This morning I got a bit of a sleep in. We had the optional activity of doing a hot air balloon ride in Albuquerque but I was too scared/too poor to do it haha.
Those people who were doing it had to be at the bus by 6.20am so I’m glad it wasn’t me! 😴😴
When I eventually got up (9.45am departure) I washed my hair and tried to vigorously scrub the fake tan off my legs.
I love staying at these hotels though. It’s nice to use the towels they provide instead of your own. There’s nothing worse than a damp smelly towel in your bag for half the trip!
We stayed at the Best Western in Albuquerque (picture above) and it was pretty good.
All the places we’ve stayed on Contiki so far have been much better than I imagined. I thought we’d be staying in little 2* motels or something but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Once on the bus, I had some skittles for breakfast and played some music on my iPod on the way to the capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe.
We did stop off at this cow boy type shop to buy some shirts and boots for the rodeo we have coming up in Texas.
The shoes were soo expensive though. Like $100-$700 so I didn’t buy any (i also have absolutely no room in my bag for any more shoes)
I did however buy a brown checkered shirt for the rodeo which I now think may be a bit too small for me.
Around lunch time we stopped off in Santa Fe which is another ‘cute’ town I can add to my list. It’s the fourth largest city in the state but it felt like the nicest small town.
When we were wondering around, we all got fajitas from this fajita stall. I wasn’t sure about the chicken in mine so i picked a lot of it out and gave it to the birds. I’m very funny when it comes to meat…It has to be thoroughly cooked or I won’t eat it. That’s why I never eat steak, and whenever I have chicken I have to see if it’s white all the way through. You’d think I had a bad case of food-poisoning in the past or something but I’m actually just weird. 
After feeding myself and the birds, I went across the road and looked in a few shops (bought myself a magnet) and then went to Haagen Dazs and got myself a small caramel type sundae which made me very full and sleepy on the bus.
I’m like a baby when it comes to food! Eat then sleep, eat then sleep… zzz
Once on the bus, it was onwards to Amarillo, Texas!
We had a stop off at a gas station on the way for gas and snacks. These little stop offs are going to make me fat (not to mention my poor food choices, refer back to me eating SKittle for Breakfast and Ice-cream for lunch. Ahh…)
The gas stations just sell candy and chocolate and hot dogs and all things bad for you.
This time I defiantly didn’t buy anything.
We played a few games on the bus (in between me watching Orange Is the New Black on my tablet) One game we had to transfer a ball between 2 teams but you couldn’t use your hands.
The other one we had to unwrap a star burst wearing gloves.
Half way through the drive we had a surprise stop off at the Cadillac Ranch to spray paint some Cadillac’s.
The Cadillac ranch isn’t actually a ranch, it’s a public art installation and sculpture created in 1974 by architects Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels. They were part of this art group called Ant Farm who put these Cadillac’s in the ground as a display for everyone. Suddenly people started spray painting the Cadillac’s so the guys made it so anyone can just come and spray paint them.
The cars are visible from the highway, and you can get to them though private land by driving along a frontage road and entering the pasture by walking through an unlocked gate.
Our tour guide provided us with spray cans so everyone went crazy spraying the Cadillac’s and writing our names on them. 
When we finally got to our Motel, The Big Texan (which was so cool by the way) we had about half an hour to get ready for dinner at the Big Steak Ranch.
At the restaurant they do a Steak Challenge so a couple of people signed up for that from Contiki. You have to eat a 2kg (72oz) piece of steak as well as a side of shrimp, a bread roll, some salad and a baked potato.
Unfortunately the boys didn’t finish it in time so had to pay the $70 (well all of us on Contiki helped them pay as it was for our entertainment also)
There was another guy who did it afterwards from the public and finished everything BUT half of the potato. He just couldn’t do it and had to go and throw up. 😷
After we’d finished our meals, it was off to the dance floor to break out some line dancing, play some beer pong and drink a few drinks.
Safe to say I got a bit drunk last night and ended up falling asleep on top of the drier in the laundry room.
Anything is comfortable to sleep on when you drink I swear.
I did make it to my bed around 5am and then got up before 8.30am to catch the bus to Dallas.
*sigh* all in the day of being on Contiki.
X
Albuquerque is the biggest city in New Mexico and it’s no wonder as they have around 270 days of sunny blue skies every year. Albuquerque is also known as The “Hot Air Ballooning Capital of the World” as it’s home to the 
ThePassportPrincess 