Travels with Debbie and Vince: Chimayo & Santa Fe, New Mexico

We started the day going to Chimayo. We visited this small town known for its church, El Santuario de Chimayo. El Santuario has been called the "Lourdes of America". No one seems to know exactly how this came about. However, there are testimonies that the extraordinary has occurred. Fr. Sebastian Alvarez in his letter to the Episcopal See of Durango, dated November l6, l8l3, expressed his feelings of the people coming from afar to seek cures for their ailments and the spreading of the fame of their cures, induced many more faithful to come in pilgrimage. He did not mention any specific fact, but something was there. El Santuario has been a place of worship from the beginning - a place to pray, to thank, to ask, to meditate and to experience peace of mind as well as of body.
There are hundreds of crutches, braces and other medical devices left there by people who have been cured of their ailments. Unfortunately for you, there is a ban against taking photos, so you cannot see the inside of the church, the holy dirt, and the room full of photos and medical devices.

We then drove to Santa Fe and visited the state capitol building (the first that we have encountered that doesn't have the traditional dome) and another church, The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Then we did a lot of walking around the shopping area of Santa Fe, Debbie only buying a pink Santa Fe t-shirt. Note: the capitol building is more like an art museum. They have hundreds of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, etc. Six million dollars worth of art decorate the walls.