We are in Santa Fe attending an anthropology conference; Charlotte is a discussant in one of the sessions I've spent the mornings exploring more of the city and its surroundings on my road bike. The downtown has grown into a giant mall. Stores obscure the traditional architecture and tourists mob the sidewalks.
But Canyon Road is lined still with a hundred varied art galleries...the figure of the yoga practitioner outside one gallery seems symbolic of the wealthy who come to Santa Fe in search of enlightenment and rejuvenation. The museums are well curated; the visitor has a wide choice of native American, folk, Spanish Colonial, fine and funky genres. And now there is a train that runs from Santa Fe to Albuquerque six times a day and, around the station, a new development area of parks, offices and even more stores called "the Railyard."
So the city remains its unique combination of history, southwest architecture and art, commerce and culture...under the bright blue sky, beneath the dry surrounding hills.
