Visiting Albuquerque
Just an hour southwest of the capital of Santa Fe is New Mexico’s largest city of Albuquerque. I think Santa Fe has more of a charm than Albuquerque, but I liked both cities and between them there is a ton to see and do. The photo above was taken over ten years before my most recent trip to Albuquerque, when we arrived to the city for the first time.
In the middle of the city you can find the oldest surviving building in Albuquerque; the San Felipe de Neri cathedral. The church was founded as Francisco Xavierin in 1706 but later changed its name to San Felipe after King Philip of Spain. The rest of the city was all built around the cathedral, so San Felipe de Neri is truly the heart of Albuquerque.
The area around the San Felipe cathedral is part of Albuquerque’s old town, and is full of museums, art galleries, some unique native American markets, and even a small zoo! I spent most of my time randomly exploring the area, and took this photo above in the main plaza, where many vendors were selling jewelry and Native American artwork.
I almost never take souvenirs when I travel, but for those who do then Old Town would definitely be the best place in the state. Above and below are some of the interesting Native American handcrafts for sale. The dream catchers above are something famous within native American culture, but I believe these guys below might be more unique to tribes in the southwest.
A place you shouldn’t miss in my opinion is the Rattlesnake Museum. It’s the largest collection of rattlesnake species in the world, in addition to other desert creatures that are found in New Mexico. Above you can see a local species of rattlesnake, with the infamous sidewinder below.
Coming across poisonous snakes in the desert like the rattlesnake or sidewinder is a common fear for hikers. In addition to the venomous snakes, New Mexico is home to one of only two venomous lizards in the world; the gila monster. Bites by the gila monster are said to be extremely painful and in rare cases even be fatal, so these are seriously dangerous lizards to avoid. Less harmful but maybe scary to some is this desert tarantula photographed below.
A place I missed on the first visit to Albuquerque was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. This is a mix of a Native American museum as well as an art gallery. The center is much larger than it looks, and has several wings dedicated to various parts of Native American culture. The museum section has some artifacts such as ancient tools, pottery and sculptures; some even date back to the 1300’s.
This photo above shows a reconstruction of what Native American homes in this region looked like. You can tell from my other photos on this page that this style of architecture still exists all over the state, which is one reason why I love New Mexico. The photo below shows some ancient pottery with artistic designs. Other sections of the museum have modern art painted by natives that was recently created only a few years ago.
Since this place is so large, it’s hard to do it any justice with only a handful of photos. Since I enjoyed the performers here I decided to post two pictures from the native dances. There are between two to five native dances here every single weekend depending on the time of year you visit. There are dances from different tribes as well as different types, this one that I photographed was from the buffalo dance.
Walking around historic old towns in New Mexico are some of my favorite urban hikes to do in the country. These places are fairly large, rather than a single block or main street. Many of the stores sold antiques and artwork, such as the Blue Moon marketplace photographed above. The photo below shows an alley decorated with chile peppers, a common sight in New Mexico!
One of Albuquerque’s most famous buildings is the Kimo Theater. This theater was built in 1927, and is another example of Art Deco-Pueblo Revival Style architecture in the city. Had I known this was such a historic building I would have definitely gone inside. Even though the theater isn’t even a hundred years old, it’s still old by west coast standards and has a few urban legends. Maybe hte most creative one was that a six year old boy who died in the hotel during the 50’s, occasionally decides to interrupt some of the performances!
As you get into the downtown areas of the city, things begin to look more normal with high rise office buildings and some of the typical stores you’d see elsewhere in the country. Other parts of the city still have a unique charm to them, such as this colorful housing community I came across below.
Most Americans associate New Mexico with its nuclear research and testing. The state was actually the first place on earth that a nuclear bomb was tested, known as the trinity project. The national museum of nuclear history in Albuquerque is an excellent way to learn about the history of nuclear energy, ranging from the trinity project to how it is used today in modern reactors and other uses. The photo above shows a replica of the “Gadget” which was the first nuclear bomb ever made and detonated further south in New Mexico’s remote deserts. Incredibly you can buy sand here at the museum that was melted during the blast!
The nuclear testing led to the development of the Little Boy, and a replica photographed above, the Fat Boy, which were used to end World War II in Japan. These two attacks were the first times that nuclear weapons were ever used.
