New Mexico: Day 2

I was about to resign to the notion that this whole Albuquerque trip would be spent inside the Marriott, where my training is taking place. Albuquerque is very much like San Jose. Everything is really spread out and public transportation isn't so accessible, all of which makes it very difficult for those without a car to get around. Add to that my unfamiliarity with the area, it just seemed like my stay here would be more of a sedentary than an exploratory one. But no, Vina doesn't resign. I came here to experience a slice of New Mexico and I was going to do it.

Without much of a destination, my roommate and I set off on a walking tour of New Mexico. Our destination? The mountains. No, really. We saw mountains in one direction and started walking, with the premier goal being that we wanted to witness quintessential New Mexico images (gathered from stereotypes, of course). We wanted to see tumbleweed, cactus, adobe houses, different types of New Mexico birds, and all other stuff to reinforce that we actually experienced Albuquerque instead of just sitting all day in an air-conditioned hotel.


We walked quite a while, past cute adobe houses...

...cacti. Apparently, cacti in Alburquerque don't stand upright. They're all on the ground, like they're too depressed to stand upright. It's okay, cacti. Totally understand how you feel sometimes.

...these things, hanging from trees, which my roommate said looked like ornaments- little, dried desert ornaments. I just think they look really neat.

Sadly, this was the best tumbleweed we were able to find. I was imagining some big, circular tumbleweed. But no...just this. It's not even circular shaped. Sad.

We even tried to get it to roll...didn't work.

Finally, we "reached" the mountains.

Fellow Americorps posing in front of gorgeous mountains.

Although we were far away, we could see how beautiful these mountains were--especially at that time of day, with the sun setting, casting purplish-pink across the mountainsides. One day, I'm going to go on the roadtrip through the Southwest just to see these mountains up close.

In sum, Day Two was great! I got to see parts of Albuquerque I didn't expect to see, which really is the best route I could have taken to see the city as locals do. And mostly, I'm just glad I got to get off my ass after 9 hours of sitting through training to burn off all the heavy hotel food I've been eating. Hopefully, Day Three will be just as adventurous as today!