The best things to see in Albuquerque (New Mexico) in one day

Our next stage in the Coast to coast trip through the United States leads us to Gallup, almost 500 kilometers from Yellow.

We are already entering the mythical American West, that our unconscious reminds us of Indian tribes.

They are wide, beautiful, generous and even wild landscapes. The roads are endless, with long straight lines to the horizon, and followed by another equal straight line to the next horizon.

The entire route is following the historic Route 66, which sometimes becomes the interstate highway.

The landscape is semi-desert, beautiful, flat, with red mounds and hills, in a first approximation to the landscapes of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

For many miles we found few service areas, although I have appeared in many of them, specifically in Flying P. Ranch, Clines Corners and in Indian Village.

Conclusion establishments run by native Indians, the majority Navajo, but also from other ethnic groups (Apache, Comanche and some others), who sell a multitude of objects of their crafts, of which goldsmithing with turquoise stones stands out.

This semi-desert landscape is also very sparsely populated, with few villages in sight. What can be seen is very simple in nature.

These service areas of the interstate highway seem like centers of tribute to the native Indians of North America (in addition to their commercial nature...) who were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands, greatly decimated and who have lost the essence of their life. It's sad.

What to see in Albuquerque

We have stopped for about five hours in Alburquerque, a city that takes its name from the homonymous of Extremadura.

It is the largest city in state of new mexico, but not its capital, which is the city of Santa Fe.

Alburquerque It has a population of more than half a million inhabitants and was founded in 1706 by Spanish colonizers, and still retains some aspects of that Spanish cultural and historical heritage.

In Albuquerque, during the month of October, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the largest concentration of balloons in the world.

We have toured the city, first by car and then on foot. Initially, the modern area of ​​the city, where we ate in a very nice pizzeria.

The food served buffet style was very good, well prepared and the pizza was very crispy.

We also visited the Congress and Exhibition Palace, which had a lot of activity and various exhibitions.

Then by car we headed to the Old City of Albuquerque, with strong Mexican and Spanish reminiscences, both in aesthetic aspects and in the type of food and crafts (ceramics, galleries,...).

We were walking there for a couple of hours and in the Plaza Mayor we saw a hermitage very old dedicated to Saint Philip Neri.

The feeling that this city has left us is that it would be very pleasant to live in, and that sometime in one of our lives we will come to reside here for a long time.

Now we are in the mythical west. Great feeling of spaciousness, long, quiet roads, few vehicles, peace, harmony.

The road is alive and the road is life and it was alive. There are roads and there are detours, there is hard and wild land. There is soul. And everything is beautiful, very beautiful!!!

Sun and heat: about 35º; with rain, temperatures drop to 19/20º.

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