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Always Something New in Santa Fe

By Joyce Dalton

Though its population numbers fewer than 70,000, Santa Fe can claim membership in a select fraternity typically reserved for major metropolises --- those with the ability to come up with something new, no matter how many times a traveler visits. 

True, some things never change (and shouldn’t): the adobe architecture, the ubiquitous art galleries, the Native Americans with their crafts in front of the Governor’s Palace, the many museums, Indian Market, and the opera, to name a few. On my most recent trip, the “new” consisted of three quite different pluses, starting with my hotel.

Las Palomas

Las Palomas isn’t new in the usual sense. After all, part of the property dates back more than 100 years and is on the National Register of Historic Places. But to find comfortable lodging at a reasonable price (especially in this pricey town) just a 10-minute walk from the Plaza was a new experience for me.

From the moment of driving into the parking lot, guests are introduced to one of the inn’s prime attractions --- a wealth of valuable works by the artist, Doug Coffin. The parking lot piece alone, a towering abstract sculpture, is estimated at $35,000.

Thirty-nine individual casitas, or “small houses,” are situated in two groupings across the street from one another. Choose from pueblo or territorial style interiors. Built of adobe brick and other natural materials and featuring wood-burning kiva fireplaces, the former have a more historic and southwestern ambience. The grounds surrounding the pueblo section have considerable charm with greenery and walkways illuminated by gas lamps. A hot tub and sauna are nearby.

On the other hand, territorial rooms seem spiffier, receive more light and are, perhaps, a bit more comfortable. Each features a gas-lit stove fireplace and boasts high wooden beam ceilings. An advantage to this section, as we discovered on a very rainy evening and morning, is its close proximity to the registration, lounge and breakfast areas, as well as the fitness center and a children’s garden.

Most casitas enjoy a separate living room, full-sized kitchen or kitchenette and dining nook, as well as the requisite bedroom and bath. Room size and kitchens make the inn especially attractive to those traveling with children who might want a relief, financial and otherwise, from eating out constantly. Attractive opera blankets of a dark blue and red check emblazoned with Las Palomas’ doves logo are provided. I particularly liked a great soap made of flax seed. On the down side, I found the area rugs sliding too easily on the tile floors and only a small exposed rod in my room for hanging slacks or dresses.

After inspecting a number of guest rooms in addition to my own, I found enough differences in size, furnishings, and overall appearance to suggest checking out several, if occupancy levels allow, before settling in.

Breakfast, included in the room rate, is tasty, but without variation. In addition to the usual fruit, hot beverages and muffins, the staff makes waffles to order. Plans are underway for a light daytime menu including salads, sandwiches, homemade pizza and special desserts, as well as a beer and wine license and room service by summer 2006.

A big plus is the charismatic proprietor, Neil Rosenshein, a world-renowned tenor who has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, performing title roles in such productions as Faust, Werther, Die Fledermaus and Peter Grimes. He has made guest appearances in virtually all of the major opera houses in the U.S. as well as such notable European houses as La Scala, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, and the Grand Theatre de Geneve. Rosenshein came to Santa Fe in 1986 to perform in The Barber of Seville and was so captivated by the city’s unique charms that he remained to expand, renovate and operate Las Palomas. He terms this second career a “new kind of song.” Although Santa Fe is now home, he continues to teach voice at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Not surprisingly, the inn is a popular choice of cast members, crew and critics during opera season.

Santa Fe Mountain Adventures

New not only to me, but to the city, as well, this company offers an intriguing mix of half-day and evening pursuits featuring active, cultural, fitness and spiritual activities.

For the outdoor enthusiast, guided hikes take you on a two-mile easy walk along the Dale Ball Trails, learning about area flora and geology, or on a more vigorous venture in the Pecos Wilderness region, including a 5.5-mile ascent of Atalaya Mountain. Mountain biking programs also are geared to varied skill levels from easy riding along the Santa Fe Rail Trail through pinon-studded countryside to the challenges of the Winsor or Chamisa Trails’ steep and winding single tracks. Further options include horseback riding, whitewater rafting, fly-fishing for brown trout along the Pecos River and golfing at some of Santa Fe’s finest courses. One choice few have heard of, much less tried, is Geocaching, which the company describes as a “high-tech take on the old-fashioned scavenger hunt.” Using GPS devices, participants hunt for hidden locations in the mountains.

With outdoor adventures scheduled in the morning, afternoons are devoted to cultural or lifestyle activities including yoga, southwestern cooking, a hands-on pottery experience, photography, nutrition seminars or a private tour of a prestigious art gallery.

