Santa Fe Unlimited :)

Anyone who has been there, will agree that Santa Fe is a unique and a very, very charming city. We took a rather long winded route to reach there but as we drove into the city, the late afternoon sun became an artist, bathing the ochre-colored mud adobe buildings in its golden, luminous light...........even the commercial establishments like Target, CVS, Super 8 etc. housed in (fake) adobe structures, that they say is synonymous with Santa Fe style, glowed beautifully in that waning light........and since we were visiting during the festive season, most of the buildings were crowned with "farolitos" - the paper lamps with a votive candle in the center and filled with little sand for stability - in fact they were everywhere- thousands of them adorning driveways, both sides of thoroughfares, rooftops, atop churchyard walls...........I do sound like I was enchanted, don't I ......it isn't hard to fall in love with that city :)

Santa Fe 1

While revisiting the images from our trip to New Mexico, I realized I never got around to sharing some of my favorites from Santa Fe. These are from the Palace of the Governors where Native American vendors gather everyday on the front porch to sell handcrafted objects. They can only sell artwork that is crafted either by them or their household member. I enjoyed admiring their work, but more than that - conversing with them about their craft.

Mother Road continues.........

As we drove further west on I40 towards Albuquerque, there was no way we could have avoided the very towns that were forgotten when the interstates came into place......see if you can spot the famed Blue Swallow Motel (Tucumcari, NM) in the background in the top shot :)

While some motels have been revived, others retain an air of abandonment around them (for the tourist value???)..... I had to smile at that colorful "COLOR TV " sign :)

And finally we took a pit-stop at Santa Rosa to eat at this Route 66 diner..the founding owners smiling from the menu (printed in the format of a local daily) were not easy to ignore, so they too made their way on to my memory card :)
PS: Is it me or does she remind you of Salma Hayek too????

Westward, ho! :)

Finally, the weekend's here!!!!! It's been tough to get into the work mode (or any mode, for that matter) after the break and our home right now is a passionate paean to chaos........don't they have a saying like no one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one? Tell me about it!!!! Hope you are managing post-holiday blues better than me.....

Going back to images from the trip, I haven't had a chance to upload most of them..These shots are from the car as we drove westward from Texas panhandle to New Mexico........Gradually, Texan fields and cattle ranches gave way to harsher and drier landscape and though my sun-phobic skin cringes at the mere thought of temperatures there in summer, Arka loved the big Western sky, the sun-baked land and the roads...........and when he's happy, I am happy too :)