Albuquerque, New Mexico: Getting Frisky In Albuquerque -- Enchanting

We are now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The city of Albuquerque is tucked into the base of the Sandia Mountains which makes it beautiful however that's not what makes it so special.

No, what makes it special is the quality of the light which is an incredibly pure blue and has an almost mystical quality. At night the clear air causes the city lights appear as 1000's of individual points of light that sparkle and twinkle with the mountain faintly visible in the background. Absolutely beautiful.

This afternoon we had time to go the the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which represents all of the Pueblo's located along the Rio Grande River. The museum was interesting however it is really just an excuse for the gift shop, which displayed many very expensive carvings and bronzes.

How expensive? So expensive I warned Mary Lynn not to touch any of the items the same way I used to warn the kids not to touch when they were young. There were items in the gift shop selling for over $25,000 dollars.

Not your average trinkets and trash here, no sirree. The gift shop offers beautiful paintings, bronzes, jewelry, pottery and massive stone carvings of the same quality as the items on display in the museum.

Fortunately, we have no room in the RV for new items, expensive or otherwise! Even more fortunately both MLA and I were able to avoid breaking any of the items for sale (or the non sale exhibits for that matter).

MLA said it best. The museum was a good museum however the museum should have been free and they should have charged for touring the gift shop. The museum's policy of not allowing any photographs (not even in the gift shop!) was very disappointing, and as a result I cannot share with you the beauty of the Indian artifacts.

After touring the Pueblo museum we had enough time to squeeze in another museum and MLA was nice enough to go with me to the museum that caught my eye: The Rattlesnake Museum.

You can take photos as long as you do not use the flash. Fortunately the displays were very well lit and I was able to get a few good pictures.

This place should be called a Zoo rather than a museum since it has the largest (their claim) collection of live rattlesnakes along with a good number of (live) spiders, lizards, tortoises, frogs and scorpions. Basically almost any reptile that has a potentially lethal bite or sting is on display.

I was able to identify the rattlesnake MLA almost stepped on in South Dakota as the Prairie Rattlesnake, which is found in one of the largest geographical territories of any rattlesnake. In fact, this snake's range includes parts of Mexico all the way up into a small portion of Canada. Pretty impressive.

The displays at the Rattlesnake museum are really large aquariums with lids attached, although the lids looked like they could be a little more securely locked in place. In fact, the fear of one of these little buggers having 'escaped' made it impossible to wander around the crowded exhibits without carefully looking around. I was constantly scanning for an 'escapee'. The ad for the place said they had rattlesnake t-shirts "To Die For" however I didn't see anything I really liked.

We also explored some of Albuquerque's old town, which is home to many, many art galleries along with lots of stores that cater to tourists including lots of turquoise jewelry, Indian artifacts and clothing.

The picture above shows a couple of tortoises getting frisky. A tortoise may be slow but the fella above was quick enough to catch her. What he lacked in speed he more than made up for in enthusiasm. Every 10-15 seconds or so he would thrust so hard I thought he would knock the large barrel that serves as their home right off the table. I mean, it was very impressive.

Of course, it was MLA who discovered this pair in a back room; she found me and drug me back to see all of he commotion. Too funny.

See Ya!