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Published: July 30th 2009
Temp: 34°C
After not getting to sleep til just before 3am, day 29 started way too early!! as we were in the Hot Air ballooning capital of the world we were to meet at 5:30am to catch a mini bus out to some paddock to go hot air ballooning!
So we got our lil buses and waited for the balloons to be set up. Two of the boys got to help blow the balloon up which was cool. After a lil bit it was up and the 11 people in our group hopped into the basket. Before we knew it we were 200m off the ground, soaring above all the houses and the river through Albuquerque...Amazing!
We were having a brief chat to the guy who was 'driving' it and found out that the balloon we were in was worth about $80,000. At our highest point he said we were quite a few thousand feet off the ground. The whole experience was amazing and well worth the early get up, even after just a few hours sleep!
We were also given a certificate at the end aswell as a hat and pin (according to Christina they've never given them out
before so we were a very lucky group). The hats are quite cool and will remain on for the remainder of the day due to the lovely hat hair!! We also got given a champagne breakfast after it. I dunno about some people, but 8:30am is a tad early to start on the champers...
We got back to the hotel, loaded our stuff on the bus and headed on our way. Todays destination, Amarillo, New Mexico.
On the way we stopped at another little town called Santa Fe. Santa Fe is actually the capital of New Mexico yet is has a much smaller population than Albuquerque and its a much prettier town. We went and had a look around the town, into the church and into some shops. Almost the whole Contiki group took over the local '5 and dime' to buy outfits for our Cowboy night in Amarillo tonight. I managed a baby pink cowboy hat, a sheriff badge that actually has my name on it and a pink scarf thing (pity Ive no cowboy boots here, flip flops will have to suffice!)
As it was neally lunch time we hit up the local Fajitas thing on the street
and got the best Fajitas Ive ever had. We sat in the park in the sun to eat it while we were entertained by some local singers. Made our way back to the bus to continue our journey to Amarillo.
Christina put Varsity Blues (Paul Walker, James Van Der Beek) on for us to watch to fill in some of the trek. FYI: Crappy Movie.
We stopped at a lil stop on the way again at a place called Santa Rosa, not much here at all.
Just before arriving in Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch. This was opened by Stanley Marsh 3, basically what it is is a whole heap of Cadillacs sticking out of the ground in the middle of a paddock and the public can go and spray paint them with whatever they want. Happy Times!
So we jumped back on the bus and had just enough time when we got to the hotel to shower and get ready in our cowboy gear for dinner at the Big Texan Steak Ranch (which is next door to our hotel).
We all looked fab in our cowboy and cowgirl outfits! we headed over to the steak house and
sat down to watch 4 of the contikians compete in the Great Steak Challenge. This consists of the individual finishing a 2.4kg steak, a baked potato and a few other sides in under an hour in order to get the $72 meal for free. We all chipped in a few bucks so these guys could compete, strictly for entertainment purposes. T
Representing the boys: Scott, James and David, representing the girls: Erica.
Needless to say none of them finished it but we were broadcast worldwide on the net which was kinda fun for some people back home.
I had my own steak (not quite as large!) and it was delish, the first proper red meat Ive had since ive been here.
After this we all headed into the bar, stayed there for abit (as it closed and we got kicked out) so we moved to a bar across and down the road called “Buckles”. We walked in and there was about 5 people in the whole place so they were very happy to see us. The drinks again, were quite cheap, so it kept us in there til 2am when we got kicked out of there too. Ventured back to
the hotel to someones room for abit before we all retired to our own rooms. We then decided being that it was 3am no one else would be online so we would be the only ones using the free wireless internet. woo!
All in all, we all love Amarillo, New Mexico. Next stop, Dallas!
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