Saturday 21 June – Albuquerque “old town”

After breakfast, at 10 am our time and 5 pm UK time, we've arranged to Skype George, Marianne and Arlie. George has been taking part in a 5km charity race today which involved him not only running for Children's Hospice South West, but getting splashed with paint, too. Even Jasper, their dog, didn't escape some green paint on his fur.

It's lovely to have a catch up with our family, and to see Arlie in front of the camera! He's changed a lot since we've been away. Not too long now, though, until we see him and all our family again (including our new great nephew Liam, whom we haven't yet met!) We have 2 weeks left in the USA, before boarding the Queen Mary 2 on 6 July.

We need to wash clothes today. We feel that up until now at least, we've been really fortunate in being able to wash and dry our clothes when needed, which is about once a week. Some hostels have washers and dryers for guests use, usually at an extremely reasonable cost; most hotels are able to do laundry, but at an extortionate price. Our hotel receptionist tells us that there is a “Washtub” launderette just down the road, so after breakfast we set off with 2 large backpacks full of dirty washing. The whole washing/drying/folding process takes about 1½ hours.

While in the launderette, Reg picks up the free local newspaper, and reads an article about Albuquerque which is actually quite shocking, and then hands it to me to read. It's something tourists wouldn't normally know about. The article is headed “Albuquerque Spring – a season of police violence and civil disobedience”. The article explains that 1000 people marched the streets of Albuquerque on 25 March this year in protest against police violence, in particular the police shooting of James Boyd, homeless, unarmed and suffering from schizophrenia. 40 people then launched a campaign of civil disobedience at a city council meeting on 5 May, in protest about what they say was the unlawful killing by the police of 4 homeless and/or mentally ill unarmed people since 16 March this year. The following statement was read out at the meeting by the protesters:

”Tonight, in the true spirit of democracy and with the seriousness to which it deserves and with the power given by the people of New Mexico and its courts of law, we now serve a people's warrant for the arrest of Albuquerque Police Chief Gordon Eden, who is charged as an accessory after the fact in the second degree murders of James Boyd, Alfred Redwine, Mary Hawkes and Armand Martin.” Mary Hawkes was just 19 years old, unarmed and homeless. The article repeatedly states, after describing each police killing, “no lapel camera video of the shooting exists.” This article of course only tells one side of the story, and we all know that the police have a difficult job to do – but it does appear that there is no public confidence in the Albuquerque police, and particularly in the Chief of Police. Also this particular police department does appear to be very trigger-happy. This prompted me to say to Reg,

“I'm so glad that our police in the UK don't (generally) have guns.”

Back at our hotel, we have a skype session with Elaine and Jake. Elaine's car problems have still not been sorted, as it's an intermittent fault which is proving difficult to trace. Many thanks to Auntie Angela for generously lending Elaine her car! Once again it's lovely to have a catch-up session with our family. We have lots to look forward to when we get home.

It's early afternoon and hot sunshine when we set off to walk the mile or so to Albuquerque “old town.” Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico, and a third of the state's population (just over half a million) live here. It's surrounded by desert, but Albuquerque itself has a lots of tree-lined avenues which make it quite picturesque in parts, especially in the old town.

We like Albuquerque “old town” immediately, and by the end of the afternoon, we've decided we enjoyed our time there as much as we enjoyed Santa Fe – if not more so. It's hard to judge Santa Fe as there was so much we didn't see, but the general feel of “old town” Albuquerque is that it is much less commercialised than Sante Fe. The piaza, or town square, with it's central area covered in grass and with floral bushes, petunias and trees adorning it, is over 300 years old, and has a beautiful “rotunda” bandstand in the middle.

We spend some time looking in the local Native American craft shops, and wandering around the square. We haven't eaten since breakfast and it's about 4.00 pm – we find a lovely Mexican restaurant with a shady garden area out the back, and enjoy a relaxing meal. As we return to the piaza, we hear music emanating from the bandstand – the New Mexico Marimba band are playing, and it's really enchanting to listen to. A marimba is a bit like a xylophone; it's a set of wooden bars struck with mallets to produce musical notes. The bars are arranged like those of a piano; resonators attached to the bars amplify their sound. Lots of people are sitting around, relaxing and enjoying the music, and we do the same.

After about ¾ of an hour, Reg says “I'll be back in a minute.”

I think he's gone off to find a toilet, but 20 minutes later he's still not back. Soon after that the marimba band finishes playing, and I spot Reg playing a sort of “piggy-in-the-middle” football with a small group of lads aged about 12, on the other side of the grass-covered piaza. I take some photos of this spectacle, and after about 5 minutes Reg says goodbye to the boys and thanks them for letting him join in. Nothing surprises me with my husband, especially where sport is concerned; he's one of those people who isn't afraid to ask to have a go, if he sees something he fancies doing.

“Did the boys mind you playing?” I asked.

“I don't think so,” says Reg, “Besides, I was able to hold my own. I can still play a bit of football.”

We walk back to our hotel, and I enjoy a swim in the lovely pool, while Reg relaxes with the television. There are lots of children and young people enjoying the pool; the cool water is so refreshing.

After my swim I pack up ready for tomorrow, apart from last minute items. We're being picked up for church at 9.00 am, by the lovely people we met on the train to Santa Fe yesterday. We'll return to the hostel for our luggage, then we'll catch the train at 12.10 (lunchtime), from Albuquerque to Chicago. It's an overnight journey; the train is due to arrive in Chicago at 3.15 pm on Monday, 9.15 pm UK time. We won't be able to publish Sunday's blog until we get to our hostel, as there's no wifi on the train.