New Mexico April 2013: Chimayo and Santa Fe

A low miles day! Weather continues beautiful! We got an early start from Espanola and went over to the Santuario de Chimayo. The adobe church was built in 1816 and features a hole in the floor, filled with "holy dirt", which is said to have curative powers. Each year around Easter, there is a pilgrimage to this site by thousands - you may recall seeing it on the TV news.

Everywhere you go around here there are little native craft and art shops tucked here and there. Here in Chimayo we stopped at the famous Ortega's Weaving Shop. Wonderful examples of rugs and blankets, produced right there. We bought ourselves a runner rug for our front hall. A great souvenir!

After a coffee and a creamhorn, we headed down the back roads to Santa Fe. I hated to do it, but we had to rely on our GPS to find "The Square" in downtown. We parked in the garage at the La Fonda Hotel - very posh place! Before we did anything, we happened upon a trolley tour so we had this delightful Swedish guy give us the grand tour of the area. We always enjoy these tours - they take you to places you'd never find on your own.

Santa Fe is, of course, reknowned for its high quality art shops. There are hundreds of them! Most are way beyond our pocketbook, but it was fun to look! We toured the Christo Rey church, one of the largest adobe structures in the country, the spectacular Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Loretto Chapel with its "miraculous staircase".

After walking our feet off, and literally shopping 'till we dropped, we hit the road and went on another hour or so to this dumpy little burg called Moriarty, just east of Albuquerque on old Route 66. All we needed was a place to crash so it was fine!