Chloe's big trip: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Today is Sunday May 1st and we are in Albuquerque, Nm. We arrived on Wednesday and will depart tomorrow morning for SantaFe.

Wednesday afternoon we went to the Turquoise Museum. It was very interesting and the fourth generation owner claims to be the world greatest authority on turquoise.

Thursday was a free day to explore on our own until evening. In the evening we rode the Sandia Peak Tram up to the top for dinner. The ride takes about fifteen minutes, it is 2.7 miles long and ascends 4000 feet to the 10,378 foot summit. We came down after dark and could see all the city lights throughout the Rio Grande River Valley.

Friday was another free day and we went to the Balloon Museum. At six PM we were scheduled for a Segway Tour of old Town Albuquerque. It took a few minutes to get comfortable on the Segway but after that we really enjoyed the ride.

On Saturday we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. There were a lot of Native American crafts people selling their creations. We also saw some Native American dancing. In the evening we went to Mass and attended a cookout.

We woke up Sunday at 5:30 AM to 34 degrees strong wind and snow flurries. We dressed as warm as we could and headed for San Felipe Pueblo to watch the celebration of their Patron Saint, Saint Felipe. This celebration is known as the Corn Dance, this is a religious ceremony and 90% of the people there were Native American. The first group of dancers numbered over 500 and they danced for over an hour to the church and then to the main field surrounded by the pueblo’s. The second group of dancers was about 100 less in number. We stayed about four hours and really enjoyed the celebration. While we were standing there we were invited into one of the pueblo’s to eat. She had a large spread of food and just kept bringing out more. The main restriction to this entire event that there was that there were no cameras, note taking or sketching allowed.