New Mexico Travelog- 40th Annual International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

Every day as we prepared for another adventurous day in New Mexico, we turned on the TV and there was the 40^th Annual International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. Oh, it was so awesome and exhilarating, we just were glued to the TV. It was carried LIVE from Albuquerque everyone of the 9-day Festia days in New Mexico from the first through the second weekend.

We watched the balloons go up at 5:30 am and watched them heat up and inflate in the dark. And what made it even more incredible for us was that we were scheduled to be at the Fiesta site watching LIVE in person in a few days. Yes, this Tauck tour was taking us to that Hot Air Balloon Fiesta! The Fiesta is called “The Greatest Show Off Earth.”

So, every morning we got to see some of the 550 hot air balloons and 600 pilots from all over the world go up row by row so they wouldn’t hit each other.The balloons are laid out in rows in the green grassy Fiesta Park and are completely surrounded by so many people you could not even see that grass.

The balloons went up a row at a time. It looked like the balloons were stacked on top of each other as they inflated them. Two hundred were up when we were watching the first day. Can you just imagine 200 balloons in the air at the same time? Can you imagine 550 balloons at once? And all the 800,000 visitors also watched during the 9-day fiesta.

Sometimes Mass Ascensions occur when all balloons go up at once. This is beyond incredible!  Several times during the Fiesta, Balloon Glows are held. These night time static displays of illuminated balloons, known as Balloon Glows, became part of the Fiesta in 1987 and now are among the Fiesta’s most popular events.

“All Burns”, when all the balloons fire their burners and light up at the same time, are perhaps the most spectacular single event in all of the Balloon Fiesta. After the Balloon Glows, a fireworks display is held. Two of the five Balloon Glows exclusively feature special shape balloons. The Krispy Kreme Morning Glows, a mini-glow featuring a few selected balloons, precedes the Mass Ascension.

Albuquerque was chosen as the annual site for the balloons in 1972 because of the perfect low wind conditions. It is called “the box”.  Balloons can go up using the 5-10 mph northern wind in the lower atmosphere and then go up to the upper atmosphere where the winds there are going south. So the wind brings them back to where they started. When they land, that makes an imaginary rectangular “box” and that is why Albuquerque is so perfect for the
International Balloon Fiesta.

On TV, we saw the following “special shapes” balloons go up: the Wells Fargo stage coach, Select 55 beer, Annie the lady bug, the Creamland cow, Darth Vader balloon, State Farm, Tweety Bird, Sunflower face, Joey the Bumble Bee, Little Cops, Nelly-B the elephant, Lady Jester head, Humpty Dumpty, many multi colored ones with different patterns, Dr. Pepper, a butterfly, Gus-T Guppie, Stinky the skunk, the stork (carrying baby), Betty Jean the Butterfly, Tic Toc  the clock and Intel.

Each balloon costs at least $35,000., and had a custom-made wicker basket gondola hanging from it where the pilot stood to operate the 13 gas tanks and burners. So if the pilot wanted the balloon to go up, he would turn on the burners and a 3-foot flame would shoot up toward the balloon and that would heat the air in the balloon. Hot air makes the balloon rise. And when the  pilot heats the air, the balloon GLOWS and looks like a light had been turned on in it and the balloon was visible for miles. It is so beautiful and exhilarating I just screamed!

To get the balloon up, a crew of 12 people was needed to unload the gondola and lay out the balloon pn the ground that is rolled up into a ball. The balloon is completely laid out flat with the gondola attached lying on its side. Then huge fans that cost $1400 each blow air into the round 5-foot hole in the bottom of the balloon and slowly the balloon rises until it is straight up and so is the gondola.

So when do the people get in the gondola for a ride, you ask. Well, they get in a few minutes while the gondola is lying on its side before the balloon is full and rises straight up. Balloons can hold 8-24 people. I have been in one in Tanzania that held 12 people and one in Kenya that held 18 and was the #2 largest balloon in the world at the time. The largest balloon in the world at the time held 24 and it was located in Amsterdam.

To get in the gondola while it is lying on its side, each person has to crawl in and place feet on the bottom of the gondola and sit on a ledge while looking out over the edge of the basket. It is kind of a contortion move that works. And then the exhilaration begins as the balloon rises and slowly moves over the land into the upper wind stream going north.

The souvenir at the Balloon Fiesta, besides wearing the official T-shirt, is to trade pins. We saw some people wearing jackets just full of pins. The Balloon Fiesta has been making the pins since it started 40  years ago, and these plus other pins made throughout the years, are the ones prized, bought, sold and traded.

At each Fiesta, balloons play games while in the air in a race. They use the winds at different levels to steer the balloon to the target. They played a game called Fiesta Hold’em, a version of Texas Hold’em.  Three-foot high cards are placed face up on the ground and the balloons have to swoop down and drop sandbags on the cards they want to make their winning hand.  The games have been going on as long as the Fiesta.

On the day Tauck had scheduled for us to go to the Fiesta Park, we awoke at 4 a.m. and boarded the bus at 5 a.m.  to head to the Fiesta for the sunrise Mass Ascension.   It was raining lightly and it did not look good for the balloons to go up that day but you don’t know until you get out there, so off we went.

