Santa Fe and Balloon Fiesta 2011

After a long flight and layovers, we spent our first day travelling and nearly had a huge diaster before our trip even began.  We were happily strolling along after retrieving our bags (one wasn't checked but had to be put under the plane right as your boarding) and it turns out that someone else took our bag and we had theirs.  We literally would have never known until we got to our hotel!  But the other lady had somehow looked in the bag and realized "oh shit" this isn't ours.  They were freaking out because their laptops were in the bag we had and mostly it would have just sucked for me because every single shirt I had packed was in that bag!  Glad to have avoided that and at least started with some good luck!!  The next morning we got up and went out to explore Santa Fe with a whole day of walking until we dropped!  After this one day, we pretty much just went into downtown Santa Fe to eat meals and oh my did we eat!!  Luckily, I ended the trip with only a 2 pound weight gain - yeah for me!  We ate so much that even our fortune at a Vietmanese place read, "Ulcers are what you got for forgetting your stomach"!  How funny is that?!  We had the most authentic mexican food at a place called Maria's where sopapillas became my new love!  AND we had some REAL margaritas where the owner literally "wrote the book" on them.  After one and half drinks Eric needed me to drive, that's how good they were!  Below is a picture of a church in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is known as being widely respected in the art world.  Mostly because it boasts the most art galleries.  There are 100 (at least) on Canyon Road...this road goes on and on forever!  We did it in 3.5 hours and went in most of the galleries!  It was exhausting but we did it....and happened to find something we liked to add to our collection.  Below is a picture of one of the galleries from Canyon Rd.  The sign says, "Jesus said buy folk art".

 Ah, balloon fiesta!  This was magnificent.  We awoke at 4:15am this morning with a departure time of 4:38.  The guy at the hotel told us we needn't leave before 5 and we're glad we didn't listen.  We didn't roll into the park until 6:50 with mass ascention starting at 7!  Barely made it!  Can you believe it only costs $6 per person to enter!!!  (With a $10 parking fee).  Kids under 12 were free.  I gladly would have paid more. 

 Opening ceremonies with the flag and music and planes flying over...all that jazz.

 Sun is not quite up yet, just barely peeking over the mountain for this great silhouette.

 At first there were just a few balloons in the air at a time and I thought, this is it?

 This picture is to show how we were all just milling about with balloons in every stage of going up.  Some flat on the ground, some filling up, some just getting off the ground.  You could just walk around and be anywhere!  Stuff was happening all around you...eventually so fast you didn't know where to look!

 Ah, now there are literally 100s of balloons in the sky, that's more like it!

 The special shapes were cool, especially Darth Vader!

 Spiderpig, Angel, Butterfly...balloonist came from all over the world!

Me with the bees and haunted house

Very cool thing to see.  It's one thing to ride in a hot air balloon, which we've done in New Zealand, but this was something else altogether.  In two hours 700+ balloons took flight and the result was magical.  I could have sat there all day.

Albuquerque - Tinkertown Museum, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Rt 66, Sandia Man Cave

After the balloon fiesta we went off to explore Albuquerque even though no one has given it rave reviews.  We drove downtown to check out historic Route 66.  We couldn't find the famed Aztec Hotel that was supposed to be one of the first on the street so we just kept on driving.  We decided we had time to check out Petroglyph National Monument and were a little disappointed.  Lots of basaltic volcanic rock, yes, petroglyphs...a little hard to find.  We turned around 10 mins into the walk and got out of there.

 Petroglyph National Monument - see the spiral to the left of Eric's head - yeah I know, we barely saw it too

Native dance at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.  Here we learned that there are 19 pueblos in NM and they all our under their own governments.  Also learned that this was NOT the best place for native food (sorry Lonely Planet you got that WAY wrong).  Again, we came to the museum on a whim after the Lonely Planet said "everyone" goes.  We breezed through the museum, checked out some of the vendors wares, and had our not so stellar lunch before heading out to....The Tinkertown Museum.

 This museum was on our way to the infamous (and little known) Sandia Man Cave.  We stopped and were so glad we did.  The building was made up of some sort of concrete and lots of glass bottles.  The guy, a woodworker, had started carving as a hobby and then just kept going until he filled up the house (now museum) with all sorts of cool scenes.  Among them was other weird artifacts, signs, old stuff - unique junk basically.

 This here machine you put a quarter in and the band played with the guy at the top popping in and out of the door.

 You put a quarter in this one for lightning and thunder to erupt while good and bad fought.  The sign says "Teach Your Small Fry B 4 They Fry!"

