What an interesting start to our day. I was getting changed so that we could check out of our hotel, find somewhere to have breakfast, and then head to Albuquerque (which I have finally learned to spell without asking). It was 8.15am and we heard a tap on the door to our hotel room. Oh my God....it was the Mexican Maid coming to make up the room WAY too early.
“Haaarooooo” she said. The Bear sprang towards the door (as I tried to adopt the crash position) in an effort to prevent her from coming in....with a resounding “NO!!”. We heard the key turn in the lock before she finished her “haaaroooo” and with that she copped an eyeful of my stark naked (and yes....utterly gorgeous) body. As the Mexican Maid tried to cover her now burning eyes...she uttered “howse keeeeeepin” before the Bear sent her away. With that I quickly dressed and we left the hotel to try to find some breakfast.
Some of the things I have learned since arriving in America:
• Everything has cheese on it.
• Everything tastes like shit
• The coffee tastes like paint stripper
• Unless you like Mexican for breakfast, you are fairly screwed.
We headed into downtown Santa Fe to look for somewhere reasonable to have breakfast. We found some cafes that gave us the choice of Mexican, Mexican, or Mexican. We thought about this long and hard, and after some pretty fairly heavy discussion the Bear and I decided we would have Mexican. I just hoped that I could find something on the menu that would not leave me with flames leaping out of my behind....again. We chose to enter “Pasquals” having incorrectly read their menu outside. The menu on the inside was completely different to that outside. It turns out....the menu outside belonged to the place next door. On THAT menu we could have had granola along with our Mexican. At “Pasquals” we could just have Mexican. On a brighter note, this cafe served only organic food.
As we had already ordered a coffee at “Pasquals” we couldn’t exactly leave to go next door so opted to stay. I scanned the menu carefully to see what I could order that would be gentle on my delicate behind. A cheese and avocado quesadilla it was. The Bear decided he would have “Pasquals Special” which was whole wheat pancakes, eggs and sausage links (sausage links is what the Americans/Mexicans call more than 1 small sausage....go figure). We sat back to soak in the New Mexican ambience whilst listening to the Three Amigos doing Boney M.
I have only ordered 1 coffee since being in the United States (in addition to the acid that they try to force on you at breakfast) and it was placed in the bin very shortly after recovering from my first sip. However the server at “Pasquals” offered us a cappuccino and this sounded appealing. I have been beyond desperate for a decent cup of coffee and figured I would give the Mexicans another chance. The cappuccino’s arrived without delay....in what can only be described as a bucket. No handle and large enough to only just place both hands around it. It was huge. I looked across at the Bear with a look that said “Are they trying to kill us?”. I watched him as he sipped it, thought about it for a few seconds, and nodded his approval. He stated that it wasn’t that bad. I have been caught by this misguidance before, so cautiously took a sip. Nope...it still tasted like paint stripper...however it was paint stripper that I could at least stomach.
Our breakfast arrived – my quesadilla was actually quite nice. The Bears breakfast looked ok too with the exception of the sausage links (which resembled something of Schultz’s that we to would find in our back yard) and he said it tasted ok too. So....breakfast with tolerable paint stripper and reasonable food = a success! With that we were on our way to Madrid.
When the movie “Wild Hogs” came out, I passed comment on Madrid (pronounced Maydrid) where a lot of the movie was filmed. It looked like a cute, country town. The Bear stated that he had actually been to Madrid which was in New Mexico, not far from where he lived in Albuquerque. So...on this trip we decided to take a detour when travelling from Santa Fe to Albuquerque and go through Madrid. It didn’t add too much time to our days travelling. I was surprised that the cute, country town was in fact a dry, desert town which had initially been reduced to a ghost town before some community members made their best efforts to (successfully) revive it. The movie being shot in the town gave it the additional boost that it needed. We were both surprised however to come across the diner that featured prominently in the movie – and was not a diner at all. It was an old house done up only for the movie and was now serving as a tourist attraction. We were extremely stoked to have seen it and been inside it though. The detour via Madrid was well worth the effort and I would love to go back there.
The New Mexico desert is different to that which I had seen through the other states. This one looked more harsh than the Mojave Desert and I could understand why the movie was set there. As we got closer to Albuquerque the Bear again expressed his wish for me to see the view from the top of Sandia Peak – the crest of a mountain that towers over Albuquerque and is over 11000 above sea level. Albuquerque is around 6000 above so this was going to be a great deal higher than we were already at. As everyone knows, I have an extreme fear of travelling on steep, winding roads following an accident in 1988 however there is no time like the present to overcome a fear. The drive to the summit was 14 miles and was on a reasonably good road. I was concerned that the snow would make the road slippery however it also didn’t seem too bad. Unfortunately I had little interest in enjoying the scenery as I was feeling as though someone was standing on my chest. I didn’t like that at all. I had developed a wheeze over the last couple of days which I was a little worried about - and it was interfering with my breathing. I assume this has been the result of me not taking one of my medications as we have been travelling. The pressure of driving up the steep hill just made it more obvious.
At the summit I really, REALLY struggled to breathe. I was seeing black spots, felt sick and one of my nostrils started bleeding. We took a couple of quick photos before making our way back down stopping only to photograph a herd of deer that were close to the road - until an Asian woman stopped and started running at them like an absolute moron. If I had have been able to stop and slap that woman silly...I would have done it in a heart beat.
With that we continued our trip to Albuquerque where the Bear has been able to share his memories of when he lived and studied here. I really look forward to having a look around this city!
