At Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM
In the second year of the Covid pandemic, Americans started to get restless to resume a “normal” life, one similar to that from pre- Covid times. People were tired of staring at their own four walls, of wearing medical face masks, feeling isolated from family and friends, from nature. As summer started, vaccination rates were not at the percentages the CDC recommended for a complete opening of the economy, but appeared to be on the upswing. Americans headed out of quarantine in droves. International travel was rumored to be a confusing maze of requirements and paperwork, and the air travel industry had not resumed pre Covid levels (not enough planes, pilots, routes = overpacked planes), so most US vacationers chose to stay in-country.
Santa Fe Opera in 2021……Everyone was required to wear a mask, seats were every other
“Le Nozzi de Figaro” at SFO
I chose to visit New Mexico and Colorado, the “Four Corners” region I have loved since childhood. (My adult son had done a cross country tour of all the National Parks the previous summer…..remains a bucket list goal for me. His stories of crowds and waiting lines just to spend time “alone” in nature - packed with loud rude dirty tourists, did not entice.) A return to the Santa Fe Opera Fest for the first time in 3 years, provided a needed dose of culture. Unfortunately, most museums in Santa Fe were closed or had mysterious waitlists for entrance tickets which my own OCD daily checking 6 months prior failed to discover.
Santa Fe School of Cooking class “Chile Amore”
We did manage to sign up for a “Santa Fe School of Cooking” class - three different ways to prepare red and green chile sauce. Our timing was perfect to catch Hatch Chile season and restaurants were full of “hatch chile fest” recipes.
A road trip to Abiquiu and Georgia O’Keefe’s beloved Ghost Ranch gave us the uncrowded quality time in nature that we sought. Breath-taking scenery and mild slightly cooler weather at elevation gave us the respite we craved. There was, thankfully, no one else there.
Purple Adobe Lavender Farm in Abiquiu, NM
Along the way, we visited Purple Adobe Lavender Farm, the Abiquiu Inn, for lunch, visited assorted art gelleries…..
…..and various antique stores full of “southwestern style” (a heady mix of traditional Mexican kitsch, tribal primitive art from around the world, middle eastern and North African rugs, as well as Native American decor) over-priced junktiques. Some old white man sales clerk kept following me around telling me that this or that was really old, till I asked him for its provenance, then he shut up.
We had some fabulous meals, high brow and low, consuming vast quantities of NM “hatch” chile, assorted other peppers and spices, on pretty much every sort of dish you can imagine.
Green chile omelette
Blue corn tortillas, chicken, and green chile enchiladas
Tesuque Market Restaurant
Hubs ate so much red chile he stained his lips
A New Mexico fave, Blakes Lottaburger…..Here, we had cheeseburgers w bacon and hatch green chiles
Pizza at El Nido, in Tesuque
Green chile breakfast burrito
Red chile beef enchiladas
Southwestern fried potatoes with red and green chile
More blue corn chicken hatch enchiladas ( my fave)
Omelette with hatch sauce
The first half of our trip was marvelous…..till the smoke showed up. Hubs decided he wanted to swing through Four Corners, en route to Durango, Colo……and as we drove along, the sky got more and more filled with haze from California wildfires, 1000s of miles away. The smoke blocked our view, made us cough, and ended any thoughts about extending the trip…….
Hubs at Four Corners Monument, “standing” in 4 different states
The Bisti Badlands, NM
Durango, Co
Which normally looks like this :
Map of wildfires across USA first week of August, 2021
We relaxed, shopped, drank in brewpubs, and headed home. All in all, it was a lovely respite from the real world.
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