SFNM

Oh Santa Fe. You could be a great city, I’m sure. As it is, you are pretty lame. My trip to Santa Fe was okay, but it was despite many of the draw backs in Santa Fe, not because it is a great city. It is one of the oldest cities in the entire United States. It was settled before the Jamestown colony of the east. So, there is a ton of history in this town, but it is displayed and demonstrated poorly.

It is clear that Santa Fe’s main goal is to sell tourist anything they can at any price that they can. Everything in that city is monstrously over-priced. If it doesn’t cost $200 dollars, then it is a $5 piece of crap I wouldn’t pay a penny for. And it is all the same. There are hundreds (no exaggeration) of shops in Santa Fe and you can see everything that is available for sale in the first five: pueblo art, jewelry, contemporary Santa Fe art, and souvenirs. That is about it. Since I am not into that style of decoration or art, I get bored and can barely see the difference between one thing and the other.

The food is very similar. It is all New Mexican food. Some of the restaurants do different things with different dishes, but 97% of the restaurants primarily serve New Mexican food. I have a very weak stomach and in my old age I get sick at the slightest bit of a hot pepper, so the fact that 97% of the food is covered in or filled with green or red chile wears me out. We did find some pretty good restaurants while we were there, but it was a bit of a struggle because of my tummy.

The hotels are a different story. Although they are hellish expensive, they are very very nice and each one is very unique. Remember though, almost every building in Santa Fe is Pueblo style pink stucco even the majority McDonalds or Applebees are in this style. Of the three hotels I have now stayed in, in Santa Fe, all of the people were incredibly friendly and these last two had many things that I loved.

The first hotel, The Inn of the Governors had a little nook right outside the door that was like your own private patio complete with ivy covered walls and beautiful flowers to behold. It was very serene and pretty. Across the street there was a restaurant or bar that had live music and it was at just the right volume to enjoy but not be annoying.

The second hotel, La Posada, was just lovely. It is an old house that has been converted and they have added several other non-conjoined buildings to make it like a little resort. Others had their own little building/suite and we stayed in a room in the main house, which was fine because it was an adorable suite. It was the Julia Staab Suite. She was the bride the house was originally built for. Her portrait was hanging in the bedroom. The whole suite was this beautiful Victorian style and felt very luxurious.

The culture there is a mix of non-showering hippies who play music for money and high end tourist. Some of the tourists clearly are long term guests and some are just visitors. It seems like they all try desperately to immerse themselves in the Santa Fe culture and sport leather, fur, and turquoise jewelry from head to toe. If those were white native s dressed like that then Santa Fe is lamer than I thought. Didn’t that whole, move to Santa Fe, learn the way of the Pueblo, and paint New Mexican landscapes trend go out in the 70’s? I thought so, but there are many really holding on to that. I can’t believe that many people can afford it. I did hear that Santa Fe is a big celebrity haven, but surely they all can’t be the ones who are buying the $1200 native American statues and $400 fur hats. I don’t see them in people’s homes and heads outside of New Mexico, so I’m very confused.

Driving up to Taos: Taos is just Santa Fe junior. All the negative things I said about Santa Fe just shrink the size and amount and it is the same. The consignment shop there was even full of over-priced junk. The restaurant where we had lunch, Michael’s Kitchen was not very nice at all. The service was lousy the atmosphere was terrible, and the food was not good. Hopefully we just made a bad choice and Taos has some good restaurants.

The highlight of the visit was the Rio Grande Gorge. It was huge and deep and very pretty. The drive there and back was beautiful, especially the drive back. The mountains and area was much more forresty and smelled very nice. The sun was setting on the way back, so I took some really amazing pictures.
Santa Fe would be my last pick of some place I would like to go to on my own for a vacation, it is really not my scene at all.