I always said that I wanted to make the most of my time in the States by travelling as much as I could, both in-state and inter-state. And last weekend, I ventured on the first of what I hope to be several trips out of Albuquerque.
I, along with a bunch of other internationals, decided to go on a camping trip. We had representatives from Wales, Scotland, England, France, Finland and the Netherlands. Some of us were more up for the outdoors than others, but a great time was had by all regardless.
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| Photo credit: Emilie Turner |
We left in two group - two cars left early Saturday morning and a third car (a 3/5 Welsh majority) stayed behind to watch the Wales v. England game (surprise surprise!). I knew that my level of enjoyment of this trip would massively depend on on the result of said game and fortunately for me, and the company who would have to deal with my mood if we lost, we won (YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS). So it was set up to a top weekend.
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| When you get lost at a dead end in the middle of nowhere, the best bet is obviously to stop and take selfies. Aron, Sam, Maxime, myself and Ben. |
The journey to the camp site was absolutely hilarious. Obviously, we got completely lost on multiple occasions, ending up at the dead end of a dirt track at one point. Anybody who saw us gave us a weird look (5 students driving to the back-end of nowhere in the most dad-looking car you could possibly imagine) and we also had a minor police scare. A police car past us, whipped around in the middle of the road and sped up behind us, flashing us like mad. Needless to say in that moment we all thought we were being deported even though we did nothing wrong, but fortunately, he just wanted us to get out of the way so he could chase the car in front of us down and pull them over. Crisis averted.
We got to the camp site just in time for sundown. The trouble was, we had to put the tent up while the sunlight quickly gave up on us. What a task that was. I'm not actually sure who did the majority of it, but pretty much everybody had a little go of holding up a pole or bashing a peg into the (bone-bloody-dry) ground. It fell down at least twice, but we got there in the end.
The camp site right next to a big lake, and it was absolutely beautiful, especially when accompanied by the biggest, brightest moon I've ever seen. We spent a large portion of the night down by the lake. The majority of the girls and one of the boys (good on you, Michael!) decided that YOSAO (you only study abroad once) and jumped in. It was probably one of the coolest/coldest, liberating, European experiences of my life. I'm so glad I decided to - I'd have regretted it forever if I didn't! But god, it was cold.
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| Taken with a crappy iPhone camera notorious for doing the moon no justice. LOOK AT IT. |
Then came the fun part - trying to sleep. Needless to say, that didn't go very well. In fact, I spent most of it wrapped in a duvet (thanks other Ashleigh) lying on the road by the side of the tent with my fellow non-campers. We melodramatically complained for a solid three hours. Maxime was just moments away from 'suiciding himself'. Aron searched desperately for the nearest Uber. All we wanted was crappy La Po food. You had to be there to appreciate the hilarity of this exchange. Just take my word for it and know that we laughed a lot.
The next day, we were up and out pretty early, having things to do and places to see. Before we left, though, we went to get a few pictures of the lake in all its day-time glory. (I forgot my sunglasses so the sun was blaring in my eyes, resulting in pretty rubbish photos. It was pretty, though.)
After jumping in the car and getting lost once again (even when we were following the other cars - we were rather distracted by car-aoke), we then headed to the main attraction, the Bandelier Recreation Park. We took a shuttle up a giant mountain as the park wasn't accessible to the public by any old car.
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| I want to swiiiiing from ze Bandelieeeeer |
The park was beautiful, full of steep rock faces and caves and other such sites. I'm not a geology expert and we forgot to pick up a guide to explain any of it, so here's some pictures instead.
We walked all through the mountain/rock range and then onto a dried up river bed which lead to the king of all rocks. You could climb it, but that involved climbing several super-sized ladders. The majority of the group went ahead, but I chickened out. I do not regret sitting out of that one. I'm not about that ladder life. I'll take their word for it when they said it was a nice view.
After Bandelier, we split up again. Those who had gone earlier the day before headed to Santa Fe for lunch, whereas us late-comers went off to do what we had missed out on the day before. We were supposed to go see the Tent Rocks monument, but it didn't quite go to plan. After getting lost AGAIN (are you spotting a pattern here?), we stopped for some food and decided that the blazing heat, hiking and lack of sleep meant that we were too tired to really appreciate another New Mexico wonder. So our trip came to a slightly early end, but I didn't really mind too much. I still have months left to go see what I'd missed out on, plus I really really needed my bed.
All in all though, a brilliant weekend was had. I'm very much looking forward to my next adventure (which may or may not be very soon, and I'm really excited for this one!) with these people. Top company, top sights, top weekend.
