It has been almost two years since my sister Susan and I attended the Fiesta de Santa Fe, traditionally held the weekend after Labor Day. It is definitely time to visit that beautiful and historic city once again, but due to the coronavirus, New Mexico requires visitors to self quarantine for 14 days after arriving in the state, which makes going there for an extended weekend a bit problematic. As much as I like Motel 6, driving all that way from Denver just to stay in a motel room does not sound to me like much fun, and so we will just have to wait until next year. Kind of like the Chicago Cubs. In any case, after attending the fiesta back in 2018, we stopped at Rancho De Chimayo - a truly wonderful New Mexican restaurant - for lunch on the way home. Although they do have indoor dining, what makes the place really special is the patio out back. The photo on the left shows Susan perusing the menu just after we sat down.
This restaurant, located in an ancestral family home, has been in business since 1965. The countryside around this area is just stunning. To get there, you cross a cattle guard and drive through the foothills of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. The photograph on the right is of the entrance to Rancho De Chimayo.
The centerpiece of this small village is El Santuario de Chimayo, the side chapel of which has a dirt floor that is reputed to have healing powers. I took the photograph on the left of this chapel after we had lunch and before heading north to Taos and Denver. Susan, by the way, did not like Taos at all. We walked around the historic plaza there, and one of the locals, who was sitting in front of one of the shops, referred to Susan's Yorkie Tutu as a "rodent on a rope." Some of the shops we went in were not exactly dog friendly, either. I don't think the entire city should be blamed for this, but I'm afraid that Susan does not want to visit Taos again. On the bright side, it is much faster to go home from Santa Fe via I-25, anyway. Their loss, I guess.
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