Christmas in New Mexico. Welcome to the enchanting world of La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís (The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi). It’s known to all as Santa Fe and is the oldest capital in the U. S. It’s also very dry and 7000 feet above sea level. For a New Yorker that’s a stretch. After a week, I resembled a 1000 year old lizard but a happy one.
Upon arrival, it’s a tradition to drive the rental car from the Albuquerque Skyport (airport to you) to Bernalillo’s The Range Cafe for your first red and green chili baptism.
We had lots of wonderful food but the best was at chez Charbonnet-Falls on Christmas day. A fireplace with the light only fire can give, the warmth and hospitality of mine hosts, five furry cats, one tiny dachshund named Mary and the family presenting delicious treats from salmon and ham and polenta and red cabbage to buche de noel and Mont Blanc.
Ojo Caliente is a spa between Santa Fe and Taos. We had to go, of course. It was a bit nippy walking from one outside pool to another. Once submerged, it was heaven. The enclosed spring water pool was supposed to be good for your skin so this old lizard spent a lot of time there. The arsenic pool, scalding hot, was another favorite and so was the mud bath.
On Christmas eve there’s the Farolito Walk.You go past the Cathedral, the setting of Willa Cather’s Death Comes to the Archbishop, and walk to Canyon Road .There was a dusting of snow that was a wonderful backdrop to the luminaries. Luminaries are paper bags filled with sand and a small candle called a farolito. They are set in rows in front yards and on buildings’ roofs, creating a gentle light in the winter sky.
The Albuquerque airport is beautiful. It’s built in a low keyed Spanish style. Even the restrooms are charming. That doesn’t mean you want to spend your time wondering if you’ll ever escape. Our flight to Chicago was delayed by two hours. That meant lots of futile calls to United about catching a later connecting flight. The Gulf Stream was more helpful than United and pushed our plane speedily to Chicago where we barely caught the 6 p.m. flight to LaGuardia. Whew.