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.
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