New Mexico

i was writing this on top of martyrs hill in santa fe. to the south you can see the luch green valley of the rio grande (santa fe river runs into the grande but its the poorest excuse for a river i have ever seen, sort of more a dried up stream) and to the north is the scrub like desert that characterises much of the southwest and that extends on a plain to the mountains. below me is the city itself which with a strong spainish colonial feel and native american influence doesnt seem very american. now all the houses in new mexico, even standard homes are built to look like adobe (theyre actually just painted concrete). adobe are earthenware bricks covered in mud but youre lucky to find a house built authentically like this. i saw apparently the oldest house in the us. i think there was some 800 year old mud embedded in it. the thing is about santa fe, and the old town in albuquerque which is even more cutesy, is they have been restored to the extent they dooont look old, even though they ressemble c17th new mexico perhaps more than they did 100years ago. my other issue with santa fe is all the new age spiritualism that abounds along with naff psuedo folksey art. there are hippy wind sculptures everywhere, i even saw a hippy wind sculpture farm. i dont really see the point of these things unless you want to pretend youve dropped acid. they do like to dance in santa fe though which is something i approve of. i finally went to a gig last night where a bluegrass/americana band were playing (called the santa fe allstars, bit of irony there, they were good though. i loved the singers voice) and there were lots of people dancing old style. good mix of people too, oldtiemrs, cowboys, hippies, hipsters etc. oh and i tried an american ale. it was very hoppy.