ALBUQUERQUE / / At the American International Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town Albuquerque, I spotted a sign on the door. "We love tourists," it said. "They taste just like chicken."
In the past, this city was about as welcoming as that sign. Shops in Old Town had to be persuaded to stay open evenings, and until recently, zoning laws prohibited Old Town visitors from sitting on a restaurant patio and enjoying a glass of wine or a margarita.
So tourists would fly into Sunport, Albuquerque's airport, and slither their way up Interstate 25 to Santa Fe, its sexier, better-dressed sister city.
Now Albuquerque is sprucing up its Cinderella image and turning into one of the belles of the tourist ball. TripAdvisor placed Albuquerque fourth in last year's listing of the Top 10 underrated world destinations, and online travel company Orbitz chose it as one of five "outstanding locations that should be on everyone's must-see list" in the next five years.
If one thing has put Albuquerque on the tourist map, it's the annual International Balloon Fiesta (Oct. 5-14 this year). It helped establish a sense of place, said Dale Lockett, president and chief executive of the city's convention and visitors bureau.
The fiesta began modestly in 1972 as a hot-air-balloon rally sponsored by a local radio station. It attracted 20,000 spectators and 13 balloons. Now, the 10-day festival draws up to a million visitors and as many as 700 balloons.
The balloon crowd had just left when I visited late last year. I decided to ground myself at Los Poblanos, a historic inn not far from Old Town.
City of art
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at the inn, I set off to find out what all the "better-than-it's-ever-been" buzz was about.
I started in Old Town, site of Albuquerque's first Spanish settlement in 1706. The shops in the adobe buildings around the band-shell-centered square weren't doing much trade, selling T-shirts, turquoise and kachina dolls. I quickly lost interest and headed for Old Town's Spanish Colonial 1793 San Felipe de Neri Church, one of the oldest-surviving buildings in the city, although its twin cross-topped towers are a 19th-century addition. Masses are still celebrated in the church. The interior has original adobe walls and an elaborate altar.
Nearby, I discovered the rattlesnake museum. Its $3.50 entrance ticket came with a certificate of bravery. The museum claims to have 31 species of rattlesnakes. But don't worry: All those rattlers are safely behind glass. Denizens also include scorpions, tarantulas and a Gila monster.
At a strip mall on Central Avenue, I stumbled across the Turquoise Museum, where owner Joe Lowry took me through rooms full of glass cases displaying turquoise from around the world.
If you are buying turquoise jewelry, "the word to shop with is 'natural,'" Lowry said. "Real and genuine do not equal natural."
The Federal Trade Commission defines "natural" as having nothing changed but the shape, he said. That rules out adding other material to enhance a stone's density or changing its color.
Less than 10 percent of the turquoise in mounted jewelry is natural, Lowry said. He advised buyers to make sure a piece of jewelry is handmade, with no machine-made parts. "Both are pieces of jewelry, but only one is a work of art," he said.
More works of art can be found in the gentrified Nob Hill section on the southeastern side of the city, where galleries, smart restaurants and boutiques in vintage neon-bedecked 1940s buildings dot Central Avenue between Girard and Washington.
Old Route 66, on which countless families traveled west during the Great Depression in search of a better life, originally ran through Albuquerque north-south, but in 1937, it was realigned along Central Avenue, an east-west route. Today, Central's personality changes from undistinguished storefronts in the northwest through a stretch of downtown (once distinguished largely by its bars) and into the Nob Hill area.
A reawakening
The city is grittier, more real, than Santa Fe, and that's evident in Albuquerque's downtown, which lies between Nob Hill and Old Town. The Downtown Action Team, a private nonprofit, is spearheading the latest urban renewal in the once-dreary district.
Luisa Casso, its president and chief executive, says the key to the success of the current 10-year plan, now in its sixth year, is that it's funded primarily by downtown property owners. Signs of progress: new retail shops, a 14-screen movie complex, small theaters, restaurants and lofts.
"We are a downtown that's evolving," Casso said. "Five years ago, the streets of downtown would roll up at 5 o'clock."
