Albuquerque botanical gardens, aquarium

If I had to pick a single picture that captures the flavor of the southwest, it might be this one:

Here’s a nicely done statue at the entrance to the old town. Never mind that it’s completely silly; it’s nicely done.

Well, the old town is about three blocks one direction by two blocks in the other direction. We get to it and through it pretty quickly.

I explored the parks along the Rio Grande, which include a botanical garden. The price of admission to the botanical garden also includes the aquarium, so I went there, too. There’s also a zoo somewhere around, but I didn’t see it, didn’t go there.

Jacky remarks that Georgia O’Keefe just used the colors she saw every day. There’s something to that thought…

One section of the park is a Japanese garden, a little waterfall and a pond, a bridge, a few side paths, and Japanese stone lanterns. Rather nice, although it bears mentioning that the bridge and some of the other places are roped off from pedestrian access. That would *never* happen in a real Japanese garden!

To the left of the picture, a heron perched on the rock. One of the gardeners told me the heron is an old friend.

But when I got back to the hotel and blew up the pictures, I discovered that our old friend here has swallowed a fishhook, and is encumbered with a substantial length of fishline.

I sent the photo and its description to the botanical gardens people, and got a thank-you response. No idea whether they can do anything to help it or not; just cutting the fishline would surely make its life a lot easier.

I was impressed by the layered fabic texture of this little guy’s wings.

And this is the top-side of the same butterfly. Very classy!

I shot a lot of photos in the aquarium, but as expected, they mostly didn’t turn  out very well, so I’ll only include a few of them.

Above, a nest of pipefish, and well camouflaged they are, too!

Nice place, well worth the visit.

Tags: Albuquerque, aquarium, Black crested night heron, Botanical gardens