Creative Santa Fe

We know that Santa Fe is renowned internationally for its "arts and culture" -- OK, also for its history, architecture, culinary scene, healthy environment, quality of life, quality of light, multiculturalism and more -- but I am continually amazed by the remarkable diversity of creative interests among my fellow Santa Feans. 

On any given day of the year, the calendars of local newspapers, websites and radio stations are filled with offerings for events, classes, seminars, workshops and happenings related to music, fine arts, literature, cinema, theater, dance, sports and recreation, crafts, support groups of all sorts, spiritual practices of all kinds, community issues and opportunities to volunteer at one of nearly 5,000 non-profit organizations in northern New Mexico. If Santa Fe can pride itself on a singular thing, it could well be its vehement commitment to self-growth through creative expression.

In 2004, the city hired a Texas-based firm to assess Santa Fe's strengths, and weaknesses. After many interviews with the citizenry and its leaders, town hall-style public meetings and months of deliberation, the report (Angelou Economics Strategic Plan) was issued to a full-house at the Lensic Theater one weekday morning: Santa Fe should position itself as a design center, a center of creativity. Essentially, the compilers of the report encouraged Santa Feans to see the city and themselves for what it and they already were, or had aspired to be for at least the past few decades: incredibly unique, conscious, amazing -- the City Different!*

Confidence is a mighty power, and being inspired by the obvious findings of this formal report gave the participating citizenry a rally point: celebrate our creativity! Capitalize upon it. And why not? What could be more invigorating, more civilized, more fun, than expressing our creativity in all its marvelous forms! To this end, a volunteer group (yes, another non-profit organization) was formed -- Creative Santa Fe

Its goal: to encourage, support and promote the growth of the creative community that makes Santa Fe the first UNESCO-designated Creative City in the US. The Creative Santa Fe website gives a sense of the impressive and vast diversity of the "creative economy" that drives and supports Santa Fe. Check it out.

* The Report also identified the need to address such other real issues as  affordable housing, mass transit, bike lanes, improved pedestrian areas downtown, historic preservation, etc.

 

Planning for a(nother) Trip to Europe

You'd think I'd have it to a fine art by now, and maybe I do...since fine art includes the likes of Jackson Pollack; messy and erratic on a big canvas. As my partner likes to note, planning a trip takes me longer than actually taking the trip. But, of course, I enjoy it.

I relish the obsession which supersedes all "real work" and keeps me focused for countless hours...well, actually, weeks...reading through travel books, pouring over maps and web surfing for recommendations of places to go, or avoid, how best to get there (for example, I've read that the bus is faster and cheaper than the train between Madrid and Granada), sourcing discounts and deals, writing to pensions and vacation rental companies (there is no centralized service, each requires their own forms or emails), and seeking personal connections in my now fairly-determined itinerary.

As a long-time member of Servas (www.servas.org), a 50+-year-old international host/traveler organization, based on the Gandhi quote "Peace is built one friendship at a time," I began reading the host books for France and Spain, as if they were novels, deciding which hosts I might want to meet and stay with for two days. Many hosts live in rural areas that require a car to visit, or are not on my route. After identifying several, I composed emails introducing myself, explaining the purpose my trip and requesting certain dates to visit, and sent them off. Surprisingly, few responded, or emails bounced back, and it started to feel like an exercise in futility. Of course, it is August, when many Europeans go on holiday and presumably do not check their email.

Then I discovered Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com), an innovative internet "project" loosely based on the Servas model but for a younger audience and less formal. More than 400,000 people worldwide have signed up in less than 3 years to offer a "couch" (i.e., place to crash) or to meet for "coffee or a drink." It too is about cultural understanding and peace building.

As a couch surfing (CS) host since July, we've already had 3 different "surfers" stay with us in Santa Fe, 20-somethings who were smart, considerate and fun guests (you can read other people's reviews of them online at their CS profile page). So I've spent hours culling through the 1000+ CSers in Barcelona alone, and made many inquiries in each of the cities I'll be visiting, but again without much response.

After a while, all this solicitation begins to feel like cold-calling: a waste of time and I give up, book my pensions and hotels, rail and air tickets and hope Serendipity finds me. However, I did arrange two CS experiences -- one in Toulouse and another in Amsterdam, both also happen to be Servas hosts as well.

It is less than 3 weeks before I leave for a month and most of the sleeping and transportation portions of my trip are planned, with the exception of 5 days between Granada and an early-morning flight out of Barcelona. I want to leave that open, to see what I feel like after 3 weeks of traveling. "Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam or maybe I'll go to Rome and rent me a grand piano and put some flowers 'round my room..." or maybe I'll find a quiet beach and just relax.

I still have a book about the Prado to read and I'm halfway through Orwell's rather dry "Homage to Catalonia," and more research is definitely required on every stop's highlights. A table in my office is covered with guide books, print-outs of receipts and itineraries, my purse-size umbrella, electrical adapter, European cell phone, passport, pocket-sized journal. Don't touch!

I'm beginning to feel a bit organized, but I haven't even begun to pack and there are dozens of checklist items to accomplish before I leave. I can't imagine not spending this time planning...it's simply too much fun to dream up a trip, learn about places, compose a plan (always changeable, of course), and then, finally, find myself there.

The Most Glorious Sunset

The last sunset I witnessed is always the most glorious. Living in Santa Fe, famous for the quality of its light, almost every sunset is "great" but about once a week there is one that is "spectacular".

While I am fortunate to live in an elevated site where sun can be seen setting behind the Jemez Mountains to the west, the entire sky is often filled with wild, neon shades of peach, apricot, lavender, rose, eggplant purple...colors that would be difficult to imagine if not seen first hand.

Often, for such a breath-taking moments, which can stretch into an hour or more, we take a glass of wine or margarita to the upstairs round deck, sit on high stools and allow ourselves to be wowed by such magnificence, as the earth turns and night falls.

Hiking the Dale Ball Trails on Santa Fe's east side

About 24 miles of hiking/mountain biking trails grace Santa Fe’s east side. Nearly every morning we leave our house to take the poodle for a walk on nearby trails, which delights her to no end and is a great way to start any day. At each intersection there are maps posted which show where you are, which makes it nearly impossible to get lost unless you stray from the trails.

With the "monsoon" season (yes, a real monsoon cycle of welcome afternoon rains) in July and August, the valleys can be muddy but otherwise the trails are passable and well used except in winter. Mountain bikers will find the rocky single-track trails challenging, and even for hikers there are many steep ups and downs...not a stroll in the park.

With the changes in seasons and changes in light throughout the day, you can always notice different things even on a trail you know well: wildflowers, cactus flowers, a new vista or landmark you hadn't noticed before.

Maps of the Dale Ball Trail system are available from the Santa Fe County Mapping Division in the County Building at Grant St. and Palace Ave.