man Gloom, is a fifty-foot marionette that is burned in effigy every year to dispel all the bad things that have happened in the past year. We usually go early to stake out a place to sit on the grass and have a picnic dinner while we wait for dark with the thousands of others who are doing the same thing.

Once its dark, dark dancers appear moving and darting about Zozobra, taunting him with sparklers. He growls and writhes in fear of the fire as the dancers drew near. They continued to taunt him until the first flame catches his flowing white clothes. His arms flail in the air in a futile attempt to brush off the flames that grow and began to consume him. Drums beat and the crowd chants. Just about here, I always get caught up in the spirit of the evening. The grotesque marionette cringing and beating madly at the fire and smoke becomes almost human. The howls and cries seem to come from the red mouth gaping at the crowd who cheer as the flames climb higher. Soon "Old Man Gloom" is little more than ashes and smoke and we've bid a fiery farewell to the gloom and misery of another year.

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by Peregrine on July 31, 2000

Zozobra / Old Man Gloom
Ft. Marcy Park Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe Opera

Attraction

Puccini didn’t write your favorite tunes? Get over it. The Santa Fe Opera is such a spectacle that even if opera is not your style, you should not miss a chance to go. Let’s start with the setting. The opera house sits on a hilltop north of Santa Fe. Until recently, there was a partial roof over the theater so you could watch the stars move overhead during the production. The fact that the opera season coincides with the monsoon season, made them rethink the design. The opera now has a complete roof, but still no sides.

The surrounding hills are covered in pine forests and the night sky is filled with stars. I’ve seen productions where the only backdrop is the trees and the stars. Most of the time, the settings are elaborate, the costumes fabulous and the singing divine. Everyone goes to the opera here. One year, I had to inch my way past Beverly Sills to get to my seat. They do five or six productions a season (late June through August) some traditional, some modern, and often there’s a world premier of a new opera.

Clothes? Don’t worry. This is Santa Fe and anything goes. I’ve seen everything from tuxedos to jeans (usually worn with an ostentatious amount of silver and turquoise jewelry) to shorts, which I wouldn’t recommend. Remember this is outdoors, and 7000’ at night gets chilly, even in August. We usually seek out an intermission warm-up at the bar – coffee and brandy. The opera can be pricey, tickets for opening night run about $200 though you can find bargains like rehearsals or standing room at evening performances that can run as low as $10 for the same music the high-rollers are hearing.

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by Peregrine on July 31, 2000

Santa Fe Opera
U.S. Highway 84 / 285 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
(505) 986-5955

Jackalope

Attraction

Going to Santa Fe? Go to Jackalope. I’ve dragged my share of visiting friends here. The place covers an acre or so on Cerrillos Road and is something between a flea market, antique store, and a third-world crafts fair. They have stuff you didn’t know you needed, from hand-carved doors to rustic furniture to pottery. The store is comprised of several buildings, with aisles so filled with merchandize that you can barely walk through them. Tucked into corners, you can often find the artisans working on their creations, be it intricately carved gourds, fanciful figurines, or white Oaxacan dresses being edged with flower gardens created with needle and thread. Several of these crafts people, who come up from Mexico for months at a time to demonstrate their art, are third and fourth generation artisans.

The place has its own scent of wood and straw and dust. The colors are the bright blues, yellows and reds favored by Mexican crafts people. Ethnic music, wool rugs, piles of Indian textiles, hanging baskets, dishes, goblets, figurines, and pots of every shape and size you can imagine. Most things are hand made, much of it from Mexico and India. I’ve seen things here I’ve never seen anywhere else.

When your feet wear down, there is a tree-shaded outdoor café where you can get coffee, cokes and a snack. Just don’t forget to visit the prairie dog town before you leave.

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by Peregrine on June 25, 2001

Jackalope
2820 Cerrillos Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
+1 505 471 8539

Canyon Road

Attraction

Canyon Road is said to be the oldest street in Santa Fe. It is certainly the most famous and in summer tourists swarm up and down the narrow road, completely clogging the traffic. Its claim to fame is the cluster of galleries, sprinkled here and there with restaurants. Most shops are housed in old adobes, some over 200 years old. Gardens shaded by cottonwoods are a riot of flowers in spring and summer.

There is a great deal of traditional sculpture and painting here, but there is also a lot of whimsy like the kinetic sculptures outside one gallery or the life-size stone dog just inside the door of another, holding a biscuit on his nose to share with any warm blooded companion brave enough to venture into his domain. My personal favorite was the jackrabbit the size of a Percheron tucked into a tiny courtyard.

