AMANDA POWELL FOR HERITAGE INSPIRATIONS
Visitors explore Santa Fe’s traditional architecture.
Step by Step Heritage Inspirations walking tours By Ashley M. Biggers
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INETEENTH CENTURY american newspaper correspondent Paul Scott Mowrer wrote, “There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.” Guests of Heritage Inspirations walking tours get an authentic feel of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos as they stroll historic and up-and-coming neighborhoods. On these tours, “historic and contemporary threads are creatively woven together to allow our guests an opportunity to familiarize themselves with each city,” says Angelisa Murray, co-owner of Heritage Inspirations. The tours journey beyond the typical visitor
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attractions to discover each area’s soul. Because residents of each city are hired to guide the outings, guests also get a local’s perspective on history and current happenings. Taos Artisan Walking Tour + Chocolate highlights the town’s artist-colony beginnings and shows how that tradition lives on. Lesley Morgan leads the tours, which depart El Monte Sagrado Resort & Spa and weave in and out of narrow alleys between original adobe buildings. The tour passes the Couse-Sharp Historic Site, the former studio of Taos Society of Artists founding members E.I. Couse and Joseph H. Sharp, and ducks into the Old
Taos County Courthouse to see WPAera murals painted by Victor Higgins. Morgan says her personal favorite stops are those that introduce visitors to Taos’ contemporary artists, including Tres Estrellas Gallery, and the studio of landscape painter Richard Alan Nichols. The tour concludes with an artisanal finish: a visit to Chokola Bean to Bar, which makes organic, small-batch chocolates—as the name implies— from bean to final creation. Albuquerque’s art is a personal highlight for guide Roberto “Bobby” Gonzales, who leads Mezcla de Culturas, A walking tour of Albuquerque’s Sawmill District and Historic Old Town. “I love