Category Archives: Travel

Day 13

4.30 start for the Balloon Fiesta! Sleep punctuated by police sirens (understandable in a large city) and train whistles (nope).

We’d just got settled at the park, and Albuquerque had the most dramatic thunderstorm. Balloons and wind don’t mix well, and lightning and propane are worse. No ballooning today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Went to see Taken 2 in the afternoon – great film, but shades of wet holidays in Brighton.

To compensate for lack of balloons, had dinner at posh restaurant including Saganaki, a Greek dish which involves pouring Bacardi over Kasseri cheese and setting fire to it at the table. Excellent.

Photography 0/10
Ballooning 0/10
Shopping 2/10 (had to buy a case for all the other shopping)
Food 8/10

Day 14

Finally, the weather was in our favour, and today was a great success. Our balloon flight got airborne as part of the “mass ascension”. At the risk of using tired superlatives this was simply magical. I have done balloon flights before, and they are always fun, but nothing can compare with being part of over 500 hot air balloons lifting off together.

The Albuquerque setting is wonderful, with mountains and desert around as well as the town and river below you, and the photography opportunities were almost unlimited. The other great thing about Albuquerque is that when you land the locals all know the drill and are only too keen to help.

We have, however, discovered the nadir of New Mexican cuisine. The donut burger is a four-layered concoction of donut, burger, cheese and another donut. Neither of us was brave enough to try one.

Come the evening, come the evening glow, where the balloons are all inflated on the ground and lit from within using their burners, with a moderate degree of synchronisation. We were also entertained by a very good rock covers band, and the evening was capped off by an excellent firework display which had all 100,000 attendees ooh-ing and ah-ing like children.

We were impressed by the traffic management coming out, the Albuquerque police using all available roads inventively and getting us from car park to the other side of the city in 25 minutes.

Balloons 11/10
Photography 9/10
Food 4/10

Day 12

Looking for hairdryer in Taos hotel found secret stash of MORE pillows!!!

After a couple of hours browsing in Taos we set off for Santa Fe via the famous “High Road to Taos”. First stop, the church of San Francisco di Asis in Ranchos do Taos. This is just as pretty as in the photos of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keefe, a natural target for artists of all persuasions.

The drive along the High Road was very enjoyable in bright sunshine. However our lunch target of Truchas turned out to be a bit disappointing with about 50 art galleries and no diner. The next town down the road, Chimayo, is only slightly better. They say that “man cannot live by bread alone”, but “art alone” doesn’t do it for me either.

We were also rather disappointed by a sign to “watch for roadside activity”, but apparently the artists can’t stretch to a bit of performance art.

The Santuario de Chimayo is a bit odd. At the risk of being slightly offensive the term “Catholic Voodoo” came to mind. I suspect this is best reserved for devout Catholics, but left us feeling a bit uncomfortable.

We also managed a quick stop in Santa Fe, but the historic centre is very busy and very expensive, and a bit of an anti-climax after the much more accessible towns we’d visited earlier.

Photography 7/10
Shopping 5/10
No large animals, despite promising “Elk Crossing” signs…

Day 11

Up at dawn to try and get golden hour light on the dunes – they are in shadow themselves in the evening. Lodge has world’s most powerful tap in world’s smallest basin. Oh well…

Irish contingent dressed in balaclava got it right – photography OK but it was bloody cold! However it does have to be admitted that walking on sand-dunes at 8,000 ft is not ideal exercise for an overweight bloke with dodgy knees.

Boring drive down to Taos, but the town and especially the Indian Pueblo really make up for it. The Pueblo is still lived in, but they also allow visitors and photography for personal use.

Nice dinner at Taos’ posh fine dining restaurant.

Note re Fonda Hotel Taos – to double size of room simply remove 4 super-sized leopard print cushions and 6 spare pillows!

Photography 8/10
Food 8/10
Large animal count 26 (by 10 am)

Day 10

Drove East from Durango through the Rockies. Another almost 11,000 ft pass, but roads not as interesting as yesterday . At coffee stop we were almost forced to purchase two enormous slices of pie, of which more later.

We ended up at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. This is an amazing enclave of 40 square miles of full-on Arabian sand dunes, right in the middle of the Rockies. It’s pure photographic gold, with aforesaid sand dunes, mountains, trees in fall colour, dramatic dead trees and very much alive deer available in all required combinations.

