Quarantine days in Albuquerque

Looking east from the West Mesa

Sunlight cures all, except when your eyes end up in direct confrontation with late afternoon December sun on the outskirts of Albuquerque. 

I wanted to arrive before dark and timed departure to beat the severe storm that squatted over Raton Pass on the Colorado-New Mexico border. But the clouds over Las Vegas and Glorieta Pass gave no indication of the cloud break that would arrive after Santa Fe. The sun glared, and I could barely see. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have been there, with the pandemic raging all around. But in winter, points north of Colorado just get snowier, and the five-hour, 34-minute drive to Albuquerque seemed the best fit. 

We exited and found our rental, a two -bedroom apartment blocks south of Central and within sight of the University of New Mexico. Jesse and Jane’s duplex from Breaking Bad Season 2 was around the corner, even if we never actually spotted it. New Mexico has strict COVID-19 regulations, and I didn’t want to aggravate anything. People didn’t seem to mind our visit – they seemed perfectly fine that we stopped to spend a little money. Downtown seemed to thrive a little more since my last visit, almost nine years ago (check out blogs from February 2012– I bet they are embarrassing). 

Central Avenue, the city’s main east-west artery and a former span of U.S Route 66, cuts through downtown, the University of New Mexico and Nob Hill, among other neighborhoods. Dinner came from Flying Star Café on Central Avenue. An Albuquerque chain, Flying Star gives each location leeway on menu and décor. That seemed like an Albuquerque touch. The dishes included a fantastic pozole and went wonderfully with a Gruet pinot noir, another local delicacy. 

Morning visitor

The morning start with a visitor to the back porch, a neighborhood cat that kept the three-unit building on its daily rounds. Snow wetted the pavement on the cloudy 40-degree morning. Not wanting to venture too far for a morning scone and a coffee, Duggan’s Coffee Shop seemed perfect. We stood outside under a series of awnings and umbrellas where patrons waited for orders. 

Years ago, the volcanic rocks of Petroglyph National Monument, adorned with centuries of art from Native peoples and more recent visitors, had been an obvious destination. The monument extends deeper into Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a shelf of protected land that hosts a series of dead volcano cones. Traffic was light since we followed the trails in the opposite direction of most visitors. But the volcanoes towered over the mesa, with Albuquerque sprawling to the east, Sandia Peak towering over the city and small airplanes taking off from a nearby airstrip. 

Volcanoes, yo

Once we crested the gap between two halves of the northernmost volcano cone, the city was in full view for the rest of the hike. The extinct cinder cones sit atop the West Mesa, creating a formidable skyline of crumbling rock. The trails provide enough elevation change for some challenge, and the volume of hikers didn’t thicken till we were in sight of the parking lot. It made for a good three-plus mile outing, as the winter weather moved on and the sun broke through. For lunch, we stopped at Twisters, a local fast-food chain with some unexpected menu items. 

Law offices of HHM

There was no point in venturing south to the Twisters used as a filming site for Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus Fring’s fried chicken chain. Albuquerque has its share of homespun fast-food joints that don’t escape New Mexico, so Fring’s . Here we got big meals of New Mexican fast food (green chili cheeseburger, in my case) and split an Indian taco that later worked fine as dinner. 

If Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were on our minds, blame Albuquerque. You cannot divorce this city from either show – the cutaways and time-lapse videos showing clouds pass over the city and Sandia Peak imprint local character upon the show. 

Plus, we drove past any number of shooting sites, including the Dog House, where Jesse gave stacks of money to a homeless man and Saul peddled burner phones, and the law offices of Hamlin Hamlin McGill (well, what passed for them in BCS). We passed the civic plaza where a meeting between Walt and Jesse didn’t happen, and the hotel where Jesse stayed with a prostitute. 

The city and the show will be forever intertwined. The rolling treeless fields west of town could have been in any episode where Walter White meets with Gus Fring, Mike Ehrmentraut or other associates. The entire hike through the volcano field felt like a series setting. 

Outside of filming sites, there’s still plenty of Albuquerque to uncover. I get a kick of the 47th state having some of the oldest European influence and Native American influence that extends a millennia earlier. Some of the oldest Spanish buildings occupy central Santa Fe, but Albuquerque has some quarters that have passed the three-century mark. 

A few glimpses of Old Town

Old Town mural

In some spots, every step feels old, especially Old Town Albuquerque, which is tourist-heavy but still worth stopping. Like Las Vegas, it has a central plaza with soaring trees surrounded by business run by locals, with art galleries, turquoise jewelers, coffeeshops and others. My traveling friend Nancy found some turquoise in nice shop near the Rattlesnake Museum. The church, which dates to the early 1700s, had wreaths for Christmas, and a Christmas tree several stories tall sat between businesses. People milled around.

Outside Old Town, we decided to try D.H. Lescombes Winery & Bistro, which coped with the lack of indoor dining by tenting up its expansive patio. At first the heat from the rooftop vent seemed to blast upon us. Then the sun went down, and it was a relief. Other people crowded at tables close to the fire pit and portable heaters. Several glasses of New Mexico wine and a few appetizers more than covered the evening meal. 

Snap your fingers, and the last morning broke. Not that anything went to plan. Monica’s El Portal closed for the holiday and its divine sopapillas were out of reach. We had not turned north, and I already missed Albuquerque. 

 But Central Avenue would provide one last touch of the Duke City. The Frontier restaurant became a worthwhile Plan B to Monica’s. Later I read that Albuquerque native Neil Patrick Harris always visits The Frontier when back home. I already knew why - thanks to breakfast that morning. 

We decamped to the apartment since indoor dining was out and the outdoor tables at The Frontier sat in some long, cold shadows. The coffee was ordinary, but the eggs and green chile blew back my hair. We locked up the rental, a place I am determined to stay again in 2021. 

Heading out, the sun blazed but posed no obstacles. My traveling friend agreed to drive till the twilight grew too dim, and I was fine in the passenger seat. But part of me wish the sun blazed too brightly and kept us in Albuquerque a little longer. 

Last views of Sandia Peak