Albuquerque – part 2

Here is a taste of some of the other Albuquerque (ABQ) sites and events we were able to go to:

Old Town:

Albuquerque has a lovely old town section of the city with original buildings and lots of art.

Petrogylph National Monument:

You can hike to see thousands of petroglyphs, both made by the natives and by the Spaniards. They are everywhere. We took our friend Mark with us and got a New Yorker’s perspective on ancient drawings.

Bosque Trail:

The trail is a mixed use (horses, bikes, hikes) that follows the Rio Grande and irrigation canals on the west side of the city. Our AirB&B was about a mile away and we both spent a lot of time on our bikes on this trail. Chris used it to get to other roads to ride on while I was happy enough with the 16 mile trail to mostly stay on it.

Acoma Pueblo:
This is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America, according to the Acoma people of New Mexico. It is a native pueblo built on the top of a mesa established before Spain entered New Mexico. Although most people of the pueblo live in modern towns off the pueblo, there are 10-20 people who still live on the pueblo, which has no running water or electricity. When you take a tour, you hear about the rich history and culture of the Acoma people, see the old buildings (some with newer renovations), and see a sampling of the arts and crafts of the people. Acoma is very well known for its style of black pottery, but there are many other types of artists that show their work at the top of the mesa. There is a small museum at the pueblo cultural center which had an amazing exhibit of cartoonist Ricardo Cate, who we had never heard of. His work is very funny but also entrenched in the reality of life for native americans in the U.S.  Well worth seeing!

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center:

This place represents the 19 pueblos of New Mexico and is filled with history, stories, art, dancing, and native american culture. Their message about mother earth and environmentalism is almost more relevant now than any other time, as our current administration slowly gets rid of the environmental protections we currently have and the native culture still tries to preserve the earth. .

New Mexican cuisine:

There is great Mexican food everywhere and something called New Mexican cuisine. Honestly, I could not tell the difference between old and new, except in those restaurants with new Mexican cuisine, typically you have the choice of red or green sauce, or Christmas (which is both.)

Ballooning:

Ballooning is a big event here with the annual balloon festival every October. There is a big ballooning museum which we did not get to, but we did love often seeing balloons outside our bathroom window when we woke up.

Hiking:

We did less hiking here because of visitors, yoga and century rides. We did hike up El Pino trail on the last weekend, and because 9 miles one day was not enough for Chris, he did 8+ miles on the La Luz trail on the next day! There are three climate zones as you go up the mountains so we saw amazing wild flowers in one of the zones.

The hay truck on our street:

I don’t know why this was parked on our street for almost the whole time we were in ABQ, but needed to share this picture.

From Albuquerque, we have been traveling back east to meet our daughter on the Outer Banks at the end of June. On the way, we stopped in a couple of places.

Bandolier National Monument:

Hot Springs, Arkansas:

Memphis:

Natchez Trace and Blue Ridge Parkway:

We spent a short time driving and trying to hike in the very wet national forests in Tennessee and North Carolina. Eventually we gave up camping because we did not have the right equipment for the rain. We are outside Raleigh right now waiting for Saturday when we meet Calysta in the Outer Banks for a week. After that we are headed to Rochester for 2-4 weeks, so the blog will be quiet for a while.