A day in Albuquerque

 Our motel room was on the third floor and faced the area where all of the balloons from the big Balloon Fiesta were supposed to ascend at 7:00. We were at our window at 7:15, and over the next half hour or so did see about a dozen balloons take off. It was interesting but the balloons were too far away to see well and there were only a dozen of them - many fewer than we expected. After a half hour or so the balloons were gone and it was time to move on.

My next stop was car maintenance, not nearly as colorful as balloon ascension, but necessary My car has been doing well, and I want to keep it that way, so I made a trip to the nearest Jiffy Lube to change my oil and filter. I had never used Jiffy Lube before, but they were quick, courteous, and thorough, and I was back at the motel by 9:00.

                                             petroglyphs on mountain, near Albuquerque

Our next stop was a mesa on the western side of Albuquerque where Pueblo Indians had scratched petroglyphs (pictures or symbols depicting various places or events in their lives) on the rocks. Viewing the petroglyphs involved a steep climb over a rocky path to the top of the mesa, but it was worth the climb. We saw quite a number of petroglyphs, and at the top of the mesa one of the park rangers was available to answer our questions and tell us more about the various drawings we had seen. The specific meanings of most of the petroglyphs are often not known. Current Pueblo Indians may know some of the meanings, although the same symbol or figure might have a different meaning for different groups of Indians, but they generally consider these drawings secret and sacred, so even if they know, they ain't necessarily tellin'.

We went from there to the Old City section of Albuquerque, a colorful area of small courtyards branching off of the main street, with stores selling food and various Indian and other crafts. Most of the products were made by local artisans, but a few of the cheaper items did bear the label, Made in China.
We had lunch outdoors at one of the large plazas where a band was playing, and for dessert one of the best pieces of baklava with which I have ever had the pleasure of indulging myself. It had just come out of the oven and it was full of nuts and a light honey -delicious!

We then spent a good bit of the rest of the afternoon in a small park with a bandstand in the center, which brought back memories of trips to Mexico and the Zocalo which is always the center of activity in the town. And just like in Mexico, the park was surrounded on three sides by small shops selling local crafts. In many cases the person who had made the articles was also selling them from a small stand outside the shops. I suppose that the main difference between this park and the Zocalos in Mexico is that here one could shop at leisure without being pressured by people who needed whatever sales they made on a given day just to barely feed and shelter themselves and their families.




high school band in Albuquerque

On the fourth side of the park was a church. Elise briefly visited the church, and then we browsed through the shops but mostly just sat in the park listening to the various musical groups, including a group of about 8 or 9 high school students dressed in Mariachi outfits and singing songs in Spanish.

 It was a very pleasant day, and we didn't mind that we had neither the time nor the energy left to see the other places we had planned to visit in Albuquerque.