feelin free in albuquerque

i hate staying at nice hotels. of course, i like the big, comfy beds and the nice little bottles of shampoo that i can steal for upcoming trips to puerto rico, but there are many reasons why they are no bueno. here is a good one: when i ask the receptionists at nice hotels how i can take a bus to a mountain off in the distance, they don't know.  thanks for nothing.

sneak peak, i didn't need them.

in fact, when i asked them in albuquerque, one of the receptionists thought i meant that i wanted to go to a casino. it was very strange having to clarify- no, when i asked how to get to the mountain, i didn't actually mean to ask about the casino and somehow mountain slipped out. or maybe it was because my arm was acting up that day--sometimes it inadvertently cranks the air from years of playing the slot machines.

but the minute i got to albuquerque i saw the mountain off in the distance and i knew that one way or another i had to go to it. i really didn't want to work at all, i just wanted to go to the mountain. it was so tempting.

painting of the sandia mountains during
albuquerque's annual balloon festival

luckily i had the foresight to arrange my flight out of albuquerque on friday for 3:45pm instead of 6:15am when my co-worker left. since i was leaving so late, i probably should have worked from my computer, but ehhh. there were more important things to do that day.

so i loved the mountain, but i wasn't willing to pay like $80+ to get to it by taxi roundtrip (sorry mountain). that's why i asked the receptionists about a bus option. as they were incompetent, i saw that i was going to have to do this on my own.

so in typical victoria fashion, i looked up just enough to see that it was potentially possible to take a bus to the mountain from where i was, and headed out on my way.

weird chalk drawing on an adobe building

after walking a short distance, i found a bus stop. however, i was so excited about the whole ordeal before i left that i forgot to check my wallet and see if i had money for the bus. luckily, i had a 1 dollar bill and a 5 dollar bill. there was a bank of america kiosk in the parking lot behind me so i thought, "sweet, i'll go get some more dollars." no dice, the machine would only give me money in denominations of $10.

when i got back to the bus stop there was a woman waiting there with a stroller. she asked me something about the bus, and i told her that i wasn't from albuquerque. she asked where i was from, i told her, and she was (incredulously) like, "why the hell did you come all the way out here?" haha.

elementary school we visited for work. their schools are more
like campuses, i like.

a few minutes later the bus came and i saw there was an option to buy an all day bus pass for $2, but the bus driver said they could only take exact change, so my $1 and $5 didn't cut it. i bought a one way pass with my $1. i asked the bus driver about the possibilities of getting to a place where i could hike the mountain via bus, and after thinking about it for a bit, he suggested the same route i thought would get me there. he told me he'd tell me when to get off and transfer buses, so i took a seat and enjoyed the ride.

for some reason after living in china, i love riding the bus and prefer it over all other forms of transportation. yeah it was crowded there sometimes, but it kept me on my toes (no pun intended)--there's always something interesting on the bus.  i like the feeling of watching the world go by outside with of a bunch of other random people, it's very calming. yeah, the bus is a very calming place for me, unless there is a passenger threatening "slim" the bus driver because he insulted the passenger for sleeping on the bus, which as a human being he apparently has the right to do, and wants to go "toe to toe" with the bus driver outside to settle the dispute. fun times on the bus in DC.  i did see a bunch of passengers in albuquerque that looked like jesse pinkman though, and we drove past the biggest car wash i have ever seen, heheh.

adobe restaurant

the ride ended at the bus depot where i needed to transfer to a new bus. the bus driver was so kind, he got off the bus with me, showed me where to catch the next bus and told me what stop i should get off at to catch a trail. he also slipped me an all day bus pass because he said i would need it and he had an extra. such a little thing, but so nice. i hadn't even thought about the fact that i still didn't have the right change for the next bus, and there was nowhere to get change at the bus depot. this was definitely dejavu of china--thank god for random people looking out for me all over the place.

so an hour later (1.5 hours in total from start to finish) i made it! the trail was in a residential area right off the stop. say what you will about albuquerque, but if i can get to a mountain that is 20 miles away via bus, they clearly have an awesome bus system.

i'd like to live in an adobe house by the mountain

of course the day i climbed the mountain was the coldest, grayest, and windiest day there had been since arriving in albuquerque. i didn't check the weather before i left but luckily i had a few layers on. however, besides a pair of running shoes, i didn't bring anything very useful for hiking. before starting, i flagged down a few hikers who had just finished up to see if they had any tips for me. they were decked out with backpacks and walking sticks and legit hiking apparel. they must have thought i was an idiot with my peacoat, purse, and thin cotton pants--the guy actually made it very clear that he thought i was an idiot--he was very concerned that i was going to get lost on the mountain and kept emphasizing a hill i could use as a reference point. aiya.

my designated reference point, the hill

path

made it

the hill and the city as seen from above. i feel like this picture makes
the hike look like an easy, straight shot up, but not so much.

the hike was definitely harder than i thought it was going to be--it was really steep, the trails petered off as you got higher, and the terrain consisted of little pebbles and rocks that tested my balance several times. if i had fallen i probably would have landed on a cactus :( :(  so i essentially meandered my way up, trying to avoid the really steep passes and also trying to avoid places where there were a lot of rocks piled up. i was afraid i might run into a cougar or a snake or something *shivers like a baby*

the mountain was definitely worth the trek out there, my only regret is that i could only hike around for about 1.5 hours because i was nervous about having issues with the bus back to the hotel and really did not want to miss my flight. so i guess that is the downside of the bus. but seriously, $80 vs. $1....the same bus driver who dropped me off on that line and pointed me to the trailhead picked me up and i don't think he was expecting to see me again so soon. everything worked out though!

me at the top in a peyote haze

when i got to the albuquerque airport, i was so hungry that i ate this:

it's a sopaipilla (a puffed bread new mexicans either put meat in for a meal or honey in for dessert)!  it was huge and really tasty, which is good because my flights were a mess and i didn't end up getting home until 3am.

so that concludes my adventures in albuquerque. at some point i'm sure i will return to the southwest and explore it more properly. maybe i can even finish up this mountain :)