A Taste Of New Mexico...

Good Evening Everybody!

I couldn't have put a better picture than the one above to describe New Mexico, and the whole meaning of this trip.

Open spaces, a very wild scenery, and that true feeling of "Road Trip" that only images like the one above can transmit.

That Hwy 550 SB, going from Farmington, NM to Albuquerque, NM, some 150 miles further South.

The first highlight of the day has been the crossing of the Continental Divide for the second time on this trip, the first time being in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming on July 6th 2008; so this come exactly 35 days after the first crossing.

Here's a picture of the sign:

If you pull over, you're also going to see the Historic Marker, where the State of New Mexico explain what "Continental Divide" means:

I'm not really sure you can read from the picture, so I'll read it for you:

"Rainfall divides at this point. To the West it drains into the Pacific Ocean, to the East it drains into the Atlantic."

If you think about it, it is a really interesting thing to know, sort of puzzling if you relate this to the vastness of North America.

Just after we pulled out of the parking lot to get back on the Highway, as I was reaching the the 70 mph speed limit, I noticed two motorbikes approaching "The Bug" from behind. As soon as they passed us, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and since I'm a nice guy, I'll share what I saw with you:

Yes, you got that right, this guy was riding his motorcycle at 75 mph without using his hands! He probably went on for a few miles before a blind spot on a hill brought him back to reality, and he decided to get a grip back on the handle bars!

We arrived in Albuquerque without any problem, traffic wasn't bad at all on I-25 and I-40. At one point, we crossed for the first time the "Rio Grande" that at this point in time wasn't that "Grande" at all; more like a "Tall" drink from Starbucks, that is everything but "tall"!

Here's the shot of the road sign:

After we crossed the Rio Grande, while we were searching for the Tourist Information Center (that by the way we didn't find), we came across another road sign telling us that we were back on Route 66!

I couldn't help but taking a picture of the sign itself, and also "The Bug" which kindly asked me to be in the same shot to prove the other "Buggies" he's been there!

So here it is, the sign itself:

And "The Bug" after another "achievement"!:

Albuquerque looks like a nice city, smaller than what I thought, but still a nice city.

Our first stop of the day has been Old Town, with its many tourist traps, ehm I mean, souvenir shops and restaurants, and the beautiful square in the middle called "First Plaza"

While Mariachi were playing in the Plaza Gazebo for the many tourists strolling up and down the many stores and stalls, we decided to visit the Old Church of San Felipe De Neri whose picture I'm posting down below:

The inside of the church is as beautiful and as simple as the outside is, which tells you a lot about the people that first built the church: they were simple men, with simple beliefs, and I appreciate that.

After we got out of the church we decided to take a walk around the block to see what was there: enough shops to make King of Prussia in Pennsylvania or Mall of America in Minnesota look small. All right, I'm exaggerating, but that was the kind of feeling, as if we were in a strip mall in Florida, where, no matter where you go, everything looks exactly the same! The only difference here is that the little stores and gift shops were inside Adobe Style buildings.

The beautiful picture down below brought me back to reality, allowing me to taste what New Mexico, and the whole true south should feel like.

It reminds me so much of the Mediterranean, Italy, and Spain:

A Travel company down in Old Town also offers SegWay guided tours. Wow, those things really go fast, I was looking at the tour guide for quite some time to see how to operate the SegWay, and at one point he started going real fast in the middle of the road!

Here's a picture of some of the tourists taking the tour:

The next thing we decided to do since it was a beautiful afternoon to spend outdoors, was to go to the Sandia Peak Tramway.

Sandia Peak Tramway is the world's longest passenger aerial tramway.

The Tramway also boasts the third world's longest single span (and trust me, it was long!!!), it is located between the second tower and the top terminal at a length of 7,720 feet or if you prefer, 2,353 meters. You can see it from the picture down below taken from the Station on the Mountain, where you can see down below, the second tower at a distance of approximately 1.4 miles.

Yes, those are three crazy human beings that you see on top of the car! :-) LOL

Once on top, visitors are able to wander free, as they find themselves as you could imagine, in a totally different place from the one they had just left 15 minutes earlier.

Sandia Peak is home of the Ski Area for Albuquerque (I didn't know they had skiing in New Mexico!?!?!), but it is also home as any other wild habitat, such as Black Bears, and other animals that you certainly don't want to meet when you go hiking!

Here's the sign to warn hiker and tourists in general, which again I though it was kind of neat since we don't have any of this wild animals where I grew up!

As I said before, Sandia Peak offers a totally different scenery from the one we had just left down below, or even better, from Old Town with all its shops.

Doesn't it look like I'm somewhere up in the Alps?!?!

The Tramway Company offers "flights" every 15 minutes, , so that people don't really need to worry about how much time they decide to spend on the top of the mountain.

On the way back, we struck a conversation with a very pleasant lady from North Carolina that was in Albuquerque for a Conference. We started wondering about the first reasons that pushed the construction of the Tramway, and we were laughing about the three people on top of the cable car that looked like they were freezing their "buns" off. (Don't forget, we were at 11,000 feet!).

Being the world as "small" as it is, we soon got to the point that her son is a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduate; that I go to Johnson & Wales University at the North Miami Campus, and that I'm writing about this wonderful experience while I try to get some sleep in between now and then!

We chatted all the way down, plus some time spent at the base terminal, then we parted with a nice smiles on our faces, glad to have met another interesting human being along the way.

The picture down below is the last one for the day, another weird shot!

As I was pulling out of the parking lot to get back on the road, the tramway was about ready to depart.

Now, how many of you in their lives had to stop their car at a "Tramway Crossing"?

I did, so that now I can say "Been there, done that folks"!

Tomorrow looks like another busy day as we will probably go take a look at the Petroglyph National Monument and Museum, and some other very interesting spots I'll tell you more about later today.

Thank you again for all the words of encouragement I'm getting from those of you who are reading the blog.

Time to call it a day and go to sleep.

Goodnight folks,

Nico