One of the best, yet least known, day trips from Albuquerque is the Ojito Wilderness Study Area. Less than an hour from Albuquerque and closer than the Jemez Mountains, Ojito is the perfect place to explore on a weekend outing. You won't find babbling mountain brooks here, just New Mexico desert at its best. Parched, yet sublime landscapes made up of broken mesas and undulating badlands capped with twisted and ancient junipers that may predate the arrival of the Spanish. Ojito is truly unlike any other place we know and it keeps us coming back. Combining elements of the Bisti badlands with Santa Fe skies, Abique fossils, and southern Utah redrock, this is a place more than worth the short drive from Albuquerque.
Best Ethnic Supermarket
When your craving Mexican mole for your pollo, Chinese Kung Pao sauce for your tofu, or Korean garlic pepper sauce for your kim chi, where do you go? Whether your looking for pickled eel, fresh Tilapia, or a catfish with the whiskers still attached, you can find it here. Ta Lin grocery wins the best ethnic supermarket category hands down. And with the new International Marketplace scheduled to open in the next few weeks it only promises to get better. When we want ethnic food, exotic sauces or a fresh filet, we head to Ta Lin Market at Central and Louisiana.
Best Video Store for Foreign Films
When we're tired of staring at movie after movie featuring the Governator of California, Will Smith and Angelina Jolie, we go to Alphaville. This is one of the few places in Albuquerque where you can rent movies from India, Cuba, Australia, Japan and France, not to mention some of the best American films ever produced. Alphaville is local, it's diverse, and it's a great deal. And best of all–it's not Blockbuster.
Best Pet Store
As the owners of a hyper husky, a lethargic kitty and a man-eating school of African cichlids, our favorite pet store is Clark's Pet Supply on Lomas. These guys know their stuff. Proud parents of ferrets, cats, fish, lizards, dogs, bunnies and even parrots come to Clarks to stock up on chew toys, pet food and scratching posts. This is our pick for the best locally owned pet store. Our critters won't let us go anywhere else.
