United States, New Mexico - El Morro National Monument and Breaking Bad in Albuquerque

We didn't know what to expect from New Mexico, as this is a State we didn't know much about. Situated between the highly touristic States of Arizona to the West and Colorado to the North and the giant Texas to the East, New Mexico isn't very popular among travelers. However, we loved it! And not just because of its mild, very mild weather 😊

Sunday, Octobre 30^th, 2022

We loved El Morro National Monument. It's a very small park in New Mexico, easy to forget, voluntarily or not. There is no grandiose or mythical landscape here. The main attraction is a cliff on which tens, hundreds, thousands of messages have been carved. 2000 messages, to be exact. Why all these messages have been carved in this particular place? That's because there is a clear and fresh water hole at the bottom of the cliff. Thanks to summer rains and snowmelt, it's continuously full. Years ago, this water hole was an oasis in the desert. During long journeys, caravans would stop here to refresh themselves and fill up with water.

Many travelers used to carve messages in the sandstone of the cliff: we can find petroglyphs of the ancestral Pueblo people between 1100 and 1400, messages of the Spanish conquistadors between 1539 and 1774 and those of the American military between 1846 and 1906. This cliff tells the story of all these peoples and civilizations, and it's very fascinating.

We walk along the cliff with a notebook that tells the story of the most beautiful inscriptions and those who engraved them. The ancestral Pluebo people carved bear paws, hands and bighorns and the Spaniards carved their names to leave a trace of their passage. Most of them begin with "pasó por aquí" (I came here). Some of the inscriptions are very elegant, like the one from E. Penn. Long below. He was a member of the U.S. Army and came here in 1857 to test the usefulness of camels in crossing the deserts of the Southwest. Ramón García Jurado's (below right) engraved his message in 1709. He was a colonist on a campaign against the Navajos. His inscription reads: "A 25 del mes de Junyo, año de 1709 pasó por aquí para Suni- Ramón García Jurado" (On the 25th of the month of June, of this year of 1709, Ramón García Jurado passed through here on the way to Zuni).

After discovering the most emblematic inscriptions and having imagined the life of all these travelers passed here before us, we go for a short walk at the top of the cliff. There are ruins of ancient villages of the Pueblo people, and also a superb view on the valley!

From El Morro National Monument, we go to El Malpais National Park. It means Badlands in Spanish (Mal País). The park is known for its lava fields from a 3,900 year old eruption. The lava caves are particularly impressive. It's obviously forbidden to venture into them, because they are quite unstable! We walk a bit randomly in the park, looking for the crater of the volcano. After long minutes exploring the surroundings with the park's map and the GPS, we realize that we are actually in the crater. We can hardly discern it, it has now become a simple hollow in the forest, covered with vegetation.

After this short walk, we take a 60 kilometers 4×4 track within the park. We expected hostile and impressive landscapes of immense lave fields, but we simply drive through meadows. We only encounter some donkeys and cows.

It’s already late in the afternoon when we hit the road towards Albuquerque. It’s the most populated city of New Mexico, but not the capital, which is Sante Fe. We booked a motel room for the night, in order to spend a cozy and warm evening and take a shower! The motel is rather ill-famed but the room is nice: we have a bed, a hot shower and even a kitchenette, that’s more than we asked! We spend the evening working while watching the Chase Tag World’s Championship! Very funny!

Thursday, November 3^rd

We spent 3 days in Albuquerque. Did we stay because of its charm, dynamism and welcoming inhabitants? No, none of that! We can hardly say that Albuquerque is a welcoming city. On the contrary, the streets and the public library gave us a sad sight of this big city. We saw dozens of homeless, drugged, delirious, stoned, drunk people. The library staff can't stop them from using the bathrooms, but they are so afraid of an overdose in it that they keep them locked and we have to ask for the keys at the reception. 15 minutes, no more. Every five minutes they knock on the door asking if everything is okay... We spent three days working at the library and sleeping 20 minutes away from the city in a quiet place.

Today is time to leave Albuquerque. But before leaving, we want to see some famous places of the city, where scenes of one of our favorite serie have been shot: Breaking Bad. After what we saw of Albuquerque the last few days, we feel a bit bad about this serie. It's the story of a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. To secure his family's financial future before he dies, he starts to produce and distribute methamphetamine. We spend the day visiting the emblematic places of the series: the Car Wash bought by Walter White to launder money.

Walter White's famous house, which has become a place of pilgrimage for fans of the show. The owners had to barricade their house behind a fence to keep out the onlookers (it's the only house in the neighborhood with a fence).

Jesse's house, the partner of WW. It's located in a very chic, green and clean neighborhood that contrasts greatly with everything we have seen of the city so far.

And finally the Fast Food of the drug baron, Los Pollos Hermanos. There is even a truck used for the shooting, with some buckets of the sauce where the drugs were hidden!

In another theme, we also stop briefly at Petroglyph National Monument. It's located in the middle of the city, in a residential district.

In the late afternoon, we leave Albuquerque for good. Tomorrow, we'll go to Southern New Mexico to discover the beautiful White Sands National Park!