Today was a change of focus for us: no
nature, no landscape rugged or lovely, but a day of enjoying the
architecture and arts of Santa Fe. We came unprepared, Santa Fe a
station on our way. Much can be said for having some knowledge of a
place, knowing which buildings, which areas, to seek out for their
historic interest or beauty, but sometimes the best way to meet a new
place is to be ready for anything. This is what happened to us in
regards to Santa Fe. All I knew was that I wanted to visit the
Georgia O'Keeffe museum; having seen an exhibit of her art in
Vancouver several years ago I was curious what more I could find out.
I had liked her art with the bold colours and interesting close-ups
and perspectives then and hoped to find that confirmed and broadened
now.
Our hotel is about 5 or 6 km from the
centre right on Hwy 14 where we travelled yesterday, and armed with a
city map we drove right to the centre of Santa Fe and found a
parkade. I was surprised how easy it was to walk there; obviously it
hadn't quite sunk in before that this is an old town, not planned on
a grid like more modern ones, and despite the wide streets leading
there it is still a relatively small city with a population of about
70,000. We were equally unprepared for the wonderful architecture, so
different from any other city we had seen so far, at least here in
north America. The adobe buildings in their warm desert colours spoke
to me right away, and the laid-back atmosphere made it a pleasure to
walk and look at houses, churches, shop windows, and anything else
we encountered on our way.
We split ways for the beginning of the
day: I wanted to visit the museum while Johann, not interested in
Georgia O'Keeffe, was headed for the visitor centre to gather some
information about Santa Fe, the surrounding area and any pueblos we
might find in the vicinity.
I learned a lot about the artist, not
only from her paintings but also from a video where she talked about
her life and art. I think part of the reason why her art speaks to me
is because I, like her, love this landscape that has, holds, emits so
much light.
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| I took only these two photos from the entrances from a distance |
I rejoined Johann, and he was very
eager to show me something quite extraordinary he'd seen earlier. He
led me into a yard – open, unattended – with an amazing
collection of old, elaborate doors, marble elephant statues, carved
wooden columns and many other items, some secured with chains, others
not at all, a sign asking not to take any photos. From there we
entered a building, again just with a sign not to take photos, but
no-one in attendance, with wooden chests and other antiques –
hundreds, if not thousands of beautiful antiques from different parts
of the world. Whatever could this be? The sign above the door said
'Seret and Sons', and when we rounded the corner and finally found a
'real' entrance we were treated to an even more wonderful collection
of furniture, precious stones, and beautiful carpets from
Afghanistan, Persia, south America and other places. It was like
walking into Aladdin's cave. Check out their website: it is worth
looking at!
Next we visited the state capitol, an
impressive, lavishly outfitted building – the only round state
capitol in the US, informally known as 'the roundhouse' - with its
interior walls of New Mexico Travertine marble and a huge art
collection of artists living and working in New Mexico on display on
all four floors. I would have loved to stay and see much more of it,
but at some point my saturation point for art had been reached, and I
couldn't take in any more.
Johann was quite happy as well to take a
walk through town, have a look at the oldest church structure in the
US, the adobe church of San Miguel, built in 1610, and slowly find
our way back to our car. To my surprise I was more exhausted than
after the hike up Turtleback Mountain.
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| The plaza, another nice space, reminiscent of plazas in South America |
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| The Lensic Performing Arts Centre, first built in 1931 |
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| Burro Alley |
Tomorrow will find us on the road
again, but not for a very long drive: we plan to visit Bandelier
National Monument and spend the night in Espanola, which would only
be half an hour's drive from here without the detour.
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