Photos from One Albuquerque Film Office

Episode 59 – You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music

About the Episode:

Eric Castillo calls himself one of Albuquerque’s cheerleaders and we think it’s right! He could also be called an Albuquerque historian, promoter and tour guide. Eric hosts FREE walking tours every weekend in Albuquerque, and if his tours are as good as his podcast guest-ing skills you’re definitely going to want to book a spot on your next trip!

Links
Eric’s blog 
Eric’s walking tours
Follow Eric on Instagram
Find Eric on Facebook
Absolutely Albuquerque  
Wheels Museum Website
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook 

Original Music by: Kene Terry

Featuring:

Eric Castillo

Eric Castillo is the writer behind Follow Eric, a blog that captures his love for food, travel, and the city where he was born and raised: Albuquerque, New Mexico. Inspired by his travels around the world, including a 500-mile pilgrimage across northern Spain, Eric is thrilled to now offer his own walking tours. Albuquerque locals and tourists alike will enjoy getting to know the city’s history through its art and architecture—on foot and with a knowledgeable local guide!

Episode Transcript

Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. So one of the coolest things about the doing the I Love New Mexico podcast is that I get to meet people who are following their dreams in the land of Enchantment and doing things that, frankly, I wish I was doing. And Eric Castillo is no exception to that. And, um, he, he, um, I raised my kids in Albuquerque and he’s leading walking tours, um, in that city, which is one of my favorite cities in the state. Um, despite some of the marginal press that Albuquerque gets at times, there are some amazing and very charming areas that you’re gonna wanna explore if you visit there or if you live there, really. So, but Eric, I don’t wanna tell the story. I want you to tell the story. What is that you’re, tell tell us who you are and tell us what you’re doing.

Eric : (01:42)
Sure. Well, appreciate, uh, appreciate that. My name is Eric Castillo. I was born and raised in Albuquerque, so I’ve lived here my whole life. I was raised in born and raised in the South Valley of Albuquerque. Growing up though, I went to school in the Northeast Heights, and a lot of my friends were through church on the west side, so kind of got a bit of all over Albuquerque. So I lived here my entire life until 2009. I moved away for a few years to Oklahoma. I moved away to a small town. Um, and during that time, I started a blog called Follow Eric, just a personal blog to keep friends and family up to date on what I was up to. Just so happened to be the things that I was up to were eating, uh, local restaurants, hanging out at local coffee shops, going to community events, just finding the things that make a city unique. And so when I moved back to Albuquerque, I continued the blog and continued to do those same things, but sort of rediscovering the city where I grew up. And so I’ve been doing that now. I guess, moved back in 2012. Um, I’ve also started to incorporate travel as I’ve done that more in my life, getting to know cities around the world and what makes them unique. And one of the ways to discover a city is through walking tours. And so that’s something I’ve gotten to do all over Europe in my travels there. Earlier this year, I spent three months in Mexico. So did some tours, in different cities there. And so I wanted to bring, uh, I’ve been wanting to do this idea for years to do Walking tours, free walking tours here in Albuquerque, um, in particular to our downtown core. So when I go out to other cities, usually I’m on a budget. Usually I’m staying in a hostel. That means staying in the heart of the city, um, and doing those free walking tours. So I wanted to make sure that option was available to residents here. Um, locals and visitors alike, we’ve had plenty of locals actually. And, and lately it’s picked up with some visitors as well. And so getting to rediscover Albuquerque through that lens has been really exciting. Getting to know downtown and the history of the art and architecture there has been really, uh, fulfilling, rewarding, and great to share with others.