We were welcomed into the Hospitality Tent next to the bus parking area. And from there, we were able to spend our allotted two hours to walk the huge park and see the trucks loaded with balloons and gondolas waiting for the word to be announced at 7:30.

And the word came. All events for the day were cancelled. We learned that balloons don’t go up in the rain because water causes mildew on the balloons and ruins them. So the pilots keep them dry. The Fiesta shops were glad we came because shopping was open and we did check out the souvenirs.  This little glimpse gave us the layout of the land and the desire to come back next year and really see, experience and enjoy it again.

Read Full Post »

New Mexico Travelog – Lincoln County, Albuquerque, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

When I first heard we were going to Lincoln County, NewMexico, it didn’t mean anything to me. But now it does because we just learnedth at it is the home of Billy the Kid, the #1 most popular outlaw in the USA tothis day! We just visited the original Lincoln County Courthouse and learned firsthand of the story of Billy the Kid who killed only 6 men in his 4 short years of being an outlaw.

Lincoln County in the early 1800’s was the most dangerous street in the USA because there were many shoot outs on a daily basis.  Billy the Kid was held prisoner there but escaped by beating the sheriff over the head then stealing his gun and shooting
him.  The bullet hold is still visible in the wall of the courthouse.  He was eventually tracked to Ft. Sumner and was shot there in a house by Pat Garrett. He was 21 and when he started his outlaw life, he was 18. Billy the Kid was an escape artist. He could hide and get loose from anything. After his Mother died, he got with the wrong crowd and his outlaw life began.

On our way to Albuquerque, we saw where the atomic bomb was tested in July 1945 and we just stopped. Come to find out, something was going on. After waiting about 15 minutes, we were allowed to proceed and saw a man blowing what looked like a huge cloud on or off the road pavement. July, 1945, the atomic bomb was tested.

And another surprise waited when we went to Capitan, New Mexico. Donna asked us if we knew why the town was famous. After several attempts of the correct answer, she finally told us the story. In 1950, a giant fire burned thousands of acres and the fire was started by a cigarette. The 50- mph fire could not be contained and blew over roads and scarred everything in its path. In the fire, they found a bear cub scarred and clinging to a tree. It was taken to Santa Fe and nursed back to health and then sent to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.  By this time, this little bear was famous.  And this was the beginning of Smokey the Bear, and the most famous advertising campaign ever in history. Do you remember the slogan, “Only you can prevent forest fires?  Smokey the Bear is buried in Capitan, N.M.

We also learned that New Mexico has 5 dormant volcanoes and we passed a huge lava field.  We also learned that New Mexico has more geological areas than anywhere in the USA. The big lava field was named the Journey of Death because you couldn’t cross over it any vehicle or thing it was so treacherous. It reminded me of the lava fields in Hawaii.

In Albuquerque, we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and saw several Pueblo Indians dressed in their native attire so I just had to take photos of families with children while watching native dances. Before we had a native lunch of corn tortillas, guacamole, corn chips, and cheese, I got to watch the Indian chief in full head dress, talk to tourists visiting the center.

Then it was time to hear Greg Analla tell us about his life and ancestry. He told us that Pueblo is a race of people by their language. Since Pueblo is a matriarchal society, he speaks his Mother’s language and English. The reason it is a matriarchal society is because women can carry life within them and pass on the family and culture and men can’t. There are 250 clans and when he was born, he took his Mother’s clan and was named Big Eagle, Little Lizard. He said their languages can be traced to the Athabasca background.

Greg then told us that a reservation is a dedicated piece of land to which people are moved. But this is their land, he said, and “we don’t have a treaty with the United States.” There are 23,000 Pueblos and the each tribe is a sovereign nation. “Now”, he said, “the government is trying to diffuse it. And we have less land because some has been taken. We did buy back one mountain from the government.” But the government did pay them for the land that was taken and each member of his
tribe got $6,000. And each tribe member carries a card identifying their tribe identities and blood percentage. They have to be one quarter Native American to receive benefits and monies. There are 540 native nations in the US and Canada,
he told us.

His parents taught him how to speak in the native tongue and he took the Keres language of his Mother. But the native languages are oral languages and are not recorded in writing. But, slowly, the languages are being put in writing before they are lost and are being taught in school to children. In the home, however, they all speak English when they get together. Everything is based on prayer and they pray before they do something to ask that their requests are answered. Then he sang a prayer for us using a drum. The prayer, he said, said to be strong in head, body, heart and soul. Kachinas are sacred beings to his people and are like angels, but they do not have Kachina dolls. Then he sung another prayer and their prayers focus on something or somebody.

We then went outside to observe a round circle with a dirt surface and he explained that this ground does not have anything on it so they can maintain a connection with Mother Earth. Pueblo pottery and textiles express the deep interconnection between
Pueblo spirituality and several 400 year old pots are on display in the Gallery of the Clouds exhibit, and it feels just like you are on a cloud while observing it because everything is cloud blue. Some of the pots have dragonflies on them which symbolizes that water is nearby. And fringe that hangs on their handmade rugs represents rain. Six 2-foot tall ceramic handmade women dolls represent songs from the heart by women singers. Song and music is a gift to the Creator and world. Women offer the prayer to the Creator so they can receive blessings like the rain in return. Women get together at Christmas and Easter today to sing prayers.

Read Full Post »