SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

The state of New Mexico is located in the Southwestern region of the United Sates.  It has been inhabited by Native Americans for many centuries.  It has the highest percentage of Hispanics (45%) and is also the third state with the highest Native American population.

The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe, which was established at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains around 1608.  The largest city is Albuquerque.  One of the largest rivers is Rio Grande, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, near South Padre Island.

During the World War II, the first atomic bombs were designed and manufactured in Los Alamos, near Santa Fe.  The estate population grew rapidly after WWII, going from around 530,000 in 1940 to almost two million today.  The major employment areas are in microelectronics, call centers and Indian casinos.  It is also a leading crude oil and natural gas producer.

My good friend and Masonic brother Tom Ball invited me to visit Santa Fe and I gladly accepted.   Santa Fe is a unique town and there are several determinant facts that confirm this reality.  First of all, the architecture is different.  The original buildings in Santa Fe were made of adobe, an earth color material composed of clay and straw, with round edges and buttresses at the base.  Nowadays, the majority of the buildings have that appearance, although now they are made of concrete but keeping a similar exterior appearance and painted with the same brownish color.  Secondly, there are no high-rises allowed inside the city, and the streets are usually narrow and curved, making the town very picturesque.  And third, the art is just indescribably good, with more than two hundred galleries testifying to that effect.
I have visited many galleries and museums before, but I found that the fine paintings and sculptures in this area surpass any other that I have seen.  It was a feast for the eyes and an uplifting experience that inspired me to try to create better paintings in the future.
We parked our rental car at a shopping area where most of the buildings are galleries. The first one had a colored bronze statue of an Indian girl with a cape that welcomes the visitors outside the entrance.  The delicate design of the beaded moccasins, the intricate folds of the cloth cape and the exact details of the whole sculpture defies description.  It is simply amazing.  After this, my first impression of the quality of art in Santa Fe, the obligatory next step was to walk along Canyon Road, a few blocks filled with art galleries.  I had assumed that the first galleries were the best that I was going to see, but I was in for a big surprise.  It looked that every new gallery surpassed the last one in quality.  I could have spent the whole week visiting all the galleries in Canyon Road, but time was limited.  You need at least one month to really appreciate the magnitude of the exceptional art in Santa Fe.
There is a diversity of fine restaurants in Santa Fe and I found the cuisine distinctively exquisite.
One intriguing visit was to the Loretto Church, which is now closed for worshipping but open for tourists.  The two-floor building holds one of the most puzzling mysteries ever told.  The story goes that the nuns of the church were having difficulties in climbing by ladder to the choir stand, high across the room, facing the altar.  They advertised for a carpenter, but every one that came told them that there was not enough room to build a staircase.  One fateful morning, an old carpenter showed up and explained to them that he could build a spiral stairway.  And so he did.  He made a perfectly symmetrical circular stairway that defies all engineering techniques. I doesn't have a supporting column in the center!  It really looks like a miracle that this tall structure doesn't fall.  The story ends with the disappearance of the carpenter, who never charged the nuns for his marvelous work.
The St. Francis Cathedral which, contrary to Spanish tradition, is not across the central park, was commissioned in the year 1869, but it took more than 15 years to complete.  It is built in the French Romanesque style but it has some inexplicable Moorish windows which makes it more attractive.
The Palace of the Governors, built in 1610, is an adobe structure across the Plaza of Santa Fe, which served as the seat of government in New Mexico for centuries.  It is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United Sates. 
The tallest building in the city is the Hotel La Fonda, which occupies a whole city block and resembles an Indian pueblo. 
After a couple of days in Santa Fe, we went to visit the little town of Taos, but this merits another posting.  We also drove out of town to see the Rio Grande Gorge and the bridge across it. This bridge is a cantilever truss structure. At 650 feet above the river and with a span of 1,280 feet, it is the fifth highest bridge in the United States.  The view of the river down below is breathtaking.  The bridge has appeared in several films including, Natural Born Killers, Twins, Wild Hogs and others.  It has also been the site of several suicides.  We also visited the Moreno Valley, with its placid lake and surrounded by snow-capped mountains.  A narrow, twisting road along the Cimarron River, took us to the very impressive Palisades, with is part of the Cimarron Canyon State Park.
Back in Santa fe, we visited what I concluded was the finest of all the art galleries.  Some galleries have patios with some sculptures, but this one was more than a patio, it was like a park, with a big pond full of fish, turtles and ducks, including a couple of waterfalls.  And with more than forty sculptures of different subjects and sizes. It was really out of this world!
No trip to Santa Fe is complete without eating at the Coyote Cafe.  I found the lunch superb, with generous portions and a reasonable price.  The local amber beer was fine too.  The restaurant is just half a block from the plaza and another typical restaurant, Pascual's, famous for its delicious breakfasts.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip.  The company couldn't be better, the food was extraordinaire, the views were overwhelming and  the accommodations were first class.  But the art was, definitely, the highlight of the four-day trip.  Now I understand why my good friend Tom keeps going back.

You can clip on NEW MEXICO PHOTOS by J. Alvarez to enjoy the views.