Bunny : (03:31)
That is so cool. And, you know, um, I have a lot of people who come to Santa Fe who get in touch with me and say, well, how do I, um, you know, what I wanna do is kind of live like a local. And, um, and if you’re like me, when you travel, that’s what you wanna do. I mean, because that’s where you, um, I mean, frankly, it’s the most fun. But it’s also where you learn the most in a hurry about the place you’re visiting. And so I, what a great idea. So if, if we were to meet up on, I don’t, I don’t know if you do these on a weekend or when you do them, but if we were to meet, meet up on a Saturday morning, just gimme an example of where you might take someone on a walking tour in Albuquerque. Sure. So right now, this is only on weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturdays, we’re downtown, starting from the Downtown Grower’s Market at Robinson Park. And on Sundays I do a tour of the rail yards. Um, so talking about downtown on a Saturday morning, we meet at 9:00 AM um, at the Downtown Grower’s market, which has got plenty going on. Um, but it’s just the, we meet at Robinson Park Southeast Corner, and we do a walk mostly along Central, um, from eighth and Central. We end at First and Central. Um, we do a little detour off to Gold Avenue ’cause there’s some really cool art and architecture that I like to point out. But basically what I’m doing is, I call it the Then and Now tour. And the reason is we talk about then, um, and, but we also talk about the now. So what are the things now? So we pass a lot of great restaurants, a lot of great coffee shops. A good example is the 5 0 5 Food Hall is the old Sears Roebuck company. It’s the old Sears building at Fifth and Central. And inside today you’ll find a variety, about a half a dozen, all locally owned restaurants, locally owned coffee shop, a bar all in one place that used to be Sears. So it’s got that history, uh, historic component to it. And so I try to point that out with a lot of the architecture that we see is, here’s what it was then. Um, but here’s what you can find now. ’cause that’s one thing that I do love when I’m traveling. Um, I’m on a walking tour. You get the, the local’s perspective usually, and they usually have the best restaurant recommendations, best things to do. Um, and so I try to point those out as we go along the way.

Bunny : (05:53)
That’s so interesting because, um, in Santa Fe, luckily I married somebody who grew up in Santa Fe, and we’ll be driving around downtown and he’ll say, oh, that was when you said the Sears building. That was my office. My old office at Keller Williams was in the old Sears and Roebuck building. So what a cool perspective. And do people, I mean, do you end up stopping and going in and having a cup of coffee? Or is this just, this is the tour, these are things you can do?

Eric : (06:20)
So right now I’m just doing kind of brief overviews. I’m trying to do, um, trying to cap it at one hour, just to one hour. It’s like, it’s a way to get to know the city’s, uh, history through its downtown art and architecture on foot and in just one hour. So that’s kind of the appeal, is it’s some way to just start your Saturday, uh, encourage a lot of folks afterwards to go and do the Downtown Growers market to go get their cup of coffee on Sundays at the rail yards. We keep that to just a, a half hour overview of the history of the rail yards building. Um, encourage them, that’s the perfect way to start their market day. Um, and so on these tours, you know, we’re, we’re kind of just seeing them from the outside. Um, but they’re all taking those notes, those mental notes of, okay, I’m gonna come back to this place, or I’m gonna go check out the grower’s market after this. Um, and so that’s what it is now. Um, you know, um, this is something that just started this year. I’m already getting ideas for, for years too, and years three, where we may incorporate, um, visiting with some of these folks inside some of these places. ’cause um, local businesses have already reached out about that. They’re excited for walking tours, they’re excited for downtown revitalization. Um, and so some of those are, are in the works already.

Bunny : (07:25)
Well, Eric, I wanna talk just a little bit more about, uh, I mean, pretend that we’re on that walk, because we’ve got to assume that folks, um, may not be able to, um, meet you at exact exactly the moment that you do the tour. I mean, give me a few more highlights, because I love going over to gold. I used to work down at, uh, I couldn’t tell you what building it was, but, um, I used to work for an attorney downtown. And, um, I love to go over to Gold and hang out in those. Um, there, there, there were a couple of gold great coffee shops, but I’m curious to know what, what the history is. Um, other than, as I recall and what I’ve heard from people is that downtown was where everybody went to, you know, for lack of a better explanation, like to do their school shopping and to, this is pre mall days, this is pre, you know, forties, fifties, sixties. I I wanna hear a little bit more about what they’ll see on that Central Avenue tour.

Eric : (08:27)
Sure. So we do focus primarily on architecture from the early half of the t the first half of the 20th century. Um, you know, a lot of the architecture we, we talk about right at the beginning, uh, the year 1880 being important for the railroad arriving in Albuquerque. And a lot of the architecture that remains is from that. Um, the second wave. So the first wave would’ve been tents and, and wooden business, uh, wood businesses that, that have been lost at time. But then you have some of the older buildings. Um, and so we point some of those out. Um, some that stick out on Gold Avenue, for example, the Occidental Life Building is a crowd favorite, just ’cause it sticks out. Um, not only in Albuquerque, uh, in downtown, but in the state of New Mexico. In fact, it’s nationally one of the only examples left of this Venetian Gothic architecture. And it found that inspiration, um, from the, from Dojos Palace in Venice. And so we talk about some of the, I, yeah, I try to name check some of the architects. That example is, uh, Henry Trot. He was an El Paso based architect. He also did the Sunshine Theater and other, uh, a lot of other Wow. In Albuquerque. And so I like to point those out. Um, yeah, people like that. Um, with that one that’s now home to the corporate offices of Electric Playhouse. Um, next door is a, a for, as a guest of yours, Sarah McIntyre has her new groove art space right next to her. So I don’t think it’s actually in the Occidental Life building, but on Gold.

