A client from down under, Australia, whom had traveled with us two years ago, decided he wanted to immerse himself in the culture of New Mexico.  About 8 months ago we got an email from his travel agent requesting a specific list of places and things he wanted to do.

As my passion is putting trips together for people based on my 26 years of hiking, biking, running, reading and traveling in the Western United States, I immediately began the pleasant task of putting together an itinerary based on his requests.

After a few emails back and forth and a couple of phone calls, I had the blessing from him to go ahead and begin the reservations for his trip.  The work part of doing what I love is contacting the hotels, attractions, and other details that will make a trip flow smoothly.   Sometimes I find that the hotel I had listed in my itinerary is now booked.  This is when I do more research to find a comparable hotel, or talk to the GM of the hotel that is booked to see the likelihood of some rooms freeing up before our trip.  The followup in these details is critical to the success of the trip.

June 2nd my wife and I left Phoenix and drove our SUV to Albuquerque where we enjoyed a traditional New Mexico dinner at the Church Street Cafe in Old Town.  How wonderful it is to enjoy true New Mexican style food prepared by a master using Hatch chilies and other local foods.

After dinner, Old Town was jumping with a fiesta in the square.  The locals were celebrating a fiesta of the Saint of San Felipe de Neri. 

San Felipe de Neri is the Patron Saint of the local Church in Old Town.  After much singing and dancing, we retired to our hotel for the evening.

The next morning, Sunday, June 3rd we picked up our client at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque and began our 10-day tour of Northern New Mexico.

Sunday morning Albuquerque is rather quiet especially in the downtown area.  Our client, Michael, was awaiting our arrival and after we loaded his luggage and went over our itinerary with him, we headed out.

Our first stop was the Laguna Pueblo for views of the historic Mission Church completed by the Spanish on July 4, 1699.  The Laguna people number 7,000 making it the largest Keresen-speaking tribe.  They also have a construction company, Laguna Construction Company, a construction company owned by the Pueblo of Laguna, and it is one of the largest U.S. contractors in Iraq, with reconstruction contracts worth more than $300 million since 2004.

Michael and Donnita at Laguna Pueblo.

Our adventure continued West to the next Pueblo – Acoma.  First a stop at the Haa’ku Museum and Sky City Cultural Center to learn about the people, their art and crafts and history. 

We opted for a guided tour of the ancient Pueblo with one of Acoma’s native sons.  Departing from the Cultural Center by mini bus, we climbed a steep hill onto the mesa top and entered this historic city.  Our guide gave us historic information about the Acoma people dating from before the Coronado Spanish expedition in 1540 traveled across this part of what is New Mexico today looking for the “Cities of Gold.”

Donnita and Wayne at Acoma Sky City:

The Cultural Center and Museum also has a wonderful restaurant serving  Acoma fare as well as traditional menu items.  We opted for a late lunch before we departed this beautiful, haunting place.

Next on our itinerary was the Malapais National Monument.  This extinct lava flow is an amazing site as you travel across the beautiful high desert and mesas of New Mexico.

A stop at the National Monument Visitor Center to learn about this stark landscape and the formation of these flows was our first item on our list.  Next a drive to one of the hiking trails so we could hike a few miles onto the flow itself.  What an experience.  This hike is like no other I have done.  I felt like I had been transplanted onto a moon scape or another planet.  All I could see for miles was black rock that was hardened lava from an extinct volcano.  I learned from the Ranger that it is very important to keep the Cairns – trail markers – in sight as people have become disoriented and lost out on the flow.  There is actually a story about a couple of hikers that went out onto the flow and were never seen again.

After this hike, we visited Ventana stone arch just a few miles from the Malapais lava flow.

A short hike from the parking lot brought us right up to the base of this beautifully formed arch.  The day was perfect for these hikes and we had many local birds and animals watch us with curiosity.  Some of the ground squirrels decided we should feed them, however, living up to the requests of the Park Rangers, we did not.

Late afternoon, we all were feeling a bit tired after a full day of touring, so we drove into Grants, New Mexico and checked into our hotel for the evening.

This was Sunday evening and most of the wonderful restaurants we have frequented in the past were closed.  Our favorite and number one on Trip Advisor, La Ventana was closed.  We asked one of the people that worked at the La Ventana where they recommended and were told there was a new place, a typical diner, called the “Wow” diner.  We opted for dinner at the Wow and WOW it was.  Dinner was fantastic, a real find in rural New Mexico.

After dinner we decided to make it an early evening as we had another full day tomorrow.  Our itinerary was to drive the rough, gravel road to Chaco Cultural National Historic Park and spend the day touring the beautiful ruins of this canyon.  Tune again again tomorrow as I continue our saga in Northern New Mexico.