Day 30: Great Sand Dunes NP, CO to Albuquerque, NM

by George Thurlow (United States of America)

A leap into the unknown USA

oday, I traveled from Great Sand Dunes National Park to Albuquerque. After waking up and clearing my campsite (all done by 7:30am at the latest), I went back into the dunes one last time for a few minutes. Due to the previous night's rain, they looked different. But more importantly, the dunes are just a really nice and special place to spend time. After leaving Great Sand Dunes, I headed towards Albuquerque. The route I took went through some small towns in southern Colorado and New Mexico as well as the larger, better-known towns of Taos and Santa Fe. I stopped in both of them. I had visited both of them back in 2006 and had some memories of them. In Taos, I stopped at the central Taos Plaza and was somehow able to find a parking spot right on the plaza that didn't even require parallel parking. Yay! I walked around Taos for 45 minutes or so, walking into some of the shoppes and enjoying the atmosphere. There was also some kind of market going on in the plaza (a combination of art, food, and produce). From Taos, I headed down to Santa Fe. Santa Fe was a madhouse as the Spanish Market was going on (I had to pay $10 to park 5 or 6 blocks away from the central plaza). The Spanish Market seemed to be a bit overhyped: sure there were lots of street vendors and art booths on the square which was nice but nothing was that special either. Nevertheless, Santa Fe is a nice place to walk around and I walked around the central area for about 1.5 hours, which included grabbing lunch and a cupcake. In the building where I got a cupcake, I spotted this painting. These dudes are pretty chill if you ask me... From Santa Fe, it was on to my hostel in Albuquerque, the Route 66 Hostel. For $26.75 for the night, I was able to get a private room with a comfortable chair (that I'm sitting in now) and reliable wifi, so no complaints at all. After relaxing in the hostel for a couple of hours, I walked into Old Town Albuquerque, which is pretty quiet and unexciting (it kinda looks like Santa Fe or Taos but with much less going on--basically just a few gift shops, including one that tried to pull a bait-and-switch on me so I ended up not buying a couple of t-shirts, and a few Mexican restaurants). I had dinner at one of those Mexican restaurants, where I had a tasty chicken chimichanga (sp?). I'm back in the hostel now and it's on to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. It will be hot, but the caves will be cool and my very expensive motel has an outdoor pool. Next Stop: Whites City, NM