Bunny : (09:43)
So, so what address is the Occidental Life building?

Eric : (09:46)
Um, it is gonna be at, oh gosh, I’m gonna get it wrong if I say it out loud right now, but it’s on Gold Avenue and I want to say third or fourth, um, it’s gonna be there. Um, cool. Yeah. It’s gonna be next to you. You got the Brew Coffee Shop, you got Sarah’s new art space, and then you have the Occidental Life Building.

Bunny : (10:05)
So I used to work in the Sunshine building mm-hmm. and, um, where the Sunshine Theater is. And the cool thing about that building is that at the time that I was there, we still had elevator attendance. I don’t know if they do now, but we had these two ladies who split up the, the week, uh, split up the day. And one of them would be there like at six o’clock in the morning, and the other one would be there from like one, one to seven in the evening because you couldn’t operate the elevators on your own. You know, had a little cage, they’d closed the cage, hit the lever. It was That is a cool building.

Eric : (10:42)
Yeah. The Sunshine Theater, like I mentioned, Henry Trost, uh, another, uh, one of his, uh, buildings and nine, it started off as a 920 seat theater. Um, and now of course it’s, uh, a concert venue. So that’s the, then the now, uh, you know, concert venue. But upstairs, I believe is some, some corporate offices. Some offices are up space up there. Also home to Bar Uno there on that would be first, second, third Street, I believe. Um, and so yeah, the Sunshine is also one that we definitely check out. And from that, um, from right Across the Sunshine, uh, we also check out some of that artwork there from working classroom. Um, there’s just so much. I try to, you know, I I, with it being one hour and roughly eight, seven or eight blocks, I really had to, to call it down to, to just I bet. So there’s some that we skip over or I’ll try to mention just as, as we’re passing. Um, and so we’re trying to hit the highlights, though, that kind of tell the story though. One thing that, one way that I chose the Places is trying to tell the story of really 1880 as an inflection point in the history of the growth of Albuquerque. And so some of the first places we visit are some old residential buildings. So one of the first stops is, um, the Milne House there at eighth and Central. And that was home to, uh, superintendent John Milne. He was Albuquerque public school superintendent for something like 45 or 54 years. Wow. The longest serving. Whereas most, uh, superintendents serve an average of three to four year tenure. Um, he’s over, so I believe 45 years. And so we kind of tell the numbers of Albuquerque’s growth through that. The doctor, uh, Pierce House, which is now home to Curious Toast, we kind of talk about, um, that residential property from 1905, that’s one of the oldest buildings. And then the oldest building is an 1894 property on gold. Um, and that’s the Hope building. And so that was also another, uh, Dr. Walter G Hope had his family residence upstairs in his, in his practice downstairs. And so trying to talk about, you know, the need for, for more physicians as Albuquerque grew, the need for the superintendents growing from in, in, uh, the tenure of Superintendent Milne. He went from something like five or six, uh, schools, I think it was five schools, including one high school to something like 50 or 64, um, during his, his tenure. Wow. So really seeing some, some of this growth. So I try to tell that, um, starting with those eighth and Central, um, and then by the time we’re at First and Central, really the highlight is the Alvarado, what’s now the Alvarado Transportation Center. But what would, what would’ve stood at first and Central to the Alvarado Hotel and that train depot, um, and really became the focal point for transit in and out of Albuquerque. Um, and that really was what just exploded the growth of Albuquerque. And so that’s kind of the, the story of the then and now. Um, the overall story is talking about 1880, the arrival of the railroad, um, and just a trip down Central Avenue, which was originally Railroad Avenue.

Bunny : (13:27)
That is that so I am my degree is in history and, and it’s, I’m fascinated by the way that the railroad came to New Mexico. I mean, most people don’t know, um, that Las Vegas was really the primary, um, I guess city is a loose term, but it was, it was where all the people lived that, that were moving here from elsewhere for a long time because the railroad hadn’t gotten to Albuquerque yet. I mean, wherever the railroad showed up was where the population center was. Is that right?

