Christmas Chile: NYE in Santa Fe
Santa Fe was a distant 180° turn from last year’s NYE party. Filled with COVID fever (not literally…I have tests to prove it!), and disappointed with the loss of my original trip to see the total solar eclipse in Chile, I planned out a compromise to spend some EOY vacation days safely, but…just, not in the living room.
My trip to Maine earlier this year was more sterile and spread out than any I’d ever seen before, so we assumed airlines would be as clean as they were on that trip. Unfortunately, airlines did definitely go back to piling middle seats, but at least there were required masks.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Airbnb in a downtown Adobe house
We stayed within our little bubble at an Airbnb, that fit every Southwestern style stereotype I can think of. Luckily for us, it was close enough to see the NYE fireworks downtown! It was also close to some spicy breakfast burritos (and yeah, of course I did the christmas chile option). To be honest, every single meal was sweat-level spice.
Most hikes were closed due to COVID
We did visit during peak COVID for New Mexico, unfortunately. We’d mapped out many cool hikes around the area, including Tent Rocks. Some roads leading to them were even completely closed off!
We learned a ghost town can recover
Or at least that was the case for Madrid, New Mexico. We weaved back from Santa Fe to Albuquerque on the scenic route, which included a couple “ghost towns” I’d been recommended. One was technically recovered (Madrid), but we also went through Golden (which did not look like it has recovered yet) on the same route.
