Santa Fe to Abiquiu (80 km)

After a really good breakfast in our excellent hotel in Santa Fe ( Las Palomas) we left early morning. Driving out of town was stressfull, we had to go on the highway and the shoulder was littered with broken bottle. After having had so many flat tires, we were nervous not to get another flat. Finally we made it savely out of town, the traffic eased and the countryside became more and more fascinating and colourful. 

We entered Indian Nation Homelands, they still have their own laws, while federal laws also apply. Disappointing was it to see that the modern Indians mainly seem to live in large mobile homes and their villages look rather uninviting with trash and broken down cars or other equipment everywhere. An old Indian we met told us, that alcoholism is a huge problem here. Many drink and drive, what explains the countless crosses along the roadside and the broken glass on the shoulder. 

We arrived early at our B&B, a vineyard at 1700 meters above sealevel in the dessert! It was the most beautiful B&B on our entire trip. (http://www.lasparras.com/) Standing alone on the riverfront, surrounded by colourful mountains. They grow grapes for wine here at an altitude of arround 1700 meter above sealevel. The grapes the sell to a winery. Of course we wanted to try their wine, but they could not sell it to us. So we went to a shop about 1 mile away and bought a bottle. When we drank it in the evening, we were surprised by the strong chocolate tasrte the rather sweet wine had. Only then we discovered, that it was written on the bottle, that artificial chocolate taste has been added. Stan told us, since this is added, the wine sells like crazy. Well, we did not finish our bottle, for us wine does not need to taste like hot chocolate.  

We used the rest of th afternoon to climb some mountains and enjoy the dessert. What a rich beauty offers the dessert. In the night we stood under the sky, admired the stars and the Milky way, they seemed as close as never ever seen before. 

We went to sleep with a real woodfire burning in the fireplace. It felt lik heaven!