Eric : (14:00)
That’s absolutely right. And so what’s unique to Albuquerque is not only did the railroad arrive in 1880, um, but something even in some ways more important is that Albuquerque was chosen as one of four cities for a major maintenance facility. And so the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the at and Ss f railway chose Albuquerque as one of four cities to be home to the rail yards. And so that’s why I think it’s so important on Sundays, I do the Rail Yards tour to give folks an understanding of the history of that place. Um, because that really became a draw for workers at early on in about, by 1917, it was already one in four workers in Albuquerque were working at the rail yards by the mid forties was really its heyday, about 1500 employees on the payroll. So this was the huge, huge employer, uh, for Albuquerque brought in a lot of families, um, migrants that came to work there, their families. That’s why I talk about the, the kids going to the schools, needing the doctors. You need entertainment. So you get things like the, uh, the Sunshine Theater. You get the chemo theater, which was a huge by the, uh, the PKI family of course. Um, you know, you gotta gotta have amusement as well. And so the rail yards though were hugely important in terms of why we became such a magnet more so than Las Vegas or anywhere else with a depot. We also had the rail yards, but only one in four cities had that major maintenance facility. And we were lucky enough to be one of those.

Bunny : (15:20)
So I wanna tell you a little story about that. Um, what year would it have been? Probably like 1986 or 87. Um, I worked for the Sutton Thayer and Brown Law firm, and we used to go after work over to El Madrid, which is the bar that’s under the overpass there, um, near the rail yard. And we used to go past that huge building, like I, and you’ll have to tell me what it’s called, but we would go past that huge maintenance building, and my friend Bruce would always say, somebody oughta do something with that. And, and now they have, I haven’t been there yet, but, but talk about that. That’s pretty amazing.

Eric : (16:06)
Oh, for sure. So, the first buildings would’ve been just shortly after 1880. Um, those we’ve all lost. So the remaining buildings that are left that you’ll see now when you go visit, were all built around a hundred years ago between about 19 15, 19 25 for the most part. Um, and so the largest one you’ll see is the machine shop. That one’s actually still not been renovated. So I’d like to take our guests there to see, um, you know, kind of the age, the wear and tear on that building. The ones that have been though you have the blacksmith shop, which is sort of the original, um, where the, uh, the rail yard to market first started. They’ve since expanded though to include the tender repair shop. Um, and so we get to see how these have been renovated. Um, the new flooring, the new Roofing. But we also get a contrast with the machine shop that being the, the largest of the buildings. Um, and so the rail yards has expanded, uh, hugely. Just even, even this year they, they expanded into that tender repair shop. They’re at about 150 vendors now. Um, and every time I’ve gone in the past, you know, I always see people in these sort of observation areas. There’s these places where you can go against the railing to, to look inside the buildings. And, you know, I hear half truths a lot of time folks who think they know what it was and are some who just fully do not know. And so it’s been really fun to take these, uh, guests on these sewers. And inevitably, almost every time, I’ll, I’ll get some, some lookers on, uh, who join in. ’cause they wanna know, um, some of what, what’s going on with these buildings. But the buildings that remain are all about a hundred years old. Um, but the, the city did, um, uh, buy them and they’re rent, uh, utilizing them for the rail yards market every Sunday May through October. Um, and then also, I believe it’s the Mexico Media Academy through c n m, um, is gonna be utilizing, uh, that building one of those buildings as well.

Bunny : (17:47)
We talk, talk about that a little bit. I wanna know about the New Mexico media piece. What’s going on there? Oh,

Eric : (17:52)
I’m not the expert on that. I just know that that was, um, the, the primary driver behind renovating, um, that particular space. So it’s the, the building with the gray facade to the west, um, on the property. And so I’m not sure that that’s, uh, something I’m trying to learn more about. Um, every tour I get at least one or two questions that stump me, and I get up to go and do my, my research on it. And so this is a definitely a research opportunity to learn more about what’s going on with, with the Mexico Media Academy. But as you, as you probably know, um, film is not new to the rail arts since its closure. Um, you know, it, it became vacant for a while and then it became, uh, a place for a lot of films. So the a Terminator movie, I think a, uh, breaking Bad, uh, a few other movies that I’m sure I’m forgetting, and people are gonna be saying, oh my gosh, you, you know, this was filmed there. But it’s been filmed. Uh, a lot of movies have have used that location ’cause it’s got a great look to it. Um, you know, I love the, uh, one thing that’s kind of interesting is as they’re restoring it, well, if you were to restore it to sort of some of its original specs, um, the windows in particular would have to go back to a sort of uniform opa or clear color. But as you might know, if you’ve been there, I love the greens and yellows that they’ve put in over time. And that really gives it this just beautiful cathedral-like, look,

