One Last Adventure!

I can't quite believe I'm in my very last week here in Albuquerque. All my essays have been submitted, I've completed two of my three final exams, and the reality of my year abroad coming to an end has well and truly hit home. 

But before the madness of finals and such kicked in, I managed to squeeze in one more little road trip / weekend of adventure around New Mexico with English Ashleigh, Ben and Michael. Our first stop was White Sands in the south of the state. White Sands is exactly what it says on the tin - it's completely different to the rest of the land in New Mexico, which is more grassy desert (according to Wikipedia, the science behind it is that the sand is composed of gypsum and calcium sulphate unlike most most desert sands which are composed of quarts). It's essentially miles and miles of huge, rolling dunes made of the most beautiful sand that doesn't even burn your feet because it reflects the sun's heat rather than absorbing it. If you can get past the wind and sand blowing in your face, it would be the perfect place to spend the day in a state where a real beach is at least a state away.

Seriously - it was really, really windy.

So we made it to White Sands just in time to watch the sun set over the dunes, with only one small hiccup on the way. We drove past an immigration check point, who pulled us over to check who was in the car. As three of us were British, they wanted to check our visas, but as we were staying in the state, we didn't realise we'd need them. Plus, their system was down so they couldn't look up our visas manually. Initially, we were told we'd be waiting 1-2 hours for the system to reboot, meaning we'd miss sunset (the whole reason we went), but for whatever reason - maybe the system started working, or maybe they just took pity on our little tourist selves - they let us proceed after around ten minutes. Crisis averted. 

We then faced a little bit of a trek to Carlsbad. Apparently, we drove through some areas with beautiful views, but it was pitch black, so we missed out there. We stayed in Carlsbad overnight, grabbed all we could from the complimentary breakfast (they're never great, are they?) and set off to Carlsbad Caverns the next morning. 

The thing about caverns is that they can be pretty deep underground. In the case of Carlsbad Caverns, the caves stretched 80 stories below ground level. Walking down these 80 stories is a breeze. You can take your time, stop and concentrate to appreciate the wonders around you. At the bottom of the trail down was what they called the Big Room, which was essentially a massive chamber with a looped path around the edge, and the most ridiculous natural formations in every direction you looked. Ben seemed to be particularly enthralled by the stalactites and stalagmites that were nearly touching to form columns (GCSE Geography, anyone?). They were great, don't get me wrong, but I was most intrigued by the formation that looked eerily like the female genitalia. I only took a few photos because, as Ashleigh pointed out, without the context of seeing the entire cave and its wonders in reality, they really are just a couple of photos of some rocks.

The very start of the winding path down.

Oh look, a column.

Vagina rock. Go on, tell me I'm wrong.

At the end of the trail, there is a lift that takes you back up to ground level. However, when we were there, that lift was out of order. That meant the lovely, leisurely 80-story stroll down into the caverns doubled up as a horrendous, torturous 80-story climb back up to the light of day. I nearly died.

Carlsbad Caverns are famous for their bat flights, but they take place in the evenings, so we didn't get the chance to watch that. Honestly, I'm quite glad. The idea of watching thousands of bats zoom out of a cave I'd just spent three hours in actually freaked me out a little.

Starting our drive back to Albuquerque, we stopped in Roswell for dinner. Roswell is famous for it's alleged crash-landed UFO debris discovery in 1947. I wouldn't say I was in town long enough to make an informed decision, but on first impressions, I'd say that's about all it has going for it. There were plenty of memorabilia shops (of questionable quality) full of aliens and conspiracy theory books. There was a museum, but it had closed by the time we got there. But that was the last stop of our weekend tour of New Mexico, getting back Saturday night to prepare for the last week of classes.

There are still a couple of things here I know I won't have time to do that I really should have done by now (I can't actually believe I haven't been up the Sandia mountains - I have failed this city), but I'm still glad I was able to fit in one last trip before I left. I'm so grateful I've been able to have experiences like this, from touring the state, to touring most of the South West. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get home, but I'll be coming home with a new-found desire to get out and see the world.