Much of the art is displayed outdoors and sculpture gardens fill courtyards and portals all along the Road. Side roads and courtyards lead to more galleries and more sculpture gardens. Don’t miss the little cottage garden tucked behind the Historic Santa Fe Foundation (its on the left as you walk up Canyon Road). It is a recreation of the garden originally planted by Adolph Bandelier (as in Bandelier National Monument) in the 19th century and boasts a peony bush a century old!

I usually have no plans when I come here. Whatever catches my fancy is where I head to marvel at what the creative mind can do. This trip, I stopped in one of the older houses, drawn by the sign on the door that suggested I push hard as the old door sticks. So I did and found myself inside a long, narrow house with wide wooden floorboards that creaked as I walked from room to room among the gloriously distressed antique furniture from Colonial Mexico and Spain. Such a perfect setting for such beautiful pieces.

Most galleries, however, have a more modern look – enlarged rooms, white washed walls, sparse displays. The art here is eclectic and most of it very interesting and creative. The galleries tend to have a lot of sculpture and paintings, though you will find glass, pottery, fiber art, wearable art, tribal rugs, antiques, collectables, posters, cards, furniture. The further up the road you walk the more scattered the galleries tend to be. Though most prices are frightening, there are a few items in the smaller shops that are actually affordable.

Maps of Canyon Road galleries and their specialities are available at most hotels and galleries in town. Pick one up before you head out and plan to spend at least two hours wandering. Do stop for coffee or lunch, especially if the restaurant has a patio or portal where you can sit and keep an eye on what’s going on in the street. In The City Different, people-watching is part of the fun.

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by Peregrine on March 21, 2002

Canyon Road
100 Canyon Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 983 7317

San Miguel Mission

Attraction | "San Miguel Church"

When you consider the glorious cathedrals of Medieval Europe, this little church, said to be the oldest in the States, is not very impressive. However, the plain adobe walls, originally built in 1610 and shored up in the 19th century with massive stone buttresses, enclose a charming interior filled with uniquely southwestern artifacts. It's well worth the dollar it will cost you to get in.

It’s open the to public and on Sundays you can attend Mass here. During the rest of the time, a continuously played 6-minute tape gives you an overview of the historic pieces inside the long, narrow church. Built in 1610, by the Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico, the roof was burned during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and rebuilt in the early 18th century – the ornately carved viga (roof beam) supporting the choir loft has a date of 1710 on it. Behind the alter rail, you can see (under glass) the original floor of the church, the adobe steps leading to the alter, and a cache of artifacts from the 14th century found during excavations in the 1950s. The two paintings in the center of the church were done on hide and were used to convert the Indians. The reredos (alter screen) is painted on wood and absolutely gorgeous. The painted wooden statue of St. Michael (San Miguel) in the center of the reredos was brought up El Camino Real from Mexico City. At the back of the church is another cache of archaeological finds behind a glass and the "San Jose Bell" which now sits in the gift shop, was cast in 1356, making it the oldest bell in the States. There’s a little hammer at the side if you want to hear what 700-year-old bell sounds like.

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by Peregrine on March 28, 2002

San Miguel Mission
401 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 983 3974

Shidoni

Attraction

I’ve always been intrigued with the physical process of art as well as the creative. To see how the bronze sculptures you see all over Santa Fe were made, we headed 10 miles north of the Plaza to to Shidoni. Shidoni, which is a Navajo greeting to a friend, is one of the premier art foundrys in the States. Georgia O’Keefe had her bronzes cast here (yes, she did sculptures), as did Allan Houser, who’s work can be seen all over Santa Fe, and hundreds of others. Their list of projects is impressive – life sized horses for the racetrack in Lexington, KY; Civil War Veterans tribute at Gettysburg, etc., etc.

We went up on a Saturday when the foundry is open for self-guided tours to see how an artist’s original becomes a bronze statue. At the entrance to the 8-acre spread of buildings and sculpture gardens is one of the larger than life equstrian pieces poured here. The sculpture garden, about the size of a football field, is filled with other examples of Shidoni pourings - African animals, abstract pieces, whimsical birds pecking at the ground, bronze children playing, even aeolian pieces softly creating music in the wind.

In front of the building at the back of the garden is another, more intimate garden filled with smaller sculptures. From here you can enter one of the two galleries and the foundry itself. We picked up a brochure, detailing the ten steps from original to mounted bronze, watched the short video on how these processes are done, then started the tour through the 14,000 square foot foundry. Even though no work was being done at the time, you could still small hot metal, dust and wax in the air. If you want to see hands-on examples, you can watch a bronze pour on Saturdays.

You can also take a self-guided tour during the week, usually between 12 and 1. The gardens and the galleries are open to the public all week, and the work is really beautiful. I rarely see pieces I would like to have, but here I found three or four I would like to own if my purse would stretch that far.