Bunny : (19:04)
I’m curious about that. So were those replacement windows or did they start, because it is really, uh, so I want, so let’s just assume we’re talking to somebody who’s listening to us in Scotland or Dubai, and this, this is a, this is a cavernous building, right? It’s, it’s huge. I don’t even know the size, but it has these large paned windows and, and they’re just odd colors. They’re, it’s bizarre. I mean, it’s beautiful, but interesting.

Eric : (19:33)
Yeah. So these, this space, and I think I have the square footage somewhere, but, um, you know, vast spaces where, um, rail, the cars could be brought in for maintenance, right? And so there’s maybe a, a dozen or so tracks that they could go down in the machine shop. So that gives you a sense. And so that the size of the cranes, the Morgan cranes are anywhere from 150 megatons to 250 ton cranes. Um, that can actually lift locomotives, lift engines up into the sky. And so that’s kind of easy. The height, um, the width, these things are a huge cavernous spaces. The blacksmith shop, um, is sort of, was the first project, uh, that they got that was taken on for renovation. Um, and so yeah, they have these beautiful, um, you know, they’re concrete and steel primarily. And, and, and the glass curtains were would’ve been originally a uniform color, is my understanding. But yeah, they, they were just subject to, you know, an easy target for vandals, uh, over, over the years that it was left vacant. Um, but as it’s been restored, they’ve replaced those with these beautiful sort of, yeah, these, these greens and yellows that, um, when the sun’s coming through, just, um, if folks want to see colors, uh, I would encourage them. And I, I always, um, tell folks on the tour to visit the Wheels Museum. And for our online listeners, they can go to the Wheels Museum website, um, if they just Google Wheel Wheels Museum, I don’t wanna get the, the exact address wrong, but maybe you can include that in, in show notes. But, um, they can see some before, um, some sort of then and now pictures of what it looked like.

Bunny : (20:55)
Can, um, Eric, can you spell that Na that, um, website name for people? Sure. It’s

Eric : (21:01)
Wheels Museum, W H E E L Ss, um, I believe it’s just wheels museum.org. Um, okay. That’s Wheels Museum is, is there on, uh, the property. And they are dedicated to, um, sort of preserving and exhibiting transportation in Albuquerque and all of New Mexico. And that includes the trains. Also some really cool old cars you can go and see. And it’s free to visit. They do, of course, accept donations and encourage you to, to support their work, um, as well. And so their information is available on their website.

Bunny : (21:32)
And when you talk about the marketplace, because that’s gonna be attractive to a lot of people who are listening, who are like, you know, I don’t wanna go to the mall to do my shopping. I don’t, you know, I’ve seen everything in Old Town. Talk about the marketplace. What is that?

Eric : (21:45)
Oh, it’s great because there’s a, like I said, about 150 vendors and it’s food vendors, produce vendors, um, goods and, and art and artwork, uh, jewelry pieces. So you can do all sorts of shopping there. Um, and you can eat prepared foods there, foods to take home to eat, um, to prepare. And so you really runs the gamut. And these are all, of course gonna be local, locally sourced, locally produced local artists, um, which we always love to support. Um, but it’s really great, about 150 of them is, it’s a really impressive number when you go, um, and they’re now between two buildings and an outdoor plaza in between. Um, and so when you go, it’s a great, um, family friendly atmosphere. They try to have a theme every week. So this past week was Multicultural Day. They actually had a free performance of our flamenco, our National Institute of Flamenco, their, uh, their kids, their, uh, youth classes performed. Where else can you go? Um, here in the United States at least, uh, lucky enough that I’ve been to Spain to see flamenco there. Airport, you go to a market and there’s a free flamenco performance since it’s one of the reasons I love Albuquerque, because we’ve got this, this great, vibrant flamenco, um, community. But every week there’s gonna be some kind of music or performance or art, um, something going on there.