Food slightly more of a challenge as the only eatery for about 30 miles has closed for the season. However sub sandwiches from the shop were not too bad, and aforementioned coconut and peach pies turned out to be absolutely superb, rescuing us from potential 3/10 danger.

Early start tomorrow to catch dawn on the dunes.

Photography 9/10
Food 7/10
Large animal count 20+

Day 8

Spent the morning wandering around Durango, then set off for Aztec, 30 miles south, which hosts what must be the world’s most unlikely Highland games. Spent the afternoon watching very large Americans with some Celtic heritage throwing tree trunks while dressed in skirts:-) Excellent.

The event also featured a display of Scottish country dancing by some very Hispanic young ladies – we now know what the Gomez tartan looks like – a Jethro Tull sound-alike band, the local IRA supporters club, and the oddest sign yet… (see below)

Moderately disgusting fish meal in Durango – I should stick to the beef.

Photography 7/10
Food 5/10
Large Animals 3 (excluding strongmen)

Just in case you can’t picture Mesa Verde, here’s a more traditional shot of Cliff Palace, with Frances behind the lens this time!

Day 6

We started today with a visit to Shiprock, basically a big lump of rock jutting up out of the plain. This is sacred to the Navajo, and can look very dramatic in the right light, but was a bit boring in the mid-morning light we found. However, I was very impressed by the long “blade” of rock which leads up to it from the South, which must be two miles long and only a few feet thick.

After that we set off for one of the highlights of the trip – Mesa Verde National Park. This is where the Puebloan Indians built dramatic villages into rock alcoves on the cliff sides of the mesas. Very inspiring, and stunning photography, particularly with the sun setting on Cliff Palace.

First Prime Rib of the trip, at the diner next to the hotel in Durango.

Photography 9/10
Food 9/10
Large animal count 8 (2 wild horses, 2×3 deer)

Day 7

Not much to write about, but very much the photographic core of the trip. We spent the day in Mesa Verde, exploring all the sites. In the evening we went into the historic centre of Durango (absolutely heaving!) and had a very good meal.

Photography 8/10
Food 9/10

Day 5

We had an early start today – up at 5.30 and a 50 mile drive to get to the “Bisti Badlands” for dawn. This was initially a bit disappointing, but then we bit the bullet and followed Martres’ 2 mile hike route into the centre. This was absolutely the right decision – the rock formations are stunning. Frances was rather worried about getting lost and our bleached skeletons only being discovered in years to come, despite leaving an SOS note in the car, and tracking on multiple GPSs. However after being accosted by both German and Japanese tourists following the same route she relaxed a bit!

After a lazy afternoon at the hotel, we decided to try another of Martres’ recommendations for the end of the day, and spent golden hour at Angel Peak, which is just a few miles from Broomfield. This proved to be yet more photographic gold, with dramatic Badlands lit by the fading sun, and then a sunset which turned the sky crimson above them.

Food at Broomfield’s sole diner OK, but a constant battle to spot and reject the enforced carbs! I am not prepared to publish Frances’ description of the guacamole – suffice to say it was inedible.

One delightful highlight – being treated like royalty by the young teller at Broomfield’s Wells Fargo bank, and for her reward, she just wanted us to say “cheerio”!

Photography 10/10
Food 6/10
Animal count 4 (rabbits)

Day 4

We moved North West from Albuquerque, via the Jemez Mountain Trail, a very pretty mountain road providing an excellent alternative to just sitting on a very boring dual carriageway. As usual, Laurent Martes’ recommendations of what to photograph are spot on. The Jemez Monument and Soda Dam were the real gold mines, but I also got some very nice shots of “fall color” on the perfectly serviceable dirt road down to Cuba.

Hospitality was very variable. The Jemez Indians don’t make visitors at all welcome in the Jemez Pueblo area, and most of the cafés on the route appear to be closed on a Wednesday. The local winery was much more inviting, although all we really wanted was coffee. We did manage a few sips, but there’s a limit to how much red wine we can drink before 10am! We finished the day in Bloomfield which has a decent hotel, but only one diner, which is very much “fries with everything”.

Photography 7/10
Food 3/10
Hospitality patchy

… And here she is, now in her new home. “Spirit Maiden”, by the New Mexico sculptor Greg Gowen. This guy really does amazing things with a few bits of copper!