ALBUQUERQUE BALLOON FIESTA

Every year, one million people come to Albuquerque for the International Balloon Fiesta. And this year, my mom and I joined them for the 47th annual celebration.

On Friday 10/5, Mom and I flew first class from Newark to Denver as a treat for my birthday. We were in the nice first class ‘bubbles’, as I like to call them. From Denver we flew to Albuquerque on a small plane, just four people across. The flight was just long enough for drink service and pretzel bags.

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We checked into the Crowne Plaza, grabbed a bite at the bar, and sat outside to catch some afternoon rays. We then headed to El Pinto as a group for dinner. Our tour had at least 3 buses, and El Pinto is always crowded, to boot. El Pinto is family owned and started as a one room restaurant in 1962. It has since expanded, and can now seat 1,200 at a time. Dinner was good, and they had really fluffy sopapillas.

On our way to dinner, our bus guide gave us a few stats about this year’s Balloon Fiesta. There were 567 balloons in attendance, 98 of which are special shape balloons. Of the 98, 22 special shape balloons were new this year. The balloonists were from 16 different countries including Brazil, Belgium, and Australia.

The average balloon (envelope, gondola, and burners) costs $40,000 and has about 100 hours of flying time. Special shapes balloons can cost $500,000+. An average sized balloon stands 70 feet tall and holds 70,000 cubic feet of hot air. To fly a balloon, you must be a FAA certified pilot.

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On Saturday 10/6, we were dressed and on the bus at 4:30am. We wore lots of layers because it was in the 40’s in the morning but 70’s in the afternoon. A rainbow of balloons ascended starting around 7am. We saw a Van Gogh balloon from France, Yoda and Darth Vader from Germany, and a blue doggy from Brazil. We also saw a koala, three penguins, a pink elephant, and the Bimbo brand mascot.

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After the mass ascension, we were brought to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. We watched some native dances and did some turquoise shopping. Then we headed down to Old Town to explore a bit. It reminded me of downtown Sedona with lots of shops and jewelry sellers, mostly stucco and wood style buildings. Of course, mom and I did some shopping.

The Turquoise Museum’s building was under renovation, so they set up a temporary location at the Albuquerque Convention Center. We heard from Jacob Lowry, who is 5th generation in a family that has been collecting, mining, writing, and reporting on turquoise for years.

Nevada has hundreds of turquoise mines, and New Mexico has seven. The largest producer of turquoise in the world is China, then Mexico, then the US. The best quality of turquoise is also China. The iron in turquoise makes it green and the copper makes it blue.

Turquoise is graded on color, matrix, and mine. Color: low grade is light in color and high grade is dark in color. Matrix: low in grade has a blob or no markings and high in grade is evenly distributed. Mine: the grade is based on how much turquoise the mine produces. A mine that produces lots of turquoise is lower in grade than a mine that produced 100 pounds once and never again. Overall, we learned to ask if the turquoise you’re purchasing is “natural”. Natural turquoise should come with a certification when purchased.

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After a nice shower and a nap, we Ubered over to Campo at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm. I wish we could have seen the property in the daylight because even in the dark we could tell it was beautiful. Campo has an open kitchen concept. It is SO open that they allow dinner guests to walk through the kitchen. They cook just about everything over an open fire, so the veggies we got had a great char on them. We shared an heirloom tomato salad and blue corn hush puppies. Then mom got trout and I got lamb mole. We had a couple of their signature margaritas, but we couldn’t taste the lavender. Overall, it was a really great meal.

On Sunday 10/7, we woke up ‘late’ for a 7am breakfast. We were on the bus at 8:15 and left for Santa Fe. Art is a huge part of the Santa Fe culture. The city has about 300 galleries, and it’s second to New York City in terms of revenue made from art in the US.

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We got stuck with kinda crappy weather in Santa Fe with spurts of rain. We visited the San Miguel Mission where if you ring the bell of San Miguel, they say you’ll return to Santa Fe. Next we went into the Loretto Chapel to see the miraculous staircase. The group then split up and we went inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. It’s one of few basilicas in the US. We walked around the Santa Fe Plaza and bought ear cuffs from the Native American artisans. They are sterling silver with natural Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona. The artisan told us the stones were natural, but she did not have the certification papers to give us.

We headed back to the fiesta field, to the Gondola Club. We ate dinner with an open bar and watched a firework show. Before the firework show, there was supposed to be a night time balloon glow, but due to the inclement weather, they weren’t able to do it.

On Monday 10/8, we headed to the Sandia Mountain Tram. Since we were with a tour, we got on the second tram car of the day. By the time we left at 9:30, the line was 3 hours long.

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The Sandia Tram is the second longest tram in the world, second to one in Armenia. It’s 2.7 miles long and travels at 12 miles per hour. The ride up is about fifteen minutes, and at the top it was 29 degrees with 23 mile per hour winds. We basically rode up and rode right down because it was too cold for us to walk around comfortably at the top.

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Then we headed to El Santuario de Chimayo. The church and surrounding buildings were beautiful. And the dirt they have is said to have healing powers. Mom bought a small ceramic box to put some dirt in. We left Chimayo for Gabriel’s for lunch.

After lunch we went to Bandelier National Monument. Bandelier was made a national monument by Roosevelt in 1916. There was a pueblo of people who created the village, in and around the rock faces. We were able to climb into some of the rooms which was really cool. Some of them were surprisingly spacious. We left Bandelier for our last dinner at Yanni’s in Nob Hill. It was a great Mediterranean restaurant.