A word of warning - you’ve gotten some good advice about plague (don’t panic, it’s not that common, stay away from rodents), but nobody’s mentioned hantavirus yet. Hantavirus is a pretty nasty disease that doesn’t have a cure, but there’s something fairly simple you can do to protect yourself from it. While you’re staying away from rodents, stay away from rodent droppings. You can catch it from breathing the air around the droppings of infected rodents (usually it’s deer mice). Some New Mexican towns were hit fairly hard with hantavirus when it first started spreading, and people around here can be pretty paranoid about having mice in their house, so don’t make mouse jokes and try to be understanding if someone has a seemingly unreasonable fear of mice. This applies double if your roommate is from Gallup.
If you move into a place that has rodent droppings around, be very careful about cleaning them up. Don’t go anywhere near them if they’re fresh. The dried ones can be sprayed with bleach, and very carefully cleaned up - try not to disturb them too much in the cleaning process as that might stir something up. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear a respirator while cleaning, or to get professionals to do it for you.
Before you panic about this, Santa Fe isn’t really in the problem area for hantavirus. It’s mostly the Four Corners Area that has these problems, but you wouldn’t want to get something incurable from something as silly as mouse droppings.
Although you are on a student budget, if you have a classy taste and like shick, avant-garde atmosphere with nice people and a lot of fun, you may want to try the following:
On Saturday nights, around 9:00 p.m. go for a drink to the bar at Hotel Loretto. Just watch the elegant young couple who dance romantically to the sound of classical guitars, played live, by the likes of Ottmar Liebert, a native of New Mexico.
Just before sunset, around 5:30 p.m, go to the terrace, at the top of the La Fonda Hotel. Watch the sunset while sipping a margarita.
Try the lunch at the patio of a little restaurant called “The Shed”, just off the main plaza in the old town.
Try dinner in the garden of La Casa Sena, or the Ore House, or the Coyote Cafe.
Take a stroll along Canyon Road and check out the galleries inside the artists’ homes. Go to the back garden of The Patricia Carlisle and check out the bronze statues in the garden. There are plenty of lovely and classy outdoor restaurants along the Canyon Road. Try a Mojita made with rum and plenty of fresh mints and fresh lime.
If you are into classical music and opera, try the very modern outdoor Opera built into the mountains, 7 miles north of the city - off highway 84.
And, of course, around 20-24 September, you don’t want to miss the Annual Santa Fe Wine and Chile Festival.
For some reason quote and this thread that just reminded me of the song lyric. “And tatooed on my memory is the image of an angel’s face… north of heaven, south of santa fe.”
