Wednesday 29 July 2015

In which Roz and Layla explore otherworldly landscapes and drink sour beer in Santa Fe

by Layla

After dashing in a mad panic to make our tight connection to Santa Fe, our second plane was delayed and yet again we spent more time than desirable in an airport, but eventually we were off and before long driving through scrubby desert and distinctive abode buildings to our little downtown apartment. And then immediately to Fire and Hops, the bar that was to become our Santa Fe local. We indulged in ‘salt and vinegar potatoes’ and sour beers, before Roz marched me along the side of a motorway in the blazing sun to a supermarket to stock up our little house – it seems that when one is holidaying for 37 days, a bit of self catering is appropriate, alas.

Then, chores done, we walked over to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. She lived near Santa Fe for many years and was partly responsible for igniting the huge artist community in the town. It was fun to see a lot of her work in one place – and even more fun to see jolly photos of her hopping on to motorbikes and the like. After museum-ing, we walked down to a Hispanic art market/show, and then to the Haagen Dazs shop… That evening we strolled around the cool Railyard area (and sampled another beer place), then went to a cool little arthouse cinema that’s owned by the Game of Thrones creator. We loved the idea that this guy created a venue to show whatever films he felt like, and bring sci fi authors to talk at. We saw Pixel which was fun and silly. And luckily missed the deluge of rain while doing so.

The next day we were picked up by Walkabouts tour company and driven into the countryside. Our destination: Tsankawe. The landscapes around Santa Fe are like nowhere I’ve ever seen before. Volcanic activity over the millennia have created these crazy red layered cliffs and caves presiding over the desert landscape. The area we were visiting was once home to a tribe, before the Spanish invasion, and our hike involved both admiring the amazing views and also looking at wall carvings, ruins of homes and ‘kivas’ (ceremonial holes in the ground), and the like. Very cool. On the way home we drove through Los Alamos, where I saw all the sights mentioned in Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes and sadly didn’t get to go to the science museum  (since it was closed) which would have been very interesting, given Los Alamos is the site of the Manhattan Project. We drove home through a ‘pueblo’, ie a little village where the tribes from Tsankawe and other mountains moved due to drought, and now live. Afterwards we went for New Mexican food at a famous restaurant, El Pasquale CafĂ©, which was lovely, then walked to the also famous Canyon Road, a long road that is filled on either side with art galleries. It was really quite fun to see so many art galleries compressed into one area, and we popped into several and mused upon what we would buy if we were richer. That evening, after Roz cooked dinner for us on a wildly inadequate hot plate, it was off to the cinema again, this time to see Mr Holmes in a less charming but better air-conditioned multiplex. And then a sour beer.

Our final full day in Santa Fe and we had again engaged the services of Walkabouts. This time our destination was Tent Rocks. We didn’t really know what to expect but it wasn’t what we found. Tent Rocks has the feel of being a wonder of the world, and it is incredible that we had never even heard of this crazy geological site. Over the years, various volcanic eruptions and erosions have created these huge, layered, sort of upside down rounded conical structures. Walking through them, as we did, it felt like we had been shrunk and were wandering around the wares of a pottery shop. We squeezed through the little gaps between them, and then finally popped out and ascended up a small mountain from which we got to see the structures from above. It felt like a prehistoric person, or an alien, would greet us at every turn. A brilliant adventure. We spent the afternoon doing various chores and rewarded ourselves with particularly sour beers before delightfully meeting up with one of our DC friends, Amy, who happened to be in Santa Fe that day. She drove us over to her friends’ lovely house where we ate home-made guacamole and got a tour round an artist’s studio, then it was back into town for an excellent dinner at Maria’s.


This morning we woke up to good news and bad news. Good news: we have exchanged on our Brixton apartment! Bad news: our flight to Denver, which had necessitated an alarm clock setting of 5:45, was delayed by three hours! I write this from the tiny Santa Fe airport, feeling excited and scared about our apartment progress… and very much ready to be in our next destination, Boulder, Colorado.

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