Sept 29–Santa Fe

 

We stopped overnight at Pagosa Springs on the 26th.  After dinner we went downtown to check it out.  What we found is that Pagosa Springs rolls the sidewalks up at 5 pm on the dot and the only things open were some of the spring spas.  They were VERY proud of themselves.  I don’t like sitting in hot water $30 worth, especially since the springs are mineral and stinky.  So we weren’t inclined to hang around. 

This is one of the springs beside a sidewalk.  Looks like a mini-volcano.

The next night we were in Santa Fe and the past two days we have explored the plaza of the old town, checked out some museums, and enjoyed the shops.

   

   The Governer’s Palace and old town plaza.  This was built by the Spanish in the mid-1500’s and was the seat of government for the Spanish, Mexicans, the Pueblo Indians during a revolution, the USA, for a period of several months the Confederacy, and then the US again.  In the late 1890’s it was finally replaced by a more modern residence.

 

One of the must-see sights is the staircase in the Loretta Chapel.  It has no center post to support it and is supposed to be impossible, engineering-wise, and yet here it is. 

There is art all over the place – there are over 250 galleries, and statues and dynamic sculptures like these whirly-gigs are everywhere.

I thought this was a cool visual with all the arrows and their shadows on the wall.

The Georgia O’Keefe Museum is in Santa Fe.  It was unfortunately being re-hung for a new show, so there weren’t many pictures to see.  This is Black Mesa that Georgia O’Keefe painted many times during her years in New Mexico

 

 

 

  

The Museum of Indian Art and Culture had a musical group and traditional dancers when we stopped there to check it out.  The singers were very modern but the little dancer danced her way across the plaza to their music, an interesting blend of old and new