Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/9/13

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 6

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Today started with another early morning mass ascension of the hot air balloons.  Like I said before, we were perfectly located for all of the action.  We opened our door this morning to see a gigantic wizard coming toward us over our neighbor RV’s roof.  Now I have shown many different balloons in the last few days, so today, I want to show a couple that illustrate the three dimensional aspect that makes us have to get pictures from many angles in order to see everything about a particular balloon.  For instance, the wizard has a back pack with a cat in it.

Wizard front view seen out our door

Wizard back view (our trailer on the left)

Another example is this one.  I thought it was just a little girl until I looked her up in our Fiesta program guide and saw that she is called Little Angel.  Sure enough, when you look at her back, there are two tiny little wings.  There is always something that you didn’t notice before.  Notice how big the balloons are compared to the tiny gondola that carries the pilot, propane tanks & burners to heat the air and passengers.

Little Angel front view

Little Angel back view (note the
gondola between her legs)

Our tour for today started with a wonderful Mexican buffet lunch at El Pinto restaurant in Albuquerque.  The setting was beautiful and typical Southwest decor.  All around New Mexico at this time of year, you will see ristras.  They are red chili peppers that have been tied into large swags of various lengths that decorate homes and businesses.  El Pinto is no exception. Ristras originally were made to dry the chilis for later use in cooking and real ones are only seen at harvest time and around the fall/winter holidays.

Entrance to El Pinto - beautiful garden

Adventure caravans group dining area

Red chili ristras decorate the entrance of El Pinto

After lunch, our bus took us to the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum.  Among other things, the museum had displays of pottery made by the Acoma people and a sculpture depicting the agricultural heritage of the Acoma Pueblo.  I do not know the name of the sculpture

Pottery display

Sculpture back view

Sculpture side view

A tour of the Pueblo of Acoma left from the Cultural Center and drove a short distance up to the Pueblo located on a bluff 370 feet above the valley floor.  There is no running water, no electricity and no plumbing, thus the port-a-potties that you see in one of the other pictures.  Everything has to be brought up from the valley villages.  Some people live here year round and others live in other villages and come back for special ceremonies and holidays.


Blend of the old and new construction





View from top of pueblo (cultural center
 can be seen in upper right)

The Indians practice both their native religion and Catholicism.

Sacred stairs to second story entrance to
Kiva, a religious chamber. Cross piece
resembles clouds pierced by upright poles
causing rain for their crops.



San Esteban del Rey Mission and cemetery in background

We returned to camp after the tour.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/8/13

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 5
October 8, 2013

These early mornings are getting to us, so we decided to sleep in and miss the mass ascension today.  The excursion for today was a day trip to Santa Fe, NM.  The bus took us along the historic Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway that connects Albuquerque with Santa Fe.  It passes through some historic mining towns that yielded turquoise, gold zinc and silver.  Now these towns are known for their arts and crafts, theater, music, restaurants, and museums. 

When we got to Santa Fe, we took a guided walking tour of the old part of town.  Starting in the historic plaza, our first stop was at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi built in 1869 - 1886.  It is one of  only 77 basilicas in the USA. The sanctuary is beautiful.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Sanctuary - Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Ceiling of Sanctuary

One of the many statues outside is of Kateri Tekakwitha.  She died at age 24 in 1680 and was the first Native American to be given the honor of sainthood for her good deeds and miracles.

Kateri Tekakwitha

Next was the Loretto Chapel, built 1873 - 1878.  It is famous for the spiral staircase that leads to the choir loft.  The staircase was built sometime between 1877 and 1881 and has two 360 degree spirals and no visible support. 

Loretto Chapel

Sanctuary - Loretto Chapel

Miraculous spiral Staircase

The railing that you see was added many years later.  Imagine going up these stairs without holding on to a railing.  I hear that the nuns climbed with their hands on the steps as well as their feet.

The final stop on this guided tour was the San Miguel Mission. It is the oldest church in the USA, built in 1610.  It is the farthest north of the missions on El Camino Real stretching from Mexico City from the time this area was Spanish territory.  It has a bell that was forged in 1356.

San Miguel Mission

Sanctuary - San Miguel Mission

Very old church bell forged in 1356

That was the end of our guided tour.  We had lunch at the Upper Crust Pizza restaurant, then continued to explore more of the area until it was time to board the bus back to camp.  This building claims to be the oldest house in the USA.  It was built around 1646. since it was originally built, it has been stuccoed and turned into businesses.  Note the old adobe walls and wooden bars on the windows.

