Fun, food, fireworks, rocks, river and bombs

We’ve had Santa Fe booked since January as its one place that we’ve wanted to visit for some time. It was founded in 1610 and is the oldest capital city in the US and the oldest city in New Mexico. Sante Fe is also known as a ‘food lover’s paradise’ with over 400 restaurants and it didn’t disappoint. Mark has already commented on the types of chile and the food so I won’t go into it again. Suffice to say we had a great week and now it’s time to let our digestive systems get back to normality.

We did visit other places during the week, not just restaurants. We drove down to Albuquerque via the Turquoise Trail, a scenic byway that carves its way through picturesque rocks and juniper dotted hills, named for the rich turquoise deposits found in the area. We stopped in Madrid for coffee and cake, which was also where one of my favourite movies “Wild Hogs” was filmed. Maggie's Diner was built for the movie and is now a shop that sells memorabilia

Sandia Crest was a short detour off the trail, and at 10,700 feet, the views across the plain to Albuquerque were something to see

We also picked up Route 66 along the way

On July 4^th, there was a vintage car show around Santa Fe’s main plaza, bands playing in the plaza itself and lots of other stuff going on. The fireworks in the evening were really great and lasted for quite a while. The only drawback was that we had to stay so far back we didn’t get the reverberation in the chest when the really big ones went off. Still, it was nice of the city to do so much for me on my birthday J

San Miguel Church is the oldest church structure and was built c. 1610.

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi is just off the main plaza and was built between 1869 and 1886 (as you can see, the Spanish were busy!).

One day we visited Bandelier National monument which covers over 33,500 acres and preserves the homes and territory of the ancestral Puebloans. Most of the structures date from 1150 to 1600.

On the way back, we visited Los Alamos and learned more about the Manhattan Project and the first atomic bombs. The town was created to design the first nuclear weapons in 1943 and was known as ‘the town that never was’. It was under so much secrecy that all the scientists and their families as well as the military personnel lived at PO Box 1663, Santa Fe. Even the birth certificates of that time showed the PO box 1663 as their place of birth! All information about the town of Los Alamos was highly classified until the bombing of Hiroshima. 

We visited Taos Pueblo which is in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande and is still occupied by the Red Willow people. Little has changed over the last 1,000 years and about 150 families still live in the ancient structures within the walls which have no electricity of plumbing. The homes are passed down from generation to generation to keep maintained.

On the way back from Taos, we crossed the Rio Grande gorge

We also had our 25^th wedding anniversary while we were in Santa Fe. We wanted to do something different so we went white water rafting on the Rio Grande. It was such a great day but really tiring – having fun is exhausting! We were lucky that it had rained so much over the previous couple of days (late afternoon thunderstorms most days) that the river was flowing really well. At one point, I completely disappeared under the waves – at least we all stayed in the raft. Photos will be posted at a later date.

We bid farewell to Santa Fe and New Mexico and now are in a small town called Del Norte in Colorado. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The largest dune is over 750 feet (230m) and should be something to see. I don’t think I’m up to sledding down it though!