Retire to Santa Fe, breathe,
and you are already improving
the quality of your life.
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If we have to age, we night as well do it in a place that supports healthy living. To begin
with, the air in Santa Fe is a great antioxidant. Retire to Santa Fe, breathe, and you are
already improving the quality of your life. Men’s Health and Organic Style among many others
have ranked Santa Fe one of the healthiest cities and best places to live. Get a cardio workout
by riding your bike to the ski area or becoming a member at the numerous public and private
health clubs around town. The Dale Ball Trails wind around the periphery of Santa Fe--one of
the most popular among locals is Atalaya Trail above St. John’s College. Yoga centers, healers
and massage therapists are here in great numbers to tune you up as you transition from weekend
warrior to daily athlete—now that you have the freedom of being retired.
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Santa Fe’s three college campuses offer public programs to keep your body and mind in shape. The
Shellaberger tennis center at the College of Santa Fe boasts an outside facility along with six
state of the art indoor courts. The art programs at the college also have guest speakers and events
at the adjoining Santa Fe Art Institute. At Santa Fe Community College local luminaries teach non-accredited
courses including a great Spanish program. Sign up for a fitness class that comes with carte blanche use
of the pool and gym. An array of art classes are offered as well, each having studio facilities that
encourage the muse. The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops have year round classes and brings top photographers
into city making it a leading center for photographic arts.
It’s not all art and healing – retiring to Santa Fe will challenge your brain with lectures at the Santa
Fe Institute. Physicists from Los Alamos National Laboratories present lectures on everything from
climate change to fractals. The Lannan Foundation, a literary foundation dedicated to the preservation
of indigenous languages, relocated from Los Angeles to Santa Fe in the 1990’s and brought to town a
literary series that locals look forward to each winter. Gore Vidal in Santa Fe? Get your ticket;
they’re cheaper than a matinee so students, teachers, retirees, and ordinary folks-- everybody can
afford one.
Retiring to Santa Fe means you have the freedom to choose how and where you spend your time. Drawing
niche communities together are a few events that, by the looks of their popularity, speak to the
traditional land based roots of the region and the ingenious creative spirit that sprung from them -
The Farmer’s Market and Fiesta. Ranchers, organic farmers, beekeepers, herbalists and flower gardeners
converge at the Saturday Farmer’s market in the Railyard area. It’s growing every year and credited
with renewing the sustainable farming and ranching traditions of the area. Agua es vida, water is life
in the high desert and with development running wild in the West Santa Fe’s Farmers Market is helping
Santa Feans remember what they value about their hometown and how they can support it.
Fiesta (Las Fiestas de Santa Fe) is a week of parades – fiesta parade with the king and queen of Fiesta,
the pet parade where cats, dogs and even a few llamas promenade around the Plaza in costume, and the
Hysterical-Historical parade where Santa Fe satirizes itself. There’s weeklong revelry, businesses close
early, and there’s music, food and dancing on the Plaza. A highlight of Fiesta is the burning of “Old
Man Gloom’ Zozobra, a ritual borrowed from Mexico and introduced into the festivities in the 1920s.
Fiesta itself started in 1712 to celebrate the re-conquest of the capitol after the Pueblo Revolt.
We love Fiesta as much for its ushering in of Fall as for its revelry and tradition. Visitors return home.
Residents exhale from the summer season and retire to the comforts of its hometown atmosphere. For those
of us lucky enough to call Santa Fe home, retired or not, we celebrate our good fortune with the aroma of
roasting green chiles and the first dusting of snow on the mountain. When Alan Arkin was asked why he lives
in New Mexico he put it simply: “New Mexico is my home. I have no idea why. It’s where I belong. I love
everything about it. You can’t get sopaipillas anywhere else.” Welcome Home and Viva Santa Fe!
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