I had intended to drive to Colorado today, but when I considered that I had spent 15+ hours in a car in two days, I wanted a day off. My couch surfing host Codie said I could spend another night, meaning I didn`t have to drive today. For this, as well as her hospitality, I was grateful.
So instead I went into Albuquerque, first to a lecture at the University of New Mexico, and then to the Petroglyphs National Monument. I also had the oil changed in my car for $24 (12 pounds), as I have now covered 3300 miles.
The lecture was on global warming, part of the `blue earth` series in the `science` minor for non-science majors. Codie is a third year art major. It`s not fair to compare this lecture with anything. It was well presented but incredibly basic.
The petroglyphs (`stone carving`, from the Greek) are a series of small drawings carved into rocks just outside the city, created by Pueblo natives in the last 1000 years. I say `just outside`, which is really true: on one side of the road are houses, the other a national park.
We saw a range of drawings, created by scraping the outer oxidised layer from the local igneous rocks: people, animals, spirals, geometric shapes. Some of these symbols still have meaning to Pueblos today, while many meanings have been lost.
In the evening I helped my couch surfing host Codie and her friend prepare some art exhibits. I stitched goat skin over plaster body parts, and was quite pleased with the neat results. Quite a different activity to the average Friday night, I`m sure.
Tomorrow I will go to the Four Corners (where one can have a limb in each of CO, NM, AZ and UT), and then to Mesa Verde national park in Colorado. There I will be camping.