Balloon Fiesta

Hi again, once again I apologise for how spread out these posts are becoming but unfortunately its not all excitement during term time, sometimes you actually have to work. However there should be some more posts coming reasonably soon but more on that later. Anyways this post covers the previous week  which has been extremely busy as I have been to the balloon fiesta three times and it has been homecoming week. Hit the jump to read more.


Last week was homecoming week at UNM this means that all the alumni come back to campus to celebrate and a new homecoming king and queen is elected for duties so far unknown. Due to this activities have been running all week. On Friday after going to see Looper with some of my flatmates, which did a surprisingly good job of preventing paradoxes in its time travel plot, me and some friends went to the homecoming ball. This was a laugh despite it feeling very much like a school disco.

The next day I was up at 5am so that I could be ready to go to the balloon fiesta for the mass ascension. For those who don't know the Albuquerque balloon fiesta is the worlds largest balloon event and the mass ascension is when all the balloons take off at about the same time. After about an hour to get there due to traffic we arrived to discover that it was too windy for any balloons to take off. Rather than heading straight back though we used the time to explore all the tents and have amusing pictures taken.

Later that day was the homecoming game against Texas state which we won and the homecoming king and queen were crowned. After this we went out for a meal to celebrate a friends 21st birthday.

After 4.5 hours sleep I was up again for my second attempt of seeing the mass ascension. Fortunately this time I did see some balloons and the event was absolutely fantastic. Hundreds of balloons took off in the space of about an hour, some the regular shape whilst others came in a variety of shapes. Some of the shapes I saw were:

• Pigs 
• Cows 
• Elephants
• Elvis
• Angels
• Bees 
• Zebras
• Lions 
• A Stage Coach
• A Clock
• Spider-pig
• Darth Vader

Due to the previous safety record of the event you are allowed to walk amongst the balloons as they are inflating and taking off. If anyone finds themselves in Albuquerque at the time of the balloon fiesta I highly recommend getting up for this, you won't be disappointed.

Later that day we headed back for the second time that day to see the evening glow where all the balloons are tethered to the ground and then all light up at the same time as the sun is setting. This was brilliant and I got a lot of good pictures.

This week I have just been working, celebrating Matts birthday and getting ready for Fall break where I will be camping in the grand canyon for the weekend which should be great fun. Expect a post on this some time in the next week.

Anyways that concludes this post, hope you enjoyed it, I will also post some pictures from the balloon fiesta on the next post.

Thanks for reading
Sam