In Santa Fe

In the zone; Santa Fe's just ahead..the Sangre de Christo mtns are on the horizon.

Casa Escondida, Chimayo, New Mexico.  7/10/14:   The mountains rose before I noticed.  Suddenly, there they were, dark silhouettes on the horizon..just rising above the grassy plateau.  Easterners think the deserts are low country, but they're not.  The wide pasture you see there is more than six-thousand feet above sea level, so it takes your breath away more than once.

I was in Tucumcari, NM last night..only a couple hundred miles from Santa Fe..so an early start got me into the old city just as its day was starting.  The vendors were at their (designated) spots 

under the portico of the Governor's Palace.
These Native American artists keep those places like newspaper sellers keep their corners in New York City.  I swear I have seen the same faces in the same spots as often as I've come here.  

They're selling pretty good stuff.  Most of it is hand-made jewelry, largely silver.  Tourists stroll the line, picking this or that as they go along; the vendors go out of their way to see that buyers get just the right thing and know where it came from.

It's part of Santa Fe. 

I spent part of my time shopping..as you do here..but another part in the New Mexico Museum of History, which is right behind the building where the vendors show their wares.  Santa Fe has been here a long, long time, and has been central to the economics and the culture of this region since the days of Spanish Colonialism.  It became a real player when the Santa Fe trail was established--linking it to the Missouri territory and Kansas City.  Wagon loads arrived or departed from the city square, travelers first set foot there after a nearly two month haul, cattle drives started or ended there.. herds were pulled together..noisy, dusty, crowded; "head 'em up, move 'em out."  

Today, the square is more genteel.

As you can see, benches with shade come at a premium.  Mine did not have shade, but I managed to linger there anyway..as did the gent sitting under the tree on the right.

Which brings us to lunch.

Pasqual's was the only choice.  Popular with the "Ladies Who Lunch," of course,

it is also popular with me.  Pasqual's serves only the best organic dishes and I have never walked in when there was a readily available table.  That's alright, we wait.  My patience was rewarded with a delicious Smoked Trout Hash..crumbled trout on a bed of potatoes, topped with two poached eggs and a side cup of pesto to spread however you please.  And I did.  It was 
lovely.

Seeya on the square sometime.

Tomorrow, I plan to be up early with the landscape camera and head for Taos, Kit Carson country.  They've got some neat things up there, too.  

Adios, Muchachos..

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7/10/2014