From the sculpture gardenNo bugs here – no flies, ailment
no mosquitos – it’s too high and too dry.  The weather is warm in the day – 20 degrees and cooler at night.  You need to carry water because you get dehydrated easily.   We visited a sculpture garden and some contemporary galleries.  Like contemporary art everywhere it’s not always easy to understand what was in the artist’s mind.  We also went to a farmer’s market with local products like green chili mustard.

Sculpture garden

Our local guide told us that New Mexico is one of the poorest states – mostly agrarian but Sante Fe is quite wealthy.  You don’t see much poverty here. Several very expensive stores.

Yesterday we visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and learned a lot about the history of Natives here.  The Pueblo Indians were here first and were agrarian.  Later Athabaska Indians from Canada came – they are called Apache and Navajo here and Dene in Canada.  They were nomadic.  The art was interesting.  Woven bowls and any other art had to have a way for the spirit to escape so there is always a break in the line or an additional line for the spirit to leave.

Our art tour is over.  Today we walked down Canyon road which must have 100 galleries in a mile or so road.  We went into 30 at least, link
mostly contemporary, before going to a tea house and resting.  Tomorrow we’ll visit the Railyard district again and go into the many galleries there.

Inn on the Alameda

We arrived Wednesday without luggage because of a delay in our plane leaving Vancouver and a short time to get to our next flight in Sante Fe.  We arrived at the hotel at 9:30 pm.  All the restaurants were closing and we hadn’t eaten since having lunch in Vancouver at 11:30.  The very nice bartender at the Inn on Alameda gave us all the cheese and bread left over from the wine and cheese and two big glasses of wine on the house and carried it to our rooms for us.

Stores on one of the main streets

Our clothes arrived late afternoon on Thursday but of course we had done some shopping Thursday morning.  We walked a lot and I found out later why I was puffing, seek other than being out of shape.  We are 7, information pills 000 feet above sea level and the air is very dry, viagra order so dry that you feel like you need to drink water all the time.

All the buildings here are shorter than five stories and all brown or beige (mandated).  We learned a lot about the history yesterday.  Sante Fe is the second oldest town in the US.  (The oldest is in Florida).  I was founded by the Spaniards the same time that Quebec City was founded by the French and Richmond, Virginia by the British in 1607.  Spain brought in some French priests from a nearby Mission who then went about building a French looking catholic church. A palace of the governors was built by the Indians in their style with adobe bricks and it still exists today as a museum but it housed the government for hundreds of years with some breaks.  After ruling about 80 years the Pueblo Indians who now had horses were able to travel and communicate with the nomadic tribes because they all now spoke Spanish got together and 4,000 of them stormed the palace and drove out the Spanish.  They killed 23 priests and about 400 people, lived in the palace, and ruled for 13 years till the Spanish came back and made a deal.  They would no longer have to give up their own religions they could follow both.  The Mexicans won a war with the Spanish later and then America fought Mexico for New Mexico.  New Mexico didn’t become a state till the late 1940’s, one of the last three.

The Museum of New Mexico Art

We’re here on an art tour – about 9 of us.  Other than my cousin and I the rest are from Toronto, some affiliated with the Ontario College of Art and Design, having been students there.  We went to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum today and the Museum of New Mexico Art.  Many of the painters fell in love with the landscape and the colours, forsaking the big cities of New York and Chicago.  The weather is very clear, clear blue sky and warm in the day and cold at night – desert weather.

View from window at Pasquale’s

We’ve had some great food too.  Yesterday, at Pasquales Restaurant, I had a BLT with homemade cornbread, chili infused bacon and green chili mixed with the mayonnaise, along with a kale salad with lemon dressing.  For dinner I had lamb and a delicious spinach pastry.  Today for lunch I had something like pulled pork with a burrito and some beans, similar to Mexican food, but a little bit different.  It had too much sauce over everything for me.

Tomorrow it’s contemporary art.

I went to Cuba in November and stayed in an all inclusive – Iberostar Varadero – not my favourite way to travel but it was a relaxing week, with my husband, with whom I don’t travel much.  The resort is great – food not so good – “communist industrial” as a friend called it.  We had a lovely tme with a driver and guide going to Havana in a 1957 cherry red Chevy BelAir.  The guide taught English at a university and makes very little money.  The driver had a degree in mechanical engineering and his wife was a doctor but he still had to drive a taxi to make money.  The people are its greatest asset – very friendly and helpful.

I arrived in Paris on Saturday  evening and am staying near the St. Lazare train station on Haussman Boulevard.  I walked around yesterday but it was very cold. The news is about a cold front in Europe and snow – didn’t have that but it was very chilly. I also missed the time change which was a bit confusing but as I was walking along I saw people lined up for a movie, buy Skyfall, the new James Bond one, so I did too and got to see a movie at 10:30 in the morning,  I thought it was terrific but I haven’t seen a movie in over two weeks.  And French movie theatres are so comfortable – large well-padded seats.

I continued walking for the rest of the day – Paris is a great walking city and I saw areas I hadn’t before and some I have.

Later today I’ll be meeting friends and going to Normandy tomorow.  I won’t be posting again till I get home.

I had to add this – It’s Monday and I went out to Galleries Lafayette, a high end department store with all the fancy designers, near my hotel.  I had a cappucino and contemplated the opulence and the difference between the simplicity of the Camino and the demand for luxury items.