Santa Fe Impressions

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Today we made it into Santa Fe proper, New Mexico’s capital and home to around 70,000 people.

Our first stop – after yesterday’s adventure around Abiquiú – had to be the brilliant Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in downtown Santa Fe – with good insight into her development and some of her major works.

From the museum we continued through town. At the main plaza we were surprised by car show, featuring mainly vintage cars (as well as some otherwise ‘special’ cars). From the plaza we made our way to the Cathedral and then on to Loretta Chapel.

Sightseeing makes hungry, so we decided to go for lunch – which unfortunately did involve a lengthy wait. After lunch we had a look through some art galleries, we also walked by the capital building (only at the outside, as the building itself was closed today).

We were now approaching the late afternoon and were getting thirsty, so decided for pre-dinner drinks in Harry’s favorite bar in town to then proceed for dinner in a tapas bar – complete with wine and live music.

Around Abiquiú – in Georgia O’Keeffe Country

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Today was dedicated to the late Georgia O’Keeffe.

We left Los Alamos after breakfast and made is all the way up to Abiquiú and the Ghost Ranch – and into Georgia O’Keeffe Country.

From the ranch we engaged for the 5km chimney rock trail with some amazing views of the area, including – of course – Cerro Pedernal (a major piece of inspiration and subject of the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe).

After the hike we had lunch, before continuing into town for gas and some ice cream at the Frozen Cow ice cream shop (imagine our surprise, when we realized, they were serving Oakland made Dreyer’s ice cream).

Our next stop was a the Echo Amphitheater, a natural rock formation resembling an amphitheater (you would not have guessed that – right?). From here we continued to the Benedictine Abbey of Christ in the Desert. This was to get a glimpse of the church and monastery and its architecture – but also to get a bit into the back country during the 13 mile dirt road drive.

We eventually made it back and through Abiquiú – and had a further stop just outside of town at the Poshuouinge Ruins – again with a little hiking trail – passing by the ruin site and then to a view point for a full view of it.

From here – after a short stop at El Santuario De Chimayo – we continued into Santa Fe for a nice and spicy introduction to the most New Mexican of questions – will it be red or green …

 

A long walk in Singapore

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We finished early with the meetings, so I ended up with a free Saturday (originally planned for meetings), which I used for a bit of sightseeing …

I took the metro up to the Botanic Garden, made my way through the gardens (including a stop at the National Orchid Garden). From here I continued towards the shopping district around Orchard Street … took some time here, before making it over to Little India. On my way back I had a long look around Fort Canning Park.

Miami Impressions

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After last week in Madrid with focus on the European processes, this week saw me flying into Miami for similar discussion on North America.

Once more we had intensive meeting days – with a little time in between for some sightseeing and exploration of Miami – below some photos.

Madrid

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This week a business trip got me into Madrid. Business-wise it was a quiet intense week, however there was a bit of time to explore the area – below some impressions.

Towards and at Colombo

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The trip was now slowly coming to an end. We left Unawatuna in the morning and made our way along the coast towards Colombo. En-route we had a stop at a Buddha Statue near Peraliya, which has been set up here to commemorate the victims of the 2004 tsunami, which heavily affected this area.

We continued heading North for a further stop and an optional boat ride on Maduganga Lake. The boat ride got us out onto the lake, passing through mangroves and with a stop at the Kothduwa Rajamaha Viharaya temple. Overall the boat ride was really nothing special – but certainly made a nice diversion from all that sitting on the bus 😉

Before making it to Colombo, we had a further stop at a sea turtle hatchery. Turtle eggs are gathered here and – after they have hatched, they released to the sea in a protected way, to give them the highest chance of survival at the start of their lives.

We got into Colombo after a quick lunch in a mall food court and a chance for last minute supermarket shopping. In Colombo we essentially stayed on the bus and did a huge circle around town and passing by the main sights; obviously with some stops for photos. Overall I found Colombo pretty underwhelming – not too much to see and do here, it is obviously the administrative and economic capital and caters for that – but there is little of touristic interest … so ultimately, I think, it was a good thing, that we were really just passing through today and not staying here.

From Colombo it was – with a bit of a true traffic deadlock – back to Negombo, from where I was heading to the airport later on for my 2am flight back to Europe.

Putting it all together this trip to Sri Lanka was a packed and compressed one, with very little free time and many early morning – it however was a very multifaceted one as well, covering the main aspects, of what Sri Lanka has to offer – from culture (temples, ruins, dagobas/ stupas, more temples), food (keep that brinjal coming, please) to nature (elephants, peacocks and a leopard) and outdoor fun (rafting, climbing up Adam’s Peak, hiking to World’s end). So to sum up – Sri Lanka for me was just the right mix of everything – – clear recommendation from my end.