Everything I like....

Saturday, 2nd of February 2008 at 09:27:16 PM

New Mexico Roadtrip Day 7: Sat Feb 2nd: Taos-Santa Fe

Before leaving Albuquerque this morning I did a short visit to the Old Town, buying a souvenir T-Shirt and for some shots. Unfortunately sun was to bright in the morning. My next vsits were Santa Fe and Taos north of Albuquerqe. Due to bad weather coming from the mountains I decided to drive first to Taos 1h north of Santa Fe and planed to stay the night in Santa Fe. I arrived around 10 am in the Taos Pueblo (foto). In Taos I took a late coffee and had lunch. It was a nice drive on 68-south in the Rio Grande River valley from Taos to Santa Fe. I originally had planed to stay in Santa Fe for the night, but seeing how small Santa Fee was I decided to stay some hours only and sleep again in Albuquerque where I knew already good places for dinner (the Standard Diner) and a good and cheap Motel. Additionally ALB had a cinema. Back in ALB after a reat diner I watched a moviein the ALB cinema theatres.

Giuseppe

Friday, 1st of February 2008 at 07:59:38 PM

New Mexico Roadtrip Day 6, Fri Feb 1st: White Sands-VLA-Albuquerque

Today my destination was Albuquerque. I had planed to make a loop drive via White Sands N.M., Alamorgodo, Carizozo, Socorro taking the 70-East. This Friday morning I had forgotten to fuel up, and arrived with the last gallon at an Alamorgodo gas station. I Filled up and returned on I-70 West towards White Sands N.M. I had a sunny day for taking some lots of photos.

At noon I lunched in Alamorgodo. 40 miles east of Socorro I visited the VLA (Very Large Array) .In the evening: After returning from the VLA to Soccorro and turning on I-25. 20 miles south of Albuquerque with the last light I stopped for some shots at the Ysleta mission.

After searching for the best priced clean Motel I had dinner on Central Ave. (Route 66) Standard Diner. I liked the food so much, that I retunred also on my second evening in ALB. After dinner I walked thorugh the city: The Photo shows the KIMO theatre.

Giuseppe

Thursday, 31st of January 2008 at 07:42:28 PM

New Mexico Roadtrip Day 5, Thur Jan 31st: Carslbad Caverns + El Paso + Juarez

Dawn over El Paso (View towards border). Early in the morning I started from El Paso towards the Carlsbad Caverns, my first New Mexico adventure. A 3h drive through untouched nature. I arrived around 10 am at the Carlsbad Caverns, taking a coffee break at the visitor center.

I decided to hike and to not use the elevators. Equipped with camera and tripod I entered the cave. I did several long exposures experiminting with different settings, and I walked about 3 h in the dark cave system and was really tired at the end.

I arrived back in El Paso at around 5pm. Enough time to visit the three missions at the El Paso mission trail. But I had to hurry, there was only 1 hour to sunset and it slowly began to dawn. The first one was the Ysleta Mission.Going south on the mission trail I visited also The Socorro Mission and finally another 4 miles south: San Elizario Mission.

Nigthly View from El Paso Scenic Drive down to the city.

After a beer in Rosas Cantina, and a big Texas Steak in the State Line Steak house I made a short walk over the bridge to Juarez anto the Guadelupe mission in the Mexican border town of Juarez. Unfortunartely my taxi driver frightened me with his warnings so I returnded very soon back to El Paso.

Giuseppe

Wednesday, 30th of January 2008 at 07:08:21 PM

New Mexico Roadtrip day 4, Wed 30th Jan: from Scottsdale, Az to El Paso, Tx

My plan today was to reach El Paso, Texas. Leaving Scottsdale I stopped in Mesa/Phoenix and I bought a Wide Angle Zoom lens for my Nikon D80. I saved around 150 Euro buying the lens in USA. I continued my trip from Scottdale towards Tucson where I had planed to visit the Saguaro N.P, and the San Xavier Le Bac Mission. Saguaros are the cactuses I like most of all.

This is one of the first photos with the 10-20mm wide angle. My Rental Car in the Saguaro N.P.

In 2001 I had visited the San Xavier Le Bac Mission and I wanted to see it again for some nice photos. Unfortunately the mission was in construction and half of it was covered by a construction canvas. So I continued my trip, knowing that it was still more than 4 h drive to El Paso. Last spot I visited in Tucson was a big airplane cemetary near the PIMA air museum.

On my way eastwards I stopped in Tombstone, which is around 1 1/2 hours drive time from Tucson. I made a short stop in Tombstone, strolling around in the main street.

Further 3 hours later, late in the evening I arrived in El Paso, TX. I was so tired from driving (560 miles today) that I took the first Hotel I found: The Camino Real in downtown, near the border bridges. This photo is a view over El Paso towards Juarez from my Hotel Room.

Giuseppe

Tuesday, 29th of January 2008 at 11:54:29 PM

New Mexico Roadtrip day 3: Tue 29th Jan 2008 Las Vegas-Skywalk-Scottsdale

This morning I started my first longer drive. The plan was to drive from Las Vegas to Scottsdale for a short visit to Christianes aunt and uncle. Scottsdale was also the first stop in Arizona, on my way to my end-target: New Mexico. On my morning schedule was a visit of the new Skywalk at Grand Canyon West.
The last 20 miles to the Skywalk I had to drive a dirt road, which was really a challenge for my non-4WD rental car. But I was lucky that it hadn’t rained here recently. I had to drive through some muddy road holes.

View of the Skywalk and Grand Canyon. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take the camera on the skywalk platform. Around the Skywalk some exhibitions explained life and culture of Native Americans and some native american people showed some dances and their costumes.

View from Guano Point towards south direction of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon.
I arrived late tuesday evening in Scottsdale and visited Christianes aunt and uncle we had a very nice Steak diner in Cartwrights steak house in Scottsdale. I would say that was definetly the best steak I ever had.