The vacation happened at last. A trip to Santa Fe, NM was canceled twice in the last two years. My wife lost both parents to cancer in the space of those two-plus years, hence we never made it to the Land of Enchantment. We cancelled a scheduled recovery vacation to Hawaii for March 1, 2020 due to the Corona Virus outbreak growing in China. We didn’t wish to be marooned on an Island—all right before the same historic disaster overtook the whole world later in March. We switched Hawaii to Santa Fe for the first week of March.
The Southwestern respite was great. The hotel owned by the Hopi Picuris Pueblo could not have been better. Sunny warm days, and clear cold nights prevailed. Outstanding food existed everywhere we went during a week spent relaxing and walking around historic Santa Fe. When you see the original Georgia O’Keeffe paintings you can appreciate how great an artist she was, and art is everywhere.
I was indulged to take photographs with my Olympus OMD M1 MKII using a 12-40 Pro lens and my iPhone SE.
The walking hurt like hell. After a hip replacement and then immediately three months in a boot for a torn achilles tendon on the same leg, the muscles and nerves in both legs were screaming about learning to work again. The opposite leg from the trauma was the worst, the hamstrings and calves protesting every step. The ankle and hip were fine except the ankle swelled up twice its size every night. That will be normal for up to a year.
If you don ‘t work through pain you don’t make progress. Decades of martial arts, bicycle riding and racing, and workouts in the gym meant decades of pain. No pain, no gain.
Two weeks later I can walk for and hour with the dog on hiking trails with no pain.
Sequestered at home again, waiting out the peak in the Novel Corona Virus infection, I processed the 500+ Santa Fe photographs I took. Some I liked are attached below in no particular order. Some were taken at night with a little collapsible travel tripod, some are gratuitous Ansel Adams B&W adobe captures, some are landscapes, or what passes for landscapes through my street photographer’s eye, and many are street photographs.
Stay safe in the time of pestilence. The third horseman is raging about the world again. Follow the science and do the right things for yourself, your family, and those around you.
