Southern Road Trip 2022

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Trip start
December 12, 2022
Southern Road Trip 2022 Traveler
First night in New Orleans
December 12, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
We arrived in New Orleans around 8PM, after a long day of traveling from Spain, so we checked into our hotel and went for dinner immediately. We had made a reservation at Marjie's Grill, a casual but popular and well-reviewed place serving Asian-Gulf Coast fusion dishes. Of course, the food was a bit too spicy for me, but I was expecting that. Dean enjoyed it, though.

We were pretty tired and jet-lagged, and we returned to the hotel right after dinner. The hotel, The Eliza Jane, was lovely! Apparently, Eliza Jane Nicholson was a poet-turned-heiress who became the country’s first woman publisher and turned a local paper into a national institution. The building and rooms have cute details and decorations, and there is a nice bar downstairs.Read more
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
December 19, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C
The Blue House Bakery & Cafe in Carlsbad seemed to be the most popular and best-reviewed coffee shop in the area, and reasonably so. The place was cute, the staff was very friendly, and the pastries were tasty. It was also packed with many locals waiting in line when we arrived. Still worth it, though.

After breakfast, we headed to the Carlsbad Caverns. We weren't able to get a ranger-guided tour to the King's Palace (it's good to know that they release some slots every morning, and you can get one if you arrive early) but, in any case, we had an entry reservation to the Big Room Trail. You can hike from the cavern's Natural Entrance or take an elevator down, but I'd definitely recommend making the longer trail. We did it, and it was wonderful, not crowded at all, and truly impressive. The caves are huge and have all kinds of different rock formations and geological features.

Dean had to attend a meeting right after, so we went straight to lunch at a Mexican place, El Charro, before heading to Roswell.

We had considered making some stops before arriving in town, but we were already a bit late, so we went directly to Roswell. We arrived at sunset, right on time to stop at the funny welcoming sign on the road, which displays a flying saucer and aliens interacting with humans while trying to fix their spaceship. Roswell has fully embraced its UFO-connected history and the town is capitalizing on it on every single detail.

We had dinner at a place across the street, Pasta Cafe Italian Bistro, before going back to the hotel.Read more
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Roswell, NM
December 20, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 0 °C
Roswell is such a fun little town! They have absolutely embraced the 1947 Roswell incident, when some people reported the crash of a flying saucer and posterior coverup by the US government, and the stores, coffee shops, and even the street lights are covered with alien and UFO references.

We started by having coffee and pastries at Stellar Coffee and then went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. What a fun and ridiculous place! It covers the history of the 1947 Roswell incident and other phenomena related to UFO research from a very "believer" perspective, to put it that way, and it hosts a few displays with aliens, flying saucers, and so on.

After the museum, we walked a bit around town and went into some of the stores selling t-shirts and other souvenirs with space messages and UFO puns, some of them kind of questionable, such as a Mexican-dressed alien under an "illegal alien" graphic.

It's worth noting that Roswell, like much of the area we have gone through during this road trip, is very conservative. In the last days, we have seen signs with anti-abortion messages, anti-Biden slogans, pro-Trump flags, gun stores and ads, and a guy in San Antonio wearing a t-shirt that said "don't California my Texas," whatever that means.Read more
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First day in Santa Fe
December 20, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
There's not a lot on the road between Roswell and Santa Fe, and we stopped for lunch in the only restaurant in miles, the 50's style diner called Penny's. We arrived in Santa Fe around 3.30PM and stopped for a coffee at a travel-bookstore-meets-cafe, Travel Bug. I feel we need to ensure Joan's travel memoir makes it here whenever it gets published!

We haven't had time to see much of Santa Fe yet, but so far, it looks like a very cute and friendly town. We walked down Canyon Road, a beautiful street full of art galleries. The buildings are lovely! The gallerists were welcoming and explained a lot about the artists. Steve Elmore Indian Art, for example, had a nice collection of Native American art with beautiful pottery. TKTK showcased a lot of TK kinetic sculptures, which were super fun to play with. TKTK showed us the work of TK, a Chilean artist now based in Santa Fe who makes gorgeous sculptures. And I really would have loved to buy the colorful wood furniture we saw at TKTK.

The galleries shut down at 5PM and we went to our hotel, Las Palomas, which I loved. Coincidentally, we had dinner at a nice restaurant also called Paloma that served delicious Mexican-inspired food.

It felt quite cold walking home, and the river and streets were iced, but I can't wait to see more of the city.Read more
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EDIT THIS
December 21, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Being a Spaniard, I sometimes feel that I've seen enough catholic churches to be covered for the rest of my life. It turns out that's definitely not true, and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is proof.

What an exciting place!Read more
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Bandelier National Monument
December 21, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ -1 °C
I had read good reviews about our hotel's breakfast, and they weren't wrong. They offered a selection of dishes and espresso drinks, besides pastries and fruit. I had a lox bagel, and Dean got a breakfast burrito. Quite a nice change after the mediocre Marriott breakfasts!

There are a number of attractions you can visit around Santa Fe, and we decided to go to the Bandelier National Monument. I'm glad we did because it is such an interesting place. Ancestral Pueblo people built homes in the park's canyons and on the mesas. They lived here from approximately 1150 CE to 1550 CE.

We had lunch at an excellent (but expensive) salad restaurant, Vinaigrette. It was nice to get some healthy food and greens. We had been missing some of those...Read more
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Meow Wolf
December 21, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 1 °C
Meow Wolf was a highlight of this trip. I have already been to other immersive art experiences, and I was afraid of it being a bit of an overpriced tourist trap, but it exceeded my expectations. It was so much fun! We spent two hours there (until they kicked us out), and I could have stayed longer.

There are so many secret passages, little fun details, and entries to other worlds! For example, you can go into a room and start reading the journal of one of the kids that supposedly lived there, or an arts magazine full of funny hints, just before opening the door of a bridge and walking into a completely different fantasy world. Or a fireplace. Or a washing machine! 100% worth it.

The place was full of children running around, but I have to say that, as a kid, this whole space may have freaked me out. Some of the images and sculptures were somewhat creepy, and the story of the family that serves as a frame for the whole experience could be disturbing for a delicate creature such as the one I was.

After Meow Wolf, we went to Joseph's Culinary Pub for dinner. This is a nice, somewhat fancy, well-reviewed place, and we enjoyed our food, but it wasn't one of my favorites. Maybe I was already feeling too full after several days of dining out and having heavy meals.Read more
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