Shidoni is well worth a stop, even if all you do is walk through the gardens and galleries. If you do want to watch a pouring or take a tour during the week, call ahead to verify times. You can even bring a lunch and sit on one of their picnic tables.

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by Peregrine on March 28, 2002

Shidoni
1508 Bishops Lodge Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87574
(505) 988-8001

Santa Fe Children's Museum

Attraction

If I were under the age of eight, I would probably want to move in here. It's not so much a museum as a huge playground. There is a wall to climb; bubbles the size of basketballs to make with huge hoops; a loom just ready for a weaver to create a multicolored tapestry from the handy box filled with cotton scraps; a quiet room filled with paper, glue, and stuff for a one-of-a-kind collage.

Outside, kids can dig for earth worms, play with rats (Blossom was actually a very elegant little rat in her black and white fur, which when I was there, she was thoroughly cleaning with tiny pink feet), cuddle with guinea pigs or lop earred rabbits, play oversized musical instruments -- the list of things to do is as large as a child's imagination.

There were as many apron-uniformed docents in the "museum" directing play and teaching the hows and whys of what the kids were doing. In the Garden Room, where I meet Blossom, birds fly freely in the trees, herbs grow in gardens, and a docent explains about the creatures who live there. An oversized xylophone was being played by a father/son duo, there’s roadrunner made entirely of junk, microphones to enhance the sound of bird singing in the trees.

What a wonderful place to be a kid, or a kid at heart.

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by Peregrine on March 30, 2002

Santa Fe Children's Museum
1050 Old Pecos Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
+1 505 989 8359

Loretto Chapel

Attraction

The Loretto Chapel is an absolute gem of a place. Tall and narrow like Saint-Chapelle in Paris after which it was modeled, its gothic touches – spires, ornate moldings, and even a rose window – stands out in this adobe town. The stained glass which fills the small chapel with beautiful light was made in Paris and brought the last leg of its journey along the Santa Fe Trail.

It’s claim to fame, however, is the "Miraculous Staircase" and its mysterious origins. In the mid-19th century, Archbishop Lamy brought an order of nuns (the Sisters of Loretto) west to establish a girls school. The chapel was built with a choir loft, but no access to it other than the suggestion that they use a ladder - a totally unacceptable suggestion. The nuns prayed to St. Joseph for an solution to their dilemma and their prayers were answered by the arrival of a carpenter who built a spiral staircase, completely of wood, including the pegs he used rather than nails. This magnificant staircase, which has two complete 360 degree turns, has no visible means of support. The carpenter, whose name is unknown, vanished before he could be paid for his work, adding to the mystery.

The small entrance fee is well worth the view of the chapel. The interior is a marvel of workmanship, especially the staircase.

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by Peregrine on March 30, 2002

Loretto Chapel
207 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 982-0092

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian

Attraction | "Museum of Indian Arts and Culture"

I visited the museum to see the display of pottery by Maria Martinez, the San Ildefonso potter famous for her black-on-black work. I was, however, charmed by the entire museum and the subtle way the art and culture of the Pueblo Indians was presented.

The feel is very open, almost sparce. The pottery exhibits, Maria’s (which was punctuated with photographs and biographical notes about her work) and the permanent exhibit in the next room which covered all the Pueblos with examples of their works from about 600 to the present is presented in large glass cases set against the walls of the room, leaving the center open. It gives you a sense, not only of space, but of being surrounded by art. The pottery is so incredibly beautiful and so intricately designed. Even the faded designs of the earliest pots are breathtaking and even more impressive, after you see the tools they used, including sticks for paint brushes.

The exhibit that was most moving, however, is another permanent exhibit called Here, Now and Always. The entrance is through sloping tunnel with the sound of a river rushing past and opens into a maze of exhibits that takes you from the Ancestors to modern Pueblo life. In between you are introduced to varied ways of life, art, languge and song over the centuries. With every exhibit are plaques with stories, remembrances, or bits of wisdom from the elders. There are audios of language and music and videos of interviews with pueblo elders.

If you are planning on visiting any of the Pueblos or if you are visiting the museums on Camino Lejo, don’t pass up a chance to visit this one. It really is worth the time.

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by Peregrine on March 30, 2002

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
710 Camino Lejo Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
+1 505 982 4636; +1

Santuario De Chimayo

Attraction | "El Santuario de Chimayo"

The Santuario is a beautiful old adobe church (built in 1816) and one of the most recognizable landmarks in New Mexico, thanks to hundreds of paintings and photographs of its exterior. It is also one of the most revered and has acquired the nickname "Lourdes of New Mexico".

