I finally had some time to continue with the New Mexico blog posts: Santa Fe.

We woke up early to be able to visit the Native American bazzar of handcrafts that they set outside the Palace of the Governors.

While Eitan awkardly stood there for 20 minutes, Sarah went to each individual seller to find some nice earings.

We looked inside the Palace to understand what it was: Originally constructed in the early 17th century as Spain’s seat of government for what is today the American Southwest, the Palace of the Governors chronicles the history of Santa Fe, as well as New Mexico and the region. This adobe structure, now the state’s history museum, was designated a Registered National Historic Landmark in 1960 and an American Treasure in 1999.

Unfortunately, we did not had time to visit the museum, so we will have to come back to Santa Fe one more time

We walked to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The mother church of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

The Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi was officially elevated to a basilica by Pope Benedict XVI on October 4, 2005, when it was named the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

A cathedral is the proper term a church that is home to a bishop. A basilica may refer to anything from a church’s architecture to its importance to the pope, depending on its type.

We walked around the souvenir stores, they sell mostly ceramic bowls from different pueblos around New Mexico. Eitan was obsessed with the pottery and bought a beautiful one from the Acoma pueblo

Santa Fe has a distinctive architectural style all its own. No other city in the country has so many low-slung, earth-colored buildings made of adobe bricks, which consist of a mixture of sun-dried earth and straw.

We did a quick stop at a wine bar to taste some traditional liquor, like this green chile wine that suprisingly was not that bad!

We met  2 nice girls that also liked to travel, so we discussed our India adventures with them.

We visited the El Dorado hotel, one of the most luxurious hotels in Santa Fe. It was beautiful, but way above our budget for that trip.

The next morning we visited the area famous for its art galleries.

Walking around here was very relaxing and highly entertaining.

Some art was amazing, some disturbing, but all extremely expensive.

you know I like doors, so here is a nice one!!

An amazing bull sculpture that I would buy if it wasn’t for the hefty price tag.

These sculptures spin with the wind.

Sarita being weird.

After some art overdose, we headed back to Albuquerque, but on the way we decided to stop at one of the Native American pueblos.

When Spaniards entered the area beginning in the 16th century, they came across complex, multi-story villages built of adobe, stone and other local materials, which they called pueblos, or towns, a term that later came to refer also to the peoples who live in these villages.

There are currently 19 Pueblos that are still inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are the best-known. Pueblo communities are located in the present-day states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, mostly along the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers and their tributaries. Puebloans speak languages from four different language families, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of maize.

We decided to visit the Kewa pueblo, they do not allow photos inside the pueblo so all images here were taken from google. It was extremely interesting to see how they live, they even have different Pueblo Police cars!!

Despite increasing pressure from Spanish and later Anglo-American forces, Pueblo nations have maintained much of their traditional cultures while developing a syncretic approach to Catholicism. In the 21st century, some 35,000 Pueblo Indians live in New Mexico and Arizona.

We visited their church, they were really nice to let us peek inside for a few minutes, of course, we needed to “buy” the postcard, but we didn’t mind, there were very welcoming to us.

Bonus pic of the day: Pottery requires clay collected along streams and hillsides. Often, the clay came from secretly guarded deposits. Various materials including sand, crushed rock, plant fibers and ground mussel shells were added to the clay to prevent shrinkage and eliminate cracks during the firing and drying process.