I visited
Albuquerque, new Mexico (hereafter Alb.) in July of 1986. It was a
trip to see a friend, not so much a holiday or touristy visit for
me, and only a year long (which I regret) but I still managed to see
a fair bit of the place. it's a truly beautiful area; much of the
white man's development adheres to the traditions of the area.
Located in the south west of
the United States, alb is in the desert. It's a very compact city
nestling between mountain ranges. It's literally surrounded by
mountains on all sides. It's very, very high indeed, almost a mile
above sea level. It only took me a few weeks to really acclimatize.
It didn't really affect me that much, not enough to change me. Also,
being so
high up makes the air fresher than any I've breathed. You almost
feel healthier by simply breathing great lungful of clean,
unpolluted mountain air.
The area has been inhabited by at least 19 different groups of
native Americans for many tens of thousands of years - various
nations have lived and still live there, including the Hopi, the
Navajo and the Anasazi. The region is also known as the "four
corners" as four States meet here - New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and
Nevada. These people lived mainly in an area spanning the four
corners and have left their mark on the area without a doubt. Even
the modern houses are built in tribute to them much of the time -
flat roofs, cream or sand-colored, with traditional native American
features and decor. The home of my friend was a dream house for me -
I loved it, wooden floors, low roofs but spacious rooms, stairs up
to the roof to sit at night and look at the stars.
The Rio Grande river runs past Alb and can be seen clearly from the
airport. Route 66 also runs through the city, and if you really want
to, you can stay at the same motel on this road that Elvis used. It's
well advertised outside so you won't miss it. It's a simple motel,
as they mostly are in the States, but fairly cheap and comfortable.
Alb itself was founded in 1706, by a Mr. Alburquerque (don't know
why they dropped the "r"), so my friend told me. The Spanish were
obviously there before other Europeans and the Old Town is lovingly
maintained. Visiting the Old Town was my favorite (although I was
puzzled to see a car there with Munich plates!). You can visit the
beautiful Spanish church, all sand colored and catholic, surrounded
by old pretty wrought iron railings. You can wander around the
tourist-targeted shops selling local made goods at tourist prices,
or you can visit shops run by local native Americans. While I
suspect that these shops also hiked their prices up a bit, they are
still cheaper than the aforementioned shops. I bought a locally
weaved and very colorful native American rug, a few small books
about the local history and
a few beaded bracelets.
The Native American run shops that I visited were sweetly
old-fashioned, not sure if this was deliberate. The floors were
wooden with a thin dirt covering, and the goods were displayed in
showcases scattered around - no shelves or aisles. As these were low,
you can see the whole shop from one spot and there is plenty to
catch your eye. They also offer a lot in the way
of historical guides - things like diaries and photographs from the
Native American perspective. I even saw a few mannequins dressed in
Native American clothing, as well as old Spanish/Mexican and United
States soldiers uniforms.
Another place to visit without a doubt is the Sandia Peak Ski and
Tramway. Millions of year ago, back when Rudyard Kipling's funny
animals roamed the Earth, the land in this area was flat - until
continents crashed. This is the quick version for we non-geologists!
When two landmasses met, one was pushed beneath the other. The one
on top was shoved up into the air and became the Sandia Mountains.
One side of this mountain face looks over the
city of Alb and is rocky and rough. You can climb this if you like.
It's covered with huge rocks and boulders, but is green by local
standards. There is even a park on it; you can drive some of the way
up and park, then wander around a few trails, sit on the
outcroppings and have lunch over looking the city with spectacular
views for miles.
In Spanish Sandia means "watermelon". In order to understand why the
locals called these mountains the "Watermelon Mountains", you have
to see the sunset from somewhere above the city. The aforementioned
park is perfect. At sunset, all the mountain ranges around Alb for
miles turn a pinky color due to the sun hitting the sand. Picture it
- it's like nothing I've ever seen before or since. Even the light
turns pink for up to an hour. The other side of the mountain used to
be flat ground, and so is perfect for skiing. People were still
skiing when I was there in February, and I understand that you can
continue skiing into March. It was warm while I was there so the
incredible heat of the area will melt the snow come spring - New
Mexico isn't far from the Grand Canyon and Death Valley where the
heat in the summer can reach over 100 degrees.