We were here a week before Easter and the roadsides were already crowded with people making the annual pilgrimage to El Santuario. Some walked alone, some in groups, some carried crosses, others swigged long-neck beers. Now and again, we spotted a pair of porta-potties along the roadside. By Good Friday, the trickle of pilgrims walking from Santa Fe and Española would swell to thousands making their way to Chimayo.

It is a small church and the inside has heavy, carved vigas supporting the ceiling, carved pews, a beautifully painted alter screen, and retablos throughout the church. We were there during Mass, and the church was filled to capacity and then some as pilgrims crowded the courtyard outside the main doors.

The focus of the annual pilgrimage is the healing powers that comes from dirt taken from a small hole in the ground behind the alter. Early in the 19th century a local friar saw light burst from a hillside wherein was found a crucifix. Each time the crucifix was taken to a nearby church, it reappeared in the hole where it was found. Eventually, the friar caught on and the crucifix remains Chimayo, but it is the dirt from the pit where the cross was found, that seems to have the powers to heal, as is evidenced by the room near the alter filled with crutches no longer needed by their owners.

The church is well worth a detour off the main highway. Chimayo is one of the little towns on the High Road to Taos (think The Milagro Beanfield War which was filmed a bit further north in Truchas). Once you turn off Hwy 285, the road winds its way through the cottonwoods, giving up glimpses of adobe houses along the way. Then you turn a corner, come out of the trees, and the whole world is spread before you. This is the New Mexico landscape I just adore. Red earth, sculpted by the wind of eons, hills blending in series until they disappear on the horizon dotted with the dark green of juniper and piñon.

There is a small gift shop outside the church and a taco and burger place, though I’d recommend going down the street to Rancho de Chimayo for a meal.

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by Peregrine on March 26, 2002

Santuario De Chimayo
Chimayo Santa Fe, New Mexico

Tesuque Market

Attraction

The center of town. One stop sign, three roads leading north, south, and south (again) with a triangle of dirt in the middle barely big enough to hold the stop sign. Off to one side is a rambling building sporting a sign that says Tesuque Market and Restaurant. There’s a porch with picnic tables on it (that’s the restaurant), a few cars (its early yet), and couple of locals coming in for the morning paper. Hard to believe you're only a couple of miles from the Santa Fe Plaza.

Several friends recommended I stop here and pick up a few picnic goodies for the day’s rambles north. From the Plaza, we followed Washington Avenue north until it became Bishop’s Lodge Road. A couple of miles out it takes a dip and becomes a winding, twisting road with hairpin turns and blind corners and, to add excitement, its barely two-lanes wide with no center stripe. Its also one of the prettiest drives in the area, tucked in amid the cottonwoods, which now and again part long enough to afford you a glimpse of everything from run down shacks to monumental adobe homes.

Inside the Market it is cramped and crowded with shelves and cases and people. There’s a deli case with delectible looking salads, meats, cheese, and cheesecake slices big enough to satisfy the Jolly Green Giant. A rack of locally baked bread that smelled like Heaven. In the back is another small room, also part of the restaurant. To the right, the building rambles off and is filled, surprise, surprise, with an extensive selection of wines, many of them local – yes New Mexico has quite a few wineries and some have excellent wines. Beyond that, another room with coolers for cheese, sodas, butter, etc. shelves of canned goods, etc. Didn’t take us long to put together a lunch and head out on the road north.

It might not have been crowded when we were there, but a few hours later, after lunch, we came back through this way and the place was packed.

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by Peregrine on March 26, 2002

Tesuque Market
Us Highway 85 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 995-8626

Drive the Back Road - The Turquoise Trail

Story/Tip

This is the back road from Santa Fe to Albuquerque and also goes under the name of North 14. The two-lane highway swings and curves around and through the Ortiz Mountains east of I-25 and is a gorgeous drive. I was up there in late July and bright yellow daisies lined the road as far as the eye could see. In spring and fall, the fields are covered in wildflowers and the views to the west are spectacular any time of year. There are three ex-ghost towns along the way. The first as you head south is Cerrillos. This tiny village with its pretty church under the cottonwood grove will be familiar to anyone who saw Young Guns.

Madrid is a bit further south. Revitalized in the 70s, the town has gone from ghost town to arts and crafts center with dozens of small shops, studios and galleries displaying mostly beautiful homemade items. Once a company town for the coal mines, Madrid was celebrated for its elaborate Christmas lights. So much so that the airlines diverted their flights out of Albuquerque to fly over the town. (For more information, see my journal entry on Madrid.)

The third former ghost town is Golden. Over the past few years the old adobe church on the hill has been repaired, whitewashed, and fenced off to keep out the tourists and the general store has had a face lift, but in all the years I’ve driven through Golden, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone in the town.

Whether or not you stop in these little towns, taking the Turquoise Trail is certainly an aesthetic improvement over the freeway.

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