A week long travel conference for the North American Travel Association brought me to New Mexico for the first time in 10 years. The population is under two million but is the fifth largest state in area. I had convinced former talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael to be the keynote speaker so she, her husband Karl and yours truly spent seven days traveling to Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque. Sally is a member of NATJA (www.natja.org ) and has written three articles for their online magazine Travel World International (www.travelworldmagazine.com ). Currently she is hosting the first world-wide internet talk show.
It was less expensive to rent a car for a day after landing in Albuquerque (with free drop-off in Santa Fe, a 1 ¼ hour drive) than pay for three people on the shuttle bus ($20 vs. $60); thank you Avis. Southwest Airlines supplied all the writers attending the conference with “green tickets.” Sally’s TV show has been off the air for over two years yet people in the airport and aboard the flight came up to talk to her and ask for advice.
The conference headquarters and our home for four nights was the Eldorado Hotel, with 203 rooms and suites the largest in town, and a few blocks from Santa Fe’s main square. The staff was friendly and very helpful and the hotel had everything one would want for a vacation stay. The Old House Restaurant located in the lobby was Zagat’s top choice in town, a Mobil 4 Star and AAA 4 Diamond restaurant. You will not hear a positive review from me or anyone in my party. Average food, understaffed and expensive; enough said. Try Coyote Café, Dinner For Two, Los Mayas, The Compound or La Plazuela. Please remember you are 7,000 feet above sea level, so drink lots of water and take it easy for the first few days. Santa Fe’s population is 65,000 and 150,000 for the metro area.
A bit of history-
1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado leads the first Spanish exploration to New Mexico
1610 Santa Fe is established as the first capitol of New Mexico
1821 Spanish rule ends, New Mexico becomes part of Mexico and the Santa Fe trail opens
1846 the US claims New Mexico
1912 New Mexico becomes the 47th state.
There are eight sovereign Indian Pueblos near town with Indian artists and craftspeople selling their original wares. The descendents of the original Spanish settlers are continuing to maintain their Hispanic culture.
Must See- This is a walking city, so get out your map and go first to the Plaza established in 1610 and the heart of the city. Certified Native American vendors sell their handicrafts next to The Palace of the Governor built in 1610 and the oldest public building in the US. Continue to St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral with its Romanesque architecture and 375 year old statue of the Virgin. Stop and rest at the Cathedral Park next door. The Loreto Chapel is home to the “miraculous” staircase (no visible supports) built in 1878. Skip the Oldest House as St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US with Santa Fe number two. The circa 1610 Barrio de Analco is America’s oldest neighborhood. Santa Fe means “Holy Faith” in Spanish and is the oldest capitol city in the US. Be sure to see the extensive art collection throughout the capitol building and then walk to Canyon Road and its art galleries galore. Not to be missed is New Mexico’s most famous artist with her very own Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The Museum of Fine Arts emphasizes artists working in the southwest.
Half Day in Taos– Early on Sunday we drove two hours following the Sangre de Cristo mountain route through Espanola and San Juan Pueblo. We stopped briefly at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, (8 miles outside Taos whose population is 6,300) a breathtaking drop of 650 feet where the river cuts a narrow slice in the earth. Hold on to the railings as this is the second highest suspension bridge in the US and I am told the #1 suicide site in the southwest. We had a short stop at the Taos-Tiwi Pueblo and its adobe houses. The town is designed around a plaza, the site of the original settlement, and the perfect place to have lunch and park the car. We then set out on a two hour self-guided walking and shopping tour. The historic district has over 65 galleries, 5 museums, shops and restaurants. On returning to Santa Fe we chose the low road through Chimayo, famous for its weavers. Since it was Sunday all the shops were closed. The Santuario de Chimayo is called the “Lourdes of the Southwest” for its “miraculous dirt” found in the 19th century chapel.
On The Way to Albuquerque– We ventured off the freeway and into the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway linking Santa Fe and Albuquerque (60 miles) stopping at the old mining towns of Cerrillos, Madrid, Golden and Sandia Park. Our lunch was at the Mine Shaft Tavern, one of the last great roadhouses where the bartender looks like he stepped out of a John Wayne movie. When Madrid’s last coal company closed, the town of 4,000 overnight became a “ghost town” of thirteen. The Tavern was purchased from the coal company and restored in 1982. The Old Coal Mine Museum next door preserves mining and railroading relics as well as vintage vehicles. One man’s junk is another’s treasure. Our last stop was the Tinkertown Museum in Sandia Park. It is a living memorial to the late Ross Ward and his 40 years of carvings and collecting. Over 50,000 glass bottles surround a 22 room museum. His miniature wood-carved figures are interspersed with wagon wheels, old fashioned store fronts and wacky western memorabilia making this a must see as any description would be useless.
Albuquerque– ¾ million population call this home (remember there are only 2 million in the whole state). 2006 will be the 300th anniversary of Albuquerque’s founding. Our home for three nights was the Nativo Lodge, 10 minutes outside the city center. The building was being renovated, so the fitness center and pool were closed and scaffolding and construction materials were everywhere. Despite some minor glitches, like the room keys not working, the staff did their best to accommodate us.
Must See– This is not a walking city except for Old Town with its shops, galleries and museums. Within Old Town walk to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science; the National Atomic Museum where I read the history of the development of the Atom Bomb; Albuquerque Museum of Art & History and my favorite, the American International Rattlesnake Museum, the largest in the world. We rode the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway (world’s largest aerial tramway built 40 years ago) for dinner at High Finance restaurant over 10,350 feet above the city. One glass of wine and I needed oxygen (no joke) to recover. The next day our group visited the National Hispanic Cultural Center and its adjacent Roy Disney Center for Performing Arts as well as the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center where the 19 Pueblos displayed their weavings, pottery and jewelry. Speaking of jewelry we also spent some time at the Turquoise Museum to listen, learn, tour and buy. For our last day it was early to rise for ballooning with The Rainbow Ryders, a very “uplifting” experience.Then to the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum opening in October 2005 in time for the International Balloon Festival, the largest in the world. This nine day festival takes place the first week in October with over 700 balloons in flight. The temperature was well over 90 degrees so our visit to the Petroglyph National Monument was cut short. We did listen to the park rangers explain that there are 17,000 ancient Indian Petroglyphs carved into the rocks. I am afraid we did not do justice to the Albuquerque Biopark and its three venues: Zoo, Aquarium and Botanical Gardens. Since two were outside our melting bodies thought about diving into the pool at the Aquarium but the sharks dissuaded that idea. We drove along Historic Route 66 that weaves its way through town and stopped at the Nob Hill area, home to restaurants and boutiques.
Real Travel Adventures 