Beauty is most certainly in the eye of the beholder.

What makes something beautiful is not what you see with your eyes but what you feel in your heart when you look at it. The same can be said of people. Santa Fe has stolen my heart!

As luck would have it, the best deal that I could find for accommodation in central Santa Fe was the Hilton Hotel, which I found through Hotwire. This certainly set the tone for my stay.

I arrived in Santa Fe at 2.30pm yesterday which gave me enough time to settle in; have a shower; and hit the town for a walking tour.

Sam stayed behind to enjoy the amazing bed.

There is something so peaceful about Santa Fe and I felt it from the moment I arrived.

The historic area around the plaza is not very big so it is easy to see all the sights in a few hours. Planning policy restricts the height of buildings to four floors and on-street advertising is strictly controlled. This allows you to enjoy the beauty of the old buildings without being bombarded with advertising. It is simply wonderful!

I have included a few photos of some of the main sights. It will give you a flavour of the sights but I will add more photos on my Facebook page.

The town centre is of rich with art, sculptures and local traders selling their goods. I really took to the sculptures and if you have ever visited my home you would know I love baskets. Mine are of course African baskets but they are so similar I couldn’t help but smile. Here are a few examples of the above.

It was a little early when I finished sight seeing to have dinner so I popped into Starbucks for a coffee and to use the Internet. This is where I met Dominic, a guy around my age from Philadelphia. I ended up joining him for dinner but as he spoke I realised that my and Dominic’s realities are so far removed. I appreciate that I have only been in the U.S. for 6.5 weeks but my experience of the people has been wonderful. The way Dominic described his home it’s a war zone. Listening to him speak I realised once again that we create our own realities. If you see the world, and the people in it, as bad then that will be your experience of it but if you see the best in people then that is what you normally get from them.

I love the way that I see the world!

The ride from Denver to Taos took about 5 hours including stops. I arrived in Taos around 6pm and was contemplating hanging around town a bit before heading to the AirBnB where I was staying but the sensible side of me thought it would be better to get settled in and then decide what I wanted to do. That ended up being a good decision as the house was accessed by a dirt road for the last few hundred metres.

Luckily for me my host, Lucy, had her two grandchildren staying with her. She had just finished cooking dinner for them and invited me to join them. Result!

Given the access by dirt road I decided to stay in for the night and do some route planning. I’m glad I made that decision. It also gave me time to have a nice soak in Lucy’s massive bathtub. I never take baths so it was a real treat!

The plan for the morning was to pop into Taos for breakfast and then to head to Santa Fe. I headed to the plaza as I heard Lucy saying that the Farmers Market would be on. When I arrived I walked around for a while and then my need for coffee took over. This is how I met Stephen.

Anyone that works with me knows that my favourite place in the office is the kitchen. In my view it fulfils three fundamental needs, namely coffee; food; and conversation. I have a feeling Stephen and I have these needs in common.

Not only did Stephen point me in the direction of the nearest place to get coffee; he walked me to it; and then joined me for about 1.5 hours talking about all sorts of things including what I should see in the area. In the process I met his wife and daughter who were also wandering around the market. This clearly didn’t satisfy his hospitality though, as he then walked me around some of the stores and went in search of a map of the local area for me. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for he jumped into his car and pointed me to where I needed to go. How amazing!

My first stop was Taos Pueblo. A Native American settlement that dates back to the early 1600s. Here are some photos from my visit. There are a lot more on my Facebook page if you want to see more.

My second stop was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The bridge is nothing to look at but the gorge is gorgeous and takes you completely by surprise. What a great suggestion Stephen, thank you!