New Mexico

Another cool day again, but not so windy.  We got up at 6:00am, got ready, packed the car and left by 7:00am.

Our first stop was at the Petrified Forest National Park to see the Painted Desert.  The colourful mesas, buttes and badlands you see in these pictures are a natural work of art.  Wind and running water cut these features from the Chinle Formation deposited over 200 million years ago when this area was a vast inland basin near sea level.  The colours are due to ancient environmental conditions in which the sediments were originally deposited as well as the type of minerals in the rocks.  Besides being colourful, the Chinle Formation contains valuable fossil records of Late Triassic plants and animals ranging from ferns and shellfish to amphibians and dinosaurs.  Members of the scientific community from all over the world come here to study these fossils.

From a lookout point called Chinde Point is where fossil bones of an early dinosaur, Chindesaurus bryansmalli, were discovered near here in 1984 and this park immediately received worldwide attention.  The fossil find was affectionately named “Gertie” after an early cartoon dinosaur.  The appearance of this small creature in the fossil record may be a key to understanding the origin, evolutionary rise and success of the dinosaurs that followed. 

We had some coffee and a huge chocolate chip biscuit and then drove to Gallup New Mexico which is the Indian jewelry capital of the world.  Most of the jewelry is handcrafted by the Navajo and Zuni Pueblo artisans. It was named after the paymaster of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1882. We stopped in at the El Rancho Hotel (all the romantic charm of yesterday with the convenience of tomorrow – the pride of Gallup) which is the home of the movie stars.  Stars such as Ronald Reagan, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Kirk Douglas were among the many stars listed in the guest register.  This hotel was formally opened on 17 December 1937 and has been decorated in a Spanish Indian tradition.  

Along our route we passed a town called Grants and just after this town there is some Lava Flow “Malpais” badlands.  This was when the Bandera Crater rose up in volcanic fury some 10 000 years ago.  Whilst we didn’t see the crater, it is approximately 1 200 fee across and 800 feet deep and we saw quite a bit of the old, black lava laying around. 

Albuquerque is known as the ballooning capital of the world (hot air balloons).  It was founded by Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdezin 1706 as the third villa in Spanish colonial New Mexico, and was named after the Due of Alburquerque, the then-34^th Viceroy of new Spain living in Mexico City.  Today it is the states largest city and the Bernalillo County seat.   We found a parking area and you have to pay before you leave your car.  The way you pay is that there is a booth with all the numbers of the parking lots listed on it and you have to “stuff” your money into the number relative to your parking bay.  There was no ticket or anything for you to display afterwards.  Here is a picture of Dereck “stuffing the meter!!  

We wondered around the town for a while and then found a place to have some lunch – it had to be Mexican now that we were in Mexican territory!!  Sue, Doug and I had salads and Dereck had some Mexican dish (can’t remember what it was exactly, but he enjoyed it as we did of our salads.  

Then we headed back to the car and on our way towards Sante Fe.  The lady at the information centre suggested that we go along the ”Turquoise Route” which is apparently the scenic route.  It was rather scenic and some of the towns we passed were only a couple of houses big.  We arrived at one town called Madrid and thought nothing of it until we went round the corner and saw that it was quite a quaint little town.  Apparently lots of artists live and work here.  

From there we finally reached our stop for the day – Santa Fe, which is known as the “The City Different” and is the oldest and highest-elevation capital in the USA.  We found a hotel called “Garrett’s Desert Inn” and with Doug’s excellent bargaining skills got a really good price.  Once unpacked, we headed off for a walk into the historic part of the town, which was about 3 blocks away.  The buildings here have a Spanish feel to them. We walked around a bit and then went to the Santa Fe Bar and Grill for dinner.  We were wondering why the town had been so quiet and all the shops shut, and then suddenly realized that our clocks were an hour slow – we are now 8 hours behind SA.  That explained a lot!!!  Dereck and Sue had a cheeseburger, Doug had spaghetti bolognaise and I had a chicken salad.  Sue and I had hot chocolate sundae’s for dessert.  Then we headed off back to our hotel for a good nights rest. 

Mexicans signing off ….