Notes on Santa Fe, NM
2/21/2000

What to expect... what not to.

Santa Fe is not a quaint New Mexico town. Its a fairly large town, spread out, but with an intense concentration of tourists in one part called 'the Plaza'... all looking to 'soak in' the alleged 'southwestern vibe' and the 'local art community'. To say that Santa Fe has either of these traits couldn't be farther from the truth.

Ok, i'll try not to be so bitter. I think our problem was that we came down looking for just that- and we were disappointed.

Sure, we found a cozy, romantic B&B to stay in, and there is definitely alot of Southwestern flare in the architecture, but it ends there. Santa Fe has been over-run with commercialism. The plaza, the heart of the city, is a sterile tourist center, surrounded be jewelry shops that carry all the same silver/tourquoise bracelets and necklaces, alternated with galleries that carry overpriced art. The only true 'locals', the american indians who grew up there, have been relegated to a sidewalk to sell their wares, because they cannot possibly afford the expensive storefront real estate.

It wasn't until we got out of the city center that we actually felt like we were in New Mexico.

We arrived on Saturday, after a long 5 hour drive from Denver, and we immediately took a quick walking tour of the plaza- our first mistake. Needless to say, our tour only lasted a few minutes, before we turned back disgusted.

On saturday night, we made a reservation at one of the 'recommended' restaurants only to find that they served the same Mexican food that we might've found in Denver... mistake #2.

It was not until Sunday when we explored the outlying regions - Los Alamos & Bandelier that we found anything cool. Los Alamos is of course the birthplace of the Atomic bomb, and Bandelier Nat Monument has some 400 year old Anasazi ruins - both of these spots I would highly recommend for the first time visitor. On the way back we explored an open air market- full of... guatemalan & african imports? Hello? What's with that?

All in all, the place felt like a shi-shi drop out town, where the lifestyles of the rich and famous have bought up all of the prime real estate from the 'locals' to build their 3 story adobe homes. 2nd and 3rd homes if I was to guess.

So if you are planning a trip down there to get away from it all... skip it. Unless of course you can't live without McDonalds and J Crew, or you have a few 'grand' to blow on some P.O.S. art piece.

Do I have anything good to say about the place? The Georgia O'Keefe museum was nice. Small, but I like her style.

Another point of note: nothing in NM is well marked, and even the locals don't know where anything is, so you'll be better off sticking to a good guide book and a map to get you around.