I took part in the latter program and found it both interesting and informative. Our visit to the Nedra Matteucci Galleries led us through room after room filled with fine 19th and 20th century works. We previewed an upcoming by-invitation-only exhibit and strolled through the gallery’s sculpture garden filled with lovely bronzes set amid landscaped grounds and by a picturesque pond.

The company also offers full-day active adventures farther afield to such spots as Bandelier National Monument, Wheeler Peak near Taos and Kitchen Mesa and Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu.

On my next trip, I hope to join one of Santa Fe Mountain Adventures’ evening programs which center around Native American storytelling, flute and guitar playing, meditation and stargazing. Between its high altitude and lack of excessive artificial light, Santa Fe offers an ideal venue for viewing the night sky. During opera season (July and August), a performance of the famed Santa Fe Opera presents yet another choice.

The active lifestyle magazine, Outside, has partnered with the company in developing its programs. Santa Fe Mountain Adventures also works in cooperation with several local “adventure partners,” as they’re termed, as well as with several upscale hotels such as the Inn of the Anasazi, La Posada de Santa Fe, the Inn and Spa at Loretto and La Fonda.

Visitors can book multi-day packages combining accommodations and three daily activities, a day and evening activity package without accommodations, or single activities (assuming available space).

Citing numerous tourism surveys indicating that a great number of today’s travelers seek vacations involving “a nice mix of adventure, education and rejuvenation,” Chief Adventure Officer, Owen Perillo, feels Santa Fe Mountain Adventures is in the right place at the right time.

Santa Fe School of Cooking

As one whose culinary skills and interests are largely limited to putting a Lean Cuisine in the microwave, a cooking demonstration wasn’t something I expected to enjoy overly. How wrong I was! The morning devoted to food preparation turned into one of my favorite Santa Fe experiences. And so I discovered both a new attraction in a city that offers so many and a new interest in the intricacies of chilies, onions and avocados.

The Santa Fe School of Cooking has been around since 1989, offering 30 different regularly scheduled demonstrations and hands-on classes lasting from three to five hours. The 40 or so participants sit at round restaurant-style tables while the chef de jour stands at an ingredient-laden counter under a slanted mirror, the better to see his quick hands chop, slice and mix and watch his creations on the stove behind him.

Eight chefs are on the school’s roster. By sheer luck of the culinary draw, Rocky Durham, a Santa Fe native and raconteur par excellence, held forth the day of my visit. Declaring that “Once the door shuts, I’m completely in control” and therefore, “free to throw in a bit of this and that,” Durham created a lunch of orange-cilantro salsa, guacamole, chile-glazed baby back pork ribs, spicy Mexican pinto beans, blue corn muffins and rum-raisin-pecan cake before our eyes. The latter Durham termed “one of the most pain-in-the-ass desserts I’ve ever made.”

When all the slicing, dicing, mixing and cooking is done, everyone gets to enjoy the fruits of the chef’s labor.

In the unlikely event I ever attempt to recreate one of Durham’s dishes (participants leave with recipes for all selections prepared that day), I wouldn’t dare follow his dictum that recipes are mere guidelines. “Recipes no more make the chef than sermons make the saint,” he believes.

Among other Durhamisms I noted: Blacken tomatoes to coax out the flavors. Manipulating salt effectively separates cooks from great cooks. Put salt on what you marinate, not in the marinade. If you start with good ingredients, don’t mess with them.

I learned a realm of chili trivia: all chili peppers start off green; New Mexico is the only state with an official vegetable (the chili, of course); red or green refers to the chili sauce, not the chili; gulping water after gulping a chili doesn’t relieve the heat as water won’t cut through oil (it’s the oils that make the pepper hot); the skin will slide right off a properly roasted chili pepper.

Tips were not limited to the state vegetable. I watched with something akin to amazement at the ease with which he attacked onions. First, remove the glower end but leave the root end on. Visualize the onion as a bicycle hub and cut in spoke strokes, being careful not to cut all the way through. (It looked easy when Durham did it.) Then, slice across for little pieces. Toss the root.

We also witnessed a demonstration of our tax dollars at work. Among those grouped around the tables were eight chefs from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise who were in town for two weeks of cooking classes with overnights at the Hilton.

For more information:

Las Palomas. Rates range from $119 to $279, depending on season and room category. Breakfast and parking are complimentary. Phone: 877/982-5560; web: www.laspalomas.com.

Santa Fe Mountain Adventures. Phone: 505/988-4000 or 800/965-4010; web: www.santafemountainadventures.com

Santa Fe School of Cooking. Phone: 505/983-4511 for reservations (essential); web: www.santafeschoolofcooking.com.

Images by Joyce Dalton

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