Framedlight

  We left the house in Abiquiu in the morning and drove to Albuquerque to get rid of the odious van. Getting a taxi to the airport we picked up a rather nice and comfortable Ford 4x4 which we thought might be appropriate in the now rather chilly weather. As you can see it was a very bright and clear day so we took the scenic route to Taos through the Sangre de Cristo mountains and passed through the little town of Chimayó. Here we discovered El Sanctuario de Chimayó, a little church which has become a shrine and place of pilgrimage. During Holy Week thousands of pilgrims arrive, some of whom come to be cured, so the place is known as the Lourdes of North America. There is a pilgrim's walk from Santa Fé which many undertake carrying crosses. Native Americans regarded Chimayó as a sacred place and in 1810, before the church was built, a local priest found a crucifix buried in the soil after seeing mysterious lights in the hills. He took the crucifix to Santa Fé but it miraculously di

  It was to be our last evening together and so we went down to the heart of old Albuquerque to explore. We started at the San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, the oldest in the city, it was rebuilt in 1793, probably because it is made from adobe. The church is right next to the Plaza Vieja where there was a prom event going on and lots of photography of the girls in their finery. Albuquerque is also home to a number of hot rod cars that perform in the streets and attract attention. There are lots of little shops which looked very good in the mellow evening light. As the sun was going down we went to see the sculptures outside Albuquerque Museum of Art. They are known as La Jornado and depict Don Juan de Oñate leading the first group of Spanish colonists into New Mexico in 1598. This is obviously a controversial exhibit as Oñate was known to have used cruelty against the native Americans and was actually removed from his office of governor of the area and sent back to Mexico City where

  After we had descended from Sandia Peak we had lunch in Wendy's due to Alan’s overwhelming desire for a burger! We then made for the Balloon Museum. As I said before Albuquerque is the hot air balloon capitol of the world and so has a museum to celebrate this in rather a nice modern building. We had a couple of fun hours in the museum looking at things like the race to be the first balloon to fly around the world, crossing the Arctic in a balloon (or not, this expedition was fatal), the Weather Lab, always dear to our hearts, and of course admiring the balloons.

  Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and also one of the highest in the United States. It lies in a plain which rises on the eastern side up to the Sandia Mountains. The Rio Grande runs through the centre of the city. Down by the Rio Grande the elevation is only 1490m but in the part of the city on the flanks of the Sandia Mountains, the elevation is 2,000m. The airport is at 1631m giving the planes a head start. One of the main tourist attractions is the Sandia Peak Tramway which takes you up to the top of the Sandia Peak at 3,164m. The other is the hot air Balloon Festival which takes place at the beginning of every October. and is the largest balloon festival in the world. with 750 balloons flying. We spent the morning ascending on the tramway and the afternoon at the Balloon Museum (how many cities have one of those?) as we had missed the festival. It was warm in Albuquerque but we needed all our hats and coats to go up on the cable car. On the way up the  guide kindly p