Some sadist decided to build a restaurant at the top of the
mountain. Sure, there is a tram (hanging on a wire a la Alps) that
you can ride up now, but pity the poor souls who had to carry all
the stuff up to the top to build the other end of the tramway in the
first place. The restaurant is very proud of being a mile high - you
can eat a mile above sea level in an almost circular building over
looking the amazing views I mentioned above. I was warned to take a
jumper. I almost didn't as I didn't believe them. There was also
lots of snow. I was sunbathing in the morning and throwing snowballs
that evening.
The tram takes about 15 minutes to get to the top and the views are
enough to take your breath away, not to mention occupy you. You will
share the tramway with skiers loaded down with all their equipment
and mountain bikers. The ski station is at the top next to the
restaurant and the skiing starts right there - you don't have to
walk anywhere else to get to the pistes. There are 24 miles of
trails for mountain bikers to follow. You can hire bikes and helmets
and they are fairly cheap considering. I didn't actually do any
mountain biking, unfortunately. You can also take scenic chairlift
rides - I didn't do this either as they were closed due to excess
wind!
The restaurant itself serves lovely food from all over the world.
Barring the fact that we found a hair in our Angel Hair pasta, it
was pleasant enough. The prices were on par with the city - it's a
nice restaurant, but not super-posh. If you have any friends in the
US, you can call them from this restaurant as it's somehow wangled
really cheap prices for long
distance calls - cheaper than some domestic calls.
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During October usually, Alb hosts the International Balloon
Festival. Being such a small town (150,000), you can see these
things from all over the area massive hot air balloons in
various shapes and sizes (some don't spot power lines) from all
over the world.The Sandia
Peak people offer chairlift rides during this period especially for
the purposes of viewing the balloons, but you don't really need to do that to view them. Visit
the park or just hang out on the roof of a building.
Alb also has a zoo (with white tigers) and an aquarium but I didn't
visit them, as well as a rattlesnake museum, a museum about the
history of atomic power, a car museum, a natural history museum and
a museum of Alb itself. |
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The city of Alb itself is pretty much an average US city. There are
the usual shops and restaurants, plenty of Mexican food that you can
smell outside. They've also got a traditional Mexican band playing
and will let you take your food home if you can't finish it all in
one go. As it's quite a touristy area, you haven't got a hope in
hell of getting into any bars if you can't prove you are over 21. I've
known other US cities to be far less strict about this, but it's
pathological in Alb! While wandering down one of the main shopping
and bar streets, I was unfortunately witness to the aftermath of a
shooting. I actually felt very safe and peaceful there.
The city isn't
that big really, even compared with other US cities. There is
enough here to keep you busy for a week or ten days. As it's quite
isolated, if you want to go further a field it will involve drives of
at least 2 hours. Places like Las Cruces are even more "oldie
worldie" than Alb but worth a visit. Roswell is even not too far if
you want to go alien-spotting. Once I'd seen the major local
attractions, I was quite happy just to go to
the mountain park and chill with a coke, looking at the views and
watching the sunset. It was actually lovely being up there and being
able to see very few signs of civilization, apart from the city. You
can see for tens of miles in any direction and there's almost
nothing but desert.
Albuquerque is the perfect place to go for a different sort of
holiday. As I said, it's small so you don't have far to go to see or
do anything. It's geology is very rare and special and worth the
visit alone. There is plenty to do for all ages, including a water
park now I think, with slides 'n' stuff. Obviously if you like
active holidays, it's perfect - once you have skied or mountain
biked or hiked, you can head out of town and do more in other places.
The history of the area was the greatest attraction to me. The
Native Americans survived here for thousands of years, despite it's
extreme aridity in the summer. Thousands of them lived here but
equally it was a great trading and meeting area so there is
influence from many different peoples. The Spanish/Mexicans also
left their indelible mark on the area and some think their legacy
clashes with that of the Native Americans. I disagree. Naturally the
history of Alb will show hardship, fighting and cruelty on all sides,
but today at least, everyone lives there together and somewhat
peacefully. For example I went to a local fast food restaurant and
the line of people waiting for lunch was outside the door. Nobody
was complaining and everyone seemed relaxed. This would never happen
so quietly on the east coast. The influence of no one group in
particular dominates and the result is a modern American city which
celebrates and shows off all aspects of it's history. I loved it.
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