Land of Enchantment: New Mexico is the next state I pass through. Famous for the art town of Santa Fe, the ‘UFO incident’ of 1947, chilies, the birth of the nuclear fission bomb and the setting of Breaking Bad of course. Like much of the southern U.S., New Mexico was part of Mexico until the American-Mexican war of the 1840’s. The Spanish conquistadors arrived here 400 years ago and the majority of the population has Spanish or Mexican descent. I ride through Albuquerque searching for Saul Goodman’s office and the car wash but have no luck. I chill out for a few days in Santa Fe, checking out the history museum and wander through the town and a few of the art galleries. I stayed at a traditional hostel housed in some beautiful old buildings and courtyard and meet some interesting tenants and volunteers.
I take a ride to check out the Science museum at Los Alamos
which was transformed into a clandestine town during the WWII to house the
‘Manhattan Project’. Scientists from all over the world were sent here and
together they devised the first nuclear fission bomb which was eventually
dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. A pretty eerie atmosphere and sterile town
with many active laboratories used today.
Bandelier National Park:
I hike to a nearby cave set high into the mountain that was part of an Indian
Pueblo community.