Oldest house built 1646

Showing original adobe under stucco

Bars made of wood cover window

There was entertainment at the Adventure Caravans tent tonight.  One of the staff members is from Albuquerque and his grandchildren sang and played for us.  They were quite good.

That was a full day.  Tomorrow is another bus tour.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/7/2013

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 4

Monday, October 7, 2013

It was another great day for Ballooning here in Albuquerque.  Today, there were contests for the balloonists who wanted to participate.  Of course, there were a lot of pilots who just wanted to ride in the "box".  Albuquerque has interesting air currents that allow the balloons to lift off, float in one direction (south over our trailers) for awhile then rise to a higher altitude to catch a current going north.  They continue north as far as they want then drop altitude and fly south again.  We tried taking a movie of that, but they move so slowly that it is difficult to capture the effect on a movie.  We have taken so many pictures that I can not decide which to pick to put into the blog.  I think that I will try to just feature some of the ones that I haven't shown yet.


Panda



Sushi the fish



Betty Jean the butterfly

Yellow Jacket (See the stinger)






The Bee Family
(L-R Lilly Little, Joey Little and Joelly)

After the balloon mass ascension, we were taken, by bus, to Sandia Peak.  We took a tram tide to the top of the mountain for some spectacular views of Albuquerque and the surrounding valleys.  The tram starts at the altitude of 6559 feet and goes to 10,378 ft. in about 15 min. 

Here comes our tram

All along the way up we saw some beautiful scenery.


This formation looks like a cannon 

We are about to pass the other tram

The cabin on the top of the mountain was made to
 house the workers building the tram

The fall colors are beautiful

 After we reached the top of the mountain, We had lunch at the High Finance Restaurant.  The food was very good and the view was beautiful.  The restaurant is shaped in a semi-circle with seats in three levels surrounding this area and windows all around.

Center piece of High Finance Restaurant

There was time after lunch to walk around and look out over the valley.  There is a ski lift on the opposite side of the mountain from the tram where hikers and mountain bikers were using trails that are along the ski trails.  We could see the town below but pictures didn't do it justice.

After we got back to camp, there was a Margaritas and nachos social. 

The staff are having making Margaritas

Tomorrow is another active day of touring.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/6/13

Adventure Caravans International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 3

Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013

There was another mass ascension of balloons this morning.  I took a picture out of the door of our trailer, looking over the motorhome next door to give an idea of what a perfect location we are parked in.

Pirate parrot and other balloons

Here is another example of how immersed in the festival we are.  These balloons have landed very near our group of trailers.  The people with maroon jackets and hats are with our rally.  There are a couple different shapes.

Sea life balloon has landed, but the others are still going

And Darth Vader landed in another RV camping area across the field.

There are over 541 balloons, from all over the world, registered in the Fiesta events so I will show you a few of the ones that I didn't see yesterday.


Smokey bear



Beaver



Scuba diver, fireman, fire hydrant, witch on broom, clock



Bee blocking the sun

The Adventure Caravans had a champagne brunch for us today.  It is tradition to have a champagne brunch after a balloon flight, although we did not take one ourselves.  They do try to get us into the spirit of things.  It was delicious.

This evening, we went back to the launch area for the balloon glow.  Yesterday was too windy for the gas filled balloons to take off, so tonight, they launched off on a race to see who can go the farthest from the balloon fiesta.  I am actually writing this on the 7th, so it has now been 28 hours since they left.  There were 5 gas balloons in the race.  As of my writing, one has already landed after going 257 miles and the other 4 are 350 - 405 mi. away.  Gas balloons are filled with hydrogen instead of hot air and are used for long distant flying, so they are expected to possibly reach Canada before they finish the race.

Five gas balloons ready to launch 

Launching

Look closely.  There are 4 flying and 1 ready to go

We watched the hot air balloons inflate and glow.  The balloons are tethered to keep them from flying off.  This is the process of inflation.



Preparing the envelope for inflation

Everyone helps -see the little helper pulling the lines

Filling with air

Ad a little heat



Almost up



Success and glow 

Everyone gets to walk among the balloons.  It is nice and warm from all of the burners going off to keep the balloons inflated.  There is a second type of burner that is used for the glow, but both are very hot.  Here are two views.

Wells Fargo Stagecoach

Mass glow

After the glow and the balloons were put away, there was another fireworks show.  Again, we didn't take photos.  Maybe the next time they have a glow and fireworks show, we will get some pictures of them.