Life in New Mexico as a newcomer and custom tour designer

Wisteria and Adobe

If you are not born in New Mexico but as many people over the centuries did, you fall in love with it, beware! It’s not at all easy to become part of it and feel comfortable. 


We all moved here, from the notable women of Taos, to the internationally famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe, the writer Cormack McCarthy, and the actress Jane Fonda (the list is long…) attracted by the special light and pure air, the easy and yet exciting way of life, the amazing characters and independent spirits, the spicy delicious food, the rich blend of people (here is what Oliver La Farge wrote: a wildly assorted population which has shown itself capable of achieving homogeneity without sacrificing its diversity), and the connection to this beautiful magic land.

Santa Fe Indian Market

However life here is really different. When I arrived here eight years ago proud to have been able to leave everything behind I first realized that I was one of an army of people that had done exactly the same thing. My pride was hurt. Then when I started bragging about the big change I made by coming here from a big metropolitan city the remark I often heard was:  if you are still here three years from now, then you can believe you may be able to consider yourself at home. I was pretty shocked! I thought: not me, I’m not like everyone else, this is already my home, I know! No you didn’t, Patrizia!

I learned to speak a little Spanish to better communicate with the large Hispanic population. If you don’t, you will have a hard time. No problem here though, I’m a Latina too, somehow! What about then calling people and hearing back from them a week later? Why is everybody meditating? If you try finding a home where you have been invited for a social gathering, the directions you receive sound more or less like this: pass the road that turns dark brown, then take a left at the big stone that looks like a pyramid, not the first one, the one nearby. Then look up in the sky for the electrical wires (they may have fallen but you can still see them on the ground). Take an immediate turn to the right, not exactly to the right…kind of, then go a mile and you see three houses, one is not really a house…and so on. Usually your cell doesn’t work in any of these places. It happened to me a few times when it was pitch dark and snowing!

Sunflower truck in Santa Fe

To make a long story short, there is a great book about the oddities of Santa Fe called Turn Left at the Sleeping Dog that says it much better than me.

On the other hand people are very kind. What really struck me was that they SMILE at you when you go pass them on the streets. They even wave at you from their cars, or more commonly pick-ups (with a load of dogs, big ones, in the back). Unbelievable, isn’t it?

I am at home, I know. I can recall the stories, most truly amazing, of a lot of people. Women here are of the best quality! A great book of my friend Athi-Mara Magadi, Santa Fe Originals, is all about this: the extraordinary women who came to New Mexico to meet the challenge of building a new life for themselves or pursuing what is at their heart.

I found for myself a new work, creating journeys for different kinds of people, which couldn’t be more interesting. I absolutely must meet interesting people and experience new adventures if I want to be able to offer the best and most unusual custom tours in the world!