Downtown still is mainly 9 to 5, but a few great buildings are worth a look. The renovated 1927 KiMo Theater at 423 Central is a treasure of Pueblo Deco architecture, which combines Art Deco with Native American design motifs. One of Albuquerque's sources of pride is its blend of Euro-American, Hispanic and Native American cultures.
The center has a well-regarded restaurant and hosts a variety of community music, dance and theater events in a performing arts complex named for donor Roy E. Disney (nephew of Walt) and a gallery with a permanent collection by contemporary Hispanic artists.
Albuquerque is focusing on its Native American culture, too. Four of New Mexico's 19 Indian pueblos -- Sandia, Santa Ana, Isleta and Laguna -- are close by.
"The traditions are very much alive and well on the pueblos," said Ron Solimon, director of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center on 12th Street.
The center is a nonprofit, with proceeds from the gift shop and restaurants going to the pueblos. Indian pottery is its most valuable collection.
"As the trains were coming through here in the 1880s," Solimon said, local vendors "discovered people wanted to buy not only the item -- corn, say -- but they wanted the vessel too."
Sky City
Like the tourists of the past, I was intrigued by the vessels, so I went to Acoma "Sky City," 60 miles west of Albuquerque, the pueblo that is the ancestral home of a tribe known for its pottery.
The 367-foot-high sandstone mesa soars among the desert's red rock formations. Sky City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America, perhaps dating to 1150. Buses take visitors from the visitor center up to the mesa, where fewer than 15 families live year-round.
"Most of them are elders," said Gerry, our tour guide. "It's more like a spiritual place and retirement community."
There's neither electricity nor running water, and portable toilets dot the site. Kerosene lamps light the homes. "Probably the only time you hear generators is [during] Monday night football games," Gerry said.
Visitors are not allowed into the adobe homes on the mesa, but as we walked through the village, women popped out of the houses to peddle their handmade pottery. The houses have modern windows, but traditional wooden ladders still lean against exterior walls.
We walked through the original wooden doors onto the dirt floor of the 17th century San Esteban del Rey mission church. The rainbows painted on its walls represent rain, for which the desert-dwelling Acoma people pray. It was amazing to realize that men and animals carried the materials used to build the church -- including 30-foot wooden beams -- up to the mesa.
Elemental patterns show up on modern Acoma pottery, which is sold at the pueblo. Damian Garcia, an Acoma who is curator of the Haak'u Museum at the Sky City visitor center, explained how the designs evolved.
Traditional patterns were simple, he said, with elements such as rain and lightning. But with the coming of the railroad, artists began adding other symbols, such as animal figures.
"Tourists wanted something elaborate," Garcia said. "They wanted their money's worth."
The tourists of today do, too. In Albuquerque, they will get it.
Beverly Beyette writes for the Los Angeles Times.
GETTING THERE
From BWI Marshall Airport, Southwest flies nonstop to Albuquerque. Round-trip fares vary, but the airline offers Internet specials from $99-$179 each way.
LODGING
Los Poblanos Inn
-- 4803 Rio Grande Blvd. N.W. 866-344-9297 or lospoblanos.com. A historic family-run inn near Old Town. Rooms wrap around a center courtyard and have kiva fireplaces and Southwestern decor. Doubles, including full breakfast, from $145.
Bottger Mansion of Old Town
-- 110 San Felipe N.W. 800-758-3639 or bottger.com. Elvis stayed here, Sinatra sang here. Machine Gun Kelly hid out here. Now it's a Victorian bed-and-breakfast. Doubles start at $115.
ATTRACTIONS
Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
-- 9201 Balloon Museum Drive N.E. 505-768-6020 or balloonmuseum.com. The Balloon Fiesta, balloonfiesta.com, will be held Oct. 6-14.
American International Rattlesnake Museum
-- 202 San Felipe N.W., Suite A. 505-242-6569 or rattlesnakes.com. Admission: $3.50 adults; $2.50 kids.
Sky City Cultural Center
-- Interstate 40, Exit 102 (15 miles south of the pueblo of Acoma). 800-747-0181 or skycity.com. Guided tours of the Acoma Pueblo start on the hour; $10 adults; $7 children 6-17; younger than 5 free.
INFORMATION
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
-- on Plaza Don Luis in Old Town or baggage claim level at the airport. 800-733-9918 or itsatrip.org.