 Circus Scene

 And finally to the Sandia Man Cave...the people at the Tinkertown Museum knew what we were talking about and directed us here.  They said, "Up past the ski resort you turn onto a little dirt road."  "What kind of car you driving anyway," they asked?  "Real narrow type road up there, you gotta be careful."  All we knew about this cave is what the Lonely Planet told us and that was that boy scouts had found the oldest human encampment here....after a crazy, twisty dusty dirt road we made it to the parking lot of the trail where a sign told us we were in "Cougar Country - do not play dead, fight back if you see one".  Awesome.  We saw a few people coming back on the trail and then suddenly out of no where comes this big beast bounding toward us!  Scared the crap out of me after reading the cougar sign but turned out to be a just a really big dog.  His companions were 20-somethings that strangely were the only ones covered in filth on the way back.  Strange.  Above, is the view from the trail...

 This is ridiculous spiral staircase that literally seems to lead to nowhere.  You can't really see where you are going or what's at the top.  Turns out it's just the mouth of the cave you step into.  We were prepared with flashlights after reading that you are totally engulfed in darkness after a few feet.

 The flash makes me visible in this picture.  Eric had to use the flashlight to tell where I was to take it.  Notice the "dusty" quality of the picture.  That dust was ALL over us and a good deal in our lungs after we were done.  We had to hop over a waist high wall and crawl through the cave using our flashlight...not much to see but at least we can say we did it.  Later we went back to the hotel and researched on the internet and found out that no human remains were actually found in the cave (and not by the boy scouts either) but that the oldest animal remains ever found were here.  Also, this was the site of a suicide and murder.  Lovely.

This crazy little picture, people, is actually showing the ENTRANCE to the cave.  It's hard to tell since it's basically a flat cliff and it looks like there's no way in hell a person is getting out to it but the hole is closer to the right side of the picture where it sort of looks like there might be a door.  Not sure if you can tell.  Yeah, we went in there.

Getting to Taos - Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, Earthships, Church

 We decide to take the high road to Taos (long but good views).  We had meant to stop along the way a couple times but ended up having a little trouble.  We missed signs and started following this truck (lower right hand corner) on this dirt road past houses and farms.  It's really hard to see but on top of the truck that dark spot right on the mountain is a dog!  He jumped right up from the back of the pickup onto the top of the cab as the truck was driving and just stayed there!!  Speaking of dogs, we also thought we were going to be attacked by random savage dogs.  You would try to drive by one and it would run out in front of the car and start jumping and barking.  It was crazy!  Finally the driver the truck pulled over and motioned us forward to tell us we were going in the wrong direction.  Needless to say, we took the shorter low road home and thought the views were just fine!

 Rio Grande River - we saw the river at various places all throughout the trip

 Here we are at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge - longest suspension bridge in the US (or something like that)

 Earthship...you too can buy one of these babies for $400,000.  There are populations of earthships all over the US but the largest one is here in New Mexico.  We got to see it.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take a tour of one because the visitor's center was closed for a conference.

Electricity: from sun and wind.
Water: from rain and snow.
Sewage:sanitary treatment.
Heating and Cooling:
from the sun and the earth.
Food: grow inside and outside.
Building with Natural and Recyled Materials

 Church made famous by Georgia O'Keefe - apparently she painted in a way that no other had done before her.  We made it a few minutes before the supposed 4pm last showing of a video and a painting where an image appears out of nowhere...but when we got there the doors were locked and other visitors couldn't get in either....hmmm...we'll save that mystery for another time.

 A random textiled sheep in Taos

One of the murals in Taos.  Huge artist community here founded after a guy broke his wagon wheel and was awed and inspired by the indians and beauty at Taos Pueblo.

Taos Pueblo

This is Taos Pueblo.  The oldest original structures still inhabited today.  All are made completely by hand of adobe and the lady said about 50-100 are lived in depending on the time of year.  No running water, no electricity.

 San Geronimo church

 Red Willow River where they get their water...the people are known as the Red Willow people

 I wish this could be the view from my backyard!

 One of the pueblo boys

 Ovens where they still make bread and pies.

 Ladder to the sky!

Site of the old church that was burnt down.  Original bell in that tower though and site of their original graveyard.  You can't see it in this picture but it's behind the wall.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

After the balloon fest this was by far the coolest thing we saw.  These "tent rock" formation were made by volcanic eruptions and the different color striations are from the ash (I think).  The hike up through these was pretty steep near the top but well worth the views.  Take a look!

See the tent-like peaks with a sort of circular rock on the top...totally done by nature.

Weird huh?

Eric hiking in the tent rocks

Wow, the view keeps getting better and better with each step...

Isn't this magnificent!!

Aaahhh..finally at the top!  The higher elevation made it easy to lose your breath.  We took a little break and took in the scenary before hiking back down.