ALBUQUERQUE - ITS A TRIP

Sunrise over Sandia Mountains

Orangey haze, reddish desert and a crimson sunrise eerily greeted us upon approach to  Albuquerque International Sunport.  From the window, the sun’s reflection created a reddish hue on the silver aircraft as the landing gear locked into position.   This is the country of Roswell, known for UFO’s, the US Military and the setting for the Prime Time Emmy Awards TV series Breaking Bad. 

 

If you have not seen this series, I desperately urge you to do so.  It’s about a chemistry genius turned high school teacher using his expertise to secretly provide for his family by producing the world’s highest quality of blue crystal meth. 

Now you have an interesting impression of Albuquerque.  

What hits you most is the vastness of the area with a small population of just over 550,000.   It’s quietness and stillness echoes throughout the roads and freeways.  What goes on in the city is neither quiet nor still.

Nativo Lodge with Mexican theme motif running through the hotel was where our party stayed.   Unpacked and ready for my adventure of being lost in this void,  is the scariest sensation of vanishing along with the dust of Albuquerque’s  Route 66.

My GPS  Satellite Guide and sensible people in the party made very sure I was not going to be snatched for Alien experimentation or  nabbed by officious looking  hick-town tobacco chewing cop for speeding.   Destination is Route 66 Malt Shop on Central Avenue.  

The Malt Shop, Route 66 Albuquerque

The ambience of the Malt Shop transported me back to the 1950’s,  I was truly lost in time.   This Malt Shop had every kind of soda floats, from Root Beer to Brown Cow! (That’s coke float with chocolate syrup).  Their gourmet hamburgers,  Hebrew hot dogs, deli sandwiches and Southwest specialties all but takes you back to the days of diners and jukebox with repeats of Connie Francis “Lipstick on your Collar” in the background.   The brief memory of fast food indigestion slips away unguarded if you are hungry enough, only to return with a vengeance half an hour later.

The Malt Shop, Route 66

The Candy Lady, Debbie Ball

The unreal back in time, eerily quiet town, shadows lurking behind each step provides now a tourist trap for those wishing to visit the set of Breaking Bad, even you can buy “blue” crystal meth candy as souvenir from The Candy Lady store.  The blue tinted snack is merely sugar rock candy, though it bears a close resemblance to the blue crystal that is central to the plot of the TV drama.  In fact, The Candy Lady store supplied the “meth candy” for the show as props for the drug.

As with dark humor, there is always light. The signature activity in Albuquerque, for instance, if it’s Paris, a must is The Louvre, so with Albuquerque, a must is a Hot Air Balloon trip chasing after other unidentified objects in the sky.

Four a.m. wake up call and always ready to scare myself silly, I was taken to the Balloon Festival Park at the northern edge of the city,  hopped into this wobbling basket ready for action.   It’s not very steady and I’m told to stand in the middle and to hold on to the attached rope real tight.  It is still dark with only the gas-light radiating warmth and light.  Anchored by a rope before the gas is ignited.   Once lit, a little push, then lift off.   Away we go, slowly at first and then reaching the required height our balloon pilot switches off the gas…. Silence and darkness.   The only sound is the wind passing us by.  It is almost as if the world had stopped and I had become a bird gliding in total rhythm with nature.    Little rays of sunlight casting shadows from hillside rocks and mountains, the multi shades of red sky cascading outlines of the ground below revealing that dawn had broken.    

Hot Air Balloon in Albuquerque

Suddenly I realize there was other balloon rides scattered around me, some higher in altitude, some within shouting distance.   A little puff of gas and we escalated a 100 more feet.   A thrilling moment when your stomach lurches forward, no safety belt, not much to hold on to, with cold calm winds against your face.  For 45 minutes, I was traversing around Sandia Mountains and had a bird’s eye view of the magnificent Bernalillo County terrain.   The sight was breathtaking.  All the turmoil in my life left at ground level suspended in this heavenly space above New Mexico’s sky.

There are two things that New Mexico is noted for, Tequila and Chilies.  El Pinto takes their Margaritas and Chilli sauce seriously.  I met the owners of El Pinto, the twin brothers, Jim and John, who joined us for the seriously 137 best varieties of martinis, before our Mexican dinner.  Their Salsa has got to be the fieriest in the world and knowing we were a party from Thailand, he challenged us to try his Scorpian Salsa made with the hottest chili on the planet.  What could be worse than prik-ki-noo, the peppers I souse my noodles with everyday at lunch, so not so much as a glance, I took a nacho and dipped.

In my delirium of losing my tongue to the devil, my botanist grandmother’s words once lectured me long ago on capsicums came flooding in my mind.  They grow best, and most potent in the driest patches of red earth.  She was so right…this place has dry patches of red earth granite.  Not only are my vocal chords no long functioning but I was also seeing red.  Not red patches of sunlight, or reflections of crimson sunrise, but fiery blood raising my body temperature all over.   I capitulate and raise the white flag.  Scorpian Salsa is the winner.

I believe it is time to go home.