Of course the use of nuclear weapons brought lots of controversy for the civilians it killed. The photo above was taken in Hiroshima and shows the remains of a three year old’s tricycle found in the remains of the aftermath. Tens of thousands of Japanese were killed in the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Critics believe that the war was nearly over and should have been finished by a military invasion. Others pointed out that the Japanese had killed hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, many of the civilians, and that no more allies should have to be sacrificed for a war they didn’t start. Not to mention some estimated it would require another one million causalities to take over Japan by an invasion. While the controversy will exist, it was clear the nuclear bombings ended the war, and the photo below shows Americans celebrating the end of the worse war in human history.
I’d say most people outside the country aren’t aware of New Mexico’s role with nuclear power, but the state later because famous from the TV show Breaking Bad. Like most famous movies or successful shows, the locals are always happy to do tours in their hometown to point out famous locations and where certain events in the story happened. I didn’t do a Breaking Bad tour myself, but I did at least visit the candy shop that originally manufactured the “meth” for the show. The photo above shows me posing with the two main characters of the show, and below you can see an example of the blue rock candy that was officially used on Breaking Bad!
Albuquerque’s population of more than half a million people is known for both its drug and problem. As an example I went past a city park where there were over a dozen homeless people sleeping and panhandling. I was surprised by how many there were in a relatively small city, and of all cities I’ve been to in my life, including those overseas, only San Francisco had more. If you drive under any bridge that’s not in the downtown area you’re almost guaranteed to see a number of homeless people there. Most of them seemed to keep to themselves, but some where clearly in serious need of help, such as this man who was passed out on a city sidewalk below.
While I never had any issues with crime or felt in danger, I found that going out for nightlife was an interesting experience. First off we had tried to research a few places online, and once in a while we’d see a post that would say, “No Police!”. I didn’t know what that meant, but we ended up finding a spot where I tried to go inside with my camera but was turned away by a bouncer. The bouncer was super nice about it, and had even gone in to double check with management to make sure before telling me no. Without exaggeration, I dropped my camera off in the car and returned only minutes later, and the same bouncer suddenly went bipolar on me. He seemed agitated and questioned if I had been drinking, which we hadn’t. Next thing I knew I was doing tests like saying the alphabet and doing a few balancing tricks before I was finally let in. Very strange. Once inside things were otherwise pretty typical, but every 15 minutes or so you’d see a group of police officers make a round through the bar. I’m not a crazy party animal, but I’ve certainly been to a number of places throughout the country, and I’ve never seen bouncers giving sobriety tests or police teams inside bars before! I couldn’t take any photos inside of course, but before I dropped of my camera I got this Red Bull truck that was driving around promoting its beverage.
I’m not really sure how to transition from night life to Petroglyph Monument, but that was actually one of the things I did early the next day. Petroglyph national monument is a collection of large boulders with ancient rock paintings left behind from native Americans. Aside fro the petroglyphs, there’s some decent hiking here. In the photo above you can see some people hiking way above me on top of the boulders. While I was hiking I caught a photo of this bird below about to do a dive bomb maneuver.
Well, I’m a bit sad of my representation of the petroglyphs to be honest. There are some very cool and creative ones, and my photos give them no justice! What was I thinking? As bad as the photo above is, its probably the most decent shot I got. I’ll certainly have to fix this next time I’m in Albuquerque!
Lastly I had to make a stop to a famous grave site in New Mexico. Well over 100 years ago this part of the country was one of the roughest parts of the wild wild west. Back then the US government had little control over the population and getting away with murder was usually pretty easy. One of New Mexico’s and America’s most known outlaws was Billy the Kid. Originally from New York City, Billy the Kid traveled to New Mexico and stayed with a family after he was robbed of his horses and nearly died trying to find help. Billy the Kid was loyal and helped work along side the family until some of them were murdered by a rival faction. He spent the rest of his short life in a gang killing those responsible in revenge, constantly avoiding the law until he was finally arrested. After he killed his guards and escaped he was captured again and sentenced to death along with his friends. He is now buried in Fort Sumner where there is also a small museum. Above is his grave, with a single tombstone marked PALS.