Nary a hot dog nor a jumping frog in sight (Albuquerque)

Member Name: amonet

Product:	Albuquerque
Date:	03/09/01 (577 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: scenery, weather, fairly small

Disadvantages: nil

I visited Albuquerque, New Mexico (hereafter Alb.) in February of 1997. It was a trip to see a friend, not so much a holiday or touristy visit for me, and only a week 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. If you've watched "Roswell", you will have an idea of the countryside already. 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. When my friend moved there from Texas, he and his siblings would come home from school every day and take a nap as the air is thinner up there. It only took them a few weeks to really acclimatize. As I was all jetlagged anyway, I felt marginally tired and went to bed early every night. It didn't really affect me that much, not enough to change my plans or spoil my visit - far from it! I returned to the UK refreshed from all that sleep! Also, being so high up makes the air fresher than any I've breathed. You almost feel healthier by simply breathing great lungfuls 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-coloured, with traditional native american features and decor. The home of my friend was a dream house for me - I lov
ed 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. My friend recommended it.

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 favourite day (although I was puzzled to see a car there with Munich plates!). You can visit the beautiful Spanish church, all sand coloured and catholic, surrounded by old pretty wrought iron railings. You can wander around the tourist-targetted 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 colourful native american rug, some "arrow heads" for my then-young brothers, a little doll for my daughter all dressed up in the traditional, local native american garb, a few small books about the local history and a few beaded bracelets. My conscience wouldn't allow me to buy from the WASP locals.

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 l
ike 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.

You can see pictures of the old town here:

http://gosouthwest.about.com/library/blabqpix. htm?once=true&PM=n39030901g

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 colour 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 upto an hour.

You can see a picture here:

http://www.nmgl.com/features.htm

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 Feb, 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 - NM i
sn'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. While below in the city, I was wearing what, for we Brits, are summer togs. Up on top of this mountain it's freeeeeeezing. 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 - an adult for a whole day will only have to pay $38 (about £18-ish). 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 or rellies in the US, you can call them from this restaurant as it's somehow wangled really chea
p prices for long distance calls - cheaper than some domestic calls.

There's a website: http://www.sandiapeak.com/

During October usually, Alb hosts the Internation Balloon Festival. Being such a small town, 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.

The city of Alb itself is pretty much an average US city. There are the usual shops and restaurants, plenty of Mexican food (Gardunos is recommended; your waiters will be WASP but the food is definately gorgeous Mexican grub 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 - it's still the US, even if it's quieter and smaller than most. I actually felt very safe and peaceful there.

The city isn't that big really, even compared with UK cities - it's perhaps the size of Bristol at most. 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 afield it will invo
lve 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.
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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 civilisation, 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. 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 love it.


New Mexico Area Guidebook - http://www.nmgl.com/
AllAboutAlb.com - http://www.allaboutalbuquerque.com/

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