The day started with a visit to the New Mexico History museum because i had questions. A lot of them were answered and NM easily had 250+ years of history prior to it being ceded from Mexico in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It was admitted into the union only in 1912!
The 2 faces of NM:
And varied faces they are. The first represents the folks who were here first. The second is a controversial statue of Diego de Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León y Contreras (whew, say that one twice) that was proudly in the central plaza of Santa Fe and then scurried off as being a political hot potato when that was also happening in other places to other people.
He was a Spanish Governor of the New Spain territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. Wikipedia says he was the title-holder in 1690–1695, and effective governor in 1692–1696 and 1703–1704. He is temporarily housed at the museum until 2027 after being found in the backyard of the contractor who removed the statue. After 2027 his fate is unknown. Vencido al fin?
Walking the streets of Santa Fe was next and it was confounded by narrow sidewalks and close collisions with folks who were often unaware that there were other folks on the very same sidewalk at the very same time. An attractive city, it took its adobe heritage seriously, even down to an ATM.
The rest of the time was the usual walkabout stuff and a random walk looking for photo opportunities. I missed large portions of the city because there were other things to see. It also very conveniently leaves a terrific excuse to come back.
The Big World 