On Saturday we all went to Santa Fe for breakfast at a restaurant that had both American and Mexican selections, we all ate Mexican and it was very good. Afterwards Millie and I went touristing in downtown Santa Fe.
Santa Fe is a city but you would never know it. Most of it is only one or two story’s high and all of it is southwestern styled, mostly adobe. There are no high-rises, there may be a couple 3 story buildings, hospitals or hotels, but again they are adobe styled. They are very protective of their mud hut architecture, I haven’t seen it yet but Millie says the Wal-Mart is adobe style.
Now who would want their city to look like something out of time, this is my segway to the eclectic and sometimes eccentric population. In addition to Native Americans and Mexicans Santee Fe is home to a large artist colony, vacation home to celebrities of all genres, street musicians, scientists, and judging by the real estate prices, lots of the wealthy class. It is also a destination city and is teeming with tourists of every nationality.
This adds up to quite a stew pot of people.
Again I will say, when in a new city, take a guided tour, there is no better way to see and learn about a place, all in a few hours. Our tour guide’s grandparents emigrated to Santa Fe in the 1920’s; he spent his summers there when growing up and now lives in a nearby town. He was a wealth of historical information and also entertaining, two hallmarks of a successful tour guide.
After the tour we walked around the town center and besides the afore mentioned variety of people, the shops are like nothing you will find in most tourist towns. While there are gift shops that sell foreign made knock offs of Native American and Mexican cultural stuff, there are many shops selling locally made art, jewelry, and gifts. You can buy a bag full of Chinese made Santa Fe souvenirs for $9.50 and two doors down be in a gallery looking at a one of a kind bronze statue for a mere $95,000 plus tax.
Disclaimer: The above is my (Larry) views and based on my first visit to Santa Fe. Millie has more experience here and I will leave it to her to add to, correct, or rebuke my words if she wishes.
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