Our chosen destination in New Mexico was Santa Fe, as we'd heard it was more interesting than Albuquerque. We booked into the trusty Motel 6 mid-afternoon and set out to go and have a bit of an explore. It's a really scenic town...all the buildings are made from this stuff called adobe. I had absolutely no idea what it looked like before we arrived there, but it looks like a kind of orangey coloured clay. All the buildings are low level, I don't think there was one high rise there, and I think it's some sort of planning constraint that they have to build them in character with the place, so you end up having adobe Macdonalds and petrol stations and stuff. Most odd, but very picturesque. After having wandered for a while and realising that it was frickin' freezing, we found a nice cafe on the central plaza. I helped myself to some delicious chicken fajitas to warm myself up and we had a really nice evening - calling in at Wal-Mart on the way back to the motel to stock up on gloves, scarf and furry hats to combat the sub zero temperatures! Talk about chasing the sun! The irony! The following morning we got up at stupid o'clock so that we could go on a guided walking tour of the town. It was led by a woman who was 80 years old...she was really eccentric, but very knowledgable and was delighted when I was able to answer one of the local knowledge questions she asked the group (as one of the 2 token foreigners on the tour - the other being Emily) - thank you trusty Rough Guide! The others in the group were all middle aged Americans...and it was so funny because we could see that as we were walking along, each and every one of them gradually decided to make a beeline for us; partly because we looked a complete pair of pill*cks in our new hats and they wanted to make fun of us, but also because they wanted to hear about where we were from and what we were doing and stuff. It was really sweet.

The tour finished at about lunchtime and we decided to have a look around independently. As usual this became more about looking at the local shopping opportunities, of which there were many. Around the main plaza there were lots of Navajo craft stalls, selling handmade souvenirs and jewellery, but there were also loads of boutique-y type shops. Without exception they were selling turquoise jewellery, a lot of which was very nice, but was also reaaaaaalllllly expensive, so I was able/forced to curb my urges...

That afternoon I was struck down by what melodramatically we'll call food poisoning. It seems unlikely that the chicken fajitas from the night before would have made me unwell, but let's just say that I spent the afternoon in a lot of pain in bed, wishing my mum was there! Emily did the job of surrogate mum quite well though, going and getting me anti-nausea stuff from Wal-Mart - they sell everything there!! I woke the following morning feeling marginally better, ready to set off for our next destination...x