Fodor's Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos

I used Fodor's Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos on my recent trip to New Mexico. I favor the Fodor's series because their "Fodor's Choices" always meet my expectations and their star system helps me decide what to see when I have little time. From this book I discovered the Turquoise Trail, which in turn led me to Madrid, NM, a delightful hamlet with several good shops with reasonable prices. The sidebar essays are quick reads that offer good inside information on the area.

Canyon Road, New Mexico

Funky, yet traditional Canyon Road is home to dozens of art galleries and shops with lots of Native American jewelry, cowboy clothes and ceramics. There's so much that's beautiful, but everything I saw was pricy. I've gotten accustomed to buying crafts in Asia and I can get something lovely for $40 so it's hard to buy something comparable here for $200. Yet I realize the artists here need to earn more to support themselves. At the same time, if supporting oneself means living a block away from Canyon Road where I parked and saw a tiny house on the market for $750K well, I'm not as sympathetic any more.



Still it's fun to browse the shops, though I wish I could take some photos. I don't because it'd be rude and the owners would probably get miffed as the clerk did when I got the cowboy boots shot last week, but that I couldn't resist. It was one of those Dorothy Day, "I prefer to ask forgiveness, than ask permission" moments.

Old Town, Santa Fe

Sunday I arrived in Albuquerque, rented a car and drove up Hwy 25 to Santa Fe. I wandered about the plaza checking out art galleries and jewelry shops. I love the adobe architecture. I imagined that the houses would use something different, that they'd have abandoned tradition, but they haven't.

Around the plaza there's three churches with beautiful architecture and art. St. Francis Cathedral Basilica and San Miguel, the oldest church continually in use in the US are open and free to enter. The Loretto Chapel isn't. It's been bought by a businessman who charges three dollars a head to go into the small chapel. The claim to fame is an unsupported spiral staircase, which is cool, but since it takes about 5 - 10 minutes to see the chapel, I'd say its something of a tourist trap.

One tip: You don't have to feed the meters on Sunday. So find a metered parking space. No reason to pay for parking.