Albuquerque is hot! Make no bones about it, its not just "Ooooo that's nice!" hot its "Damn, I need to get out of that heat" hot. You really don't want to be doing too much walking in this sort of weather and with Albuquerque's Old Town being a small compact area there's no need to stretch yourself too much.
Most of Albuquerque's attraction are confined to a small area centered on the Old Town Square, lined with Turquoise sellers a plenty and other street sellers hawking their wares and surrounded by Pueblo styled buildings make this area quite distinct and there's a certain throwback feel to the place.
I took it upon myself to give some of these museums a try. Most central of which is the rather bizarre Rattlesnake Museum. Yep, Rattlers a plenty along with a few other scary beast are housed in a tiny space just off the Central Square. As Museums go its not likely to win too many awards but for just a couple of dollars it was worth 30 minutes of my time.
Maybe even more surreal is the Atomic museum, playing home to, well all things atomic based! I guess you can have a museum for just about anything and without doubt here was the proof. Its not exactly the British Museum but then it doesn't pretend to be. Its the sort of place that's ideal for kids, I was just fascinated by the story of the Isotopes Baseball team! There's a mountain of information, if only thy had an audio guide to ease the burden!
I even managed to learn all things Turquoise at the imaginatively named Turquoise Museum. I'd love to say I could now tell you the difference between real stuff, cheap stuff, expensive stuff and fake stuff but, really, I cant. I know have a rough idea where to start, in reality that could prove to even more dangerous than not knowing anything! Mind you, I wasn't really in the market for semi precious stones. Or even precious ones for that matter. I'd be home a lot sooner than planned if I was!
The best of the Old Town museums was without doubt the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. With entry at just $4 it was time and money well spent. A plethora of artifacts and information await you here and not really knowing much about the areas history it was a well designed museum that left me more than satisfied.
The most recommended of Albuquerque's museums is actually a short way out of town. I'd checked the map and decided it was worth the walk. The Indian Pueblo Culture Museum was seemingly the Town's biggest indoor attraction and I'd been advised by other travellers that Lonely Plant wasn't wrong when it gave this place two thumbs up.
Unfortunately my decision to walk was not the brightest one. The heat beaming down on me,I arrived feeling drained and dying for a drink. The sun was taking its toll on me and all I could think of once I'd got about half way round was water! There wasn't anywhere there to purchase a drink but I had seen a Wallgreens on my way in, that would be ideal. Well it would have been had it not been closed! Briefly baffled by the fact that a drive thru Pharmacy actually existed (next to Wallgreens) I did manage to locate another shop to sell me liquid beverages and guzzled them down like they were going out of fashion.
I'd found what I saw and remembered of the Museum absolutely fascinating and a shame I was feeling pretty rough at the time. Despite cutting my trip a little short I ended up suffering from a minor dose of heat/sun stroke that had me bed bound for the next 24 hours or so.
You can certainly learn a LOT in Albuquerque including just how damn hot that sun is!
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