Bunny : (22:58)
So is that, is it only on the weekend?

Eric : (23:01)
It’s only on Sundays from May through October.

Bunny : (23:04)
Okay, cool. Well, I gotta get down there and do that. I’m, I am also curious about the people that you’ve had on the tour. I mean, have you had people from other countries? Have you had people who are, you know, of an age where they can remember some of those buildings being used for a different purpose?

Eric : (23:22)
Yeah, we’ve got a great range. So primarily locals, which I think has been great. ’cause I’ve got a lot of locals who they’ll readily admit they, they don’t really know the most basic, uh, history facts. Even just learning about the railroad in 1880 gives them a frame of reference for their city that they hadn’t really thought through before. But just this past weekend, we had, we had family, um, visiting from out of town, but they’re from here in the state. Um, and a woman that was from, from out of, of the country as well, she was visiting, or she’s originally from Macedonia, I believe she’s living here now. Um, but to her, this was all new. So it’s important, I, I try to ask those questions at the beginning of every tour to ask kind of who’s local, who’s visitor, you know, get a range.

Eric : (23:57)
So I know kind of, you know, level setting of, you know, should I explain in, in great detail or you know, what perspective. Um, but I try to always give that basic overview. But for some folks who they don’t even realize, you know, the importance of, of the railroad, really like to dive into those specifics. Um, for folks who, who may have, like you said, they may remember, oh, I remember when that was. The JC Penney. Well, I’m gonna highlight those sorts of places more and do a lot of that. Like, you know, especially from the forties and fifties. I try not to do anything too much newer than that. Um, but we do get a lot of times where it’s like, oh, I do remember this place. I used to go and, and watch movies here at this theater. Um, and so it’s been really rewarding to, to visit with those folks and folks whose, um, grandparents a lot in many cases worked at the Raily Yards. We get some of those folks who are coming out as well.

Bunny : (24:41)
So when you say, somebody says, I watch movies here, is that at the chemo?

Eric : (24:45)
Oh, this was, um, at the, the Sunshine Theater.

Bunny : (24:49)
Oh,

Eric : (24:49)
Cool. Yeah,

Bunny : (24:51)
Because I want, I, I think the chemo is one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere. I love that place. Yeah.

Eric : (24:57)
Yeah. The chemo is, is a beautiful space, um, where you can still go see movies now that the city owns it. They try to, to do movies and performances. I went, um, if your folks have not watched, I will do a plug for the, this new show called Absolutely Albuquerque. I went to the, they did a premier screening of it, and it is a, a very well produced, uh, TV series all about Albuquerque and all of these, it’s, you know, I’ve been doing now follow Eric, like I said, since 2009, I’ve gotten to know a lot of Albuquerque businesses and New Mexico. And so seeing, just watching this show, it was like, oh my gosh, there’s, uh, Marie from Bocas Bocas, which is now my mom’s, um, or there’s, you know, and I’m just seeing all these Kim Bellamy, the, the poet, Albuquerque poet laureate. Um, and so all these familiar faces, and it’s so well produced. So if you haven’t seen absolutely Albuquerque, I got to see that in the chemo theater, which was such a special experience.

Bunny : (25:48)
Well, Eric, I think that we have to, because, um, you know, I wanna, I wanna talk about, um, how Albuquerque is, is a, it’s a wonderful city. I mean, people, you know, this is like everywhere in the world, you know, if you were gonna go visit Portland, you’d be like, oh, I hear such terrible things. But, but can you speak to that for just a minute? Albuquerque is a, a wonderful, culturally rich city.

Eric : (26:13)
Absolutely. Um, you know, Albuquerque of course has its challenges and I, I won’t pretend to, to ignore them. Um, and so, you know, we do try to, to make sure we’re looking out as we’re, as we’re walking, just looking out for each other. But, um, you know, Albuquerque needs its cheerleaders, and I’m happy to count myself as one of them. Um, we’ve got this rich, diverse history, this multicultural history that, um, really it’s, it’s, I haven’t seen it so much in my travels, you know, where else can you see in the United States, like I said, the flamenco capital here. Um, and so we’ve got this, this rich, uh, this rich history. Um, we’re, we’re a fairly large city. I think, you know, people think of us as a small city, and we’re small enough that we’re, we’re still friendly with each other and mm-hmm. and I love that. But we’re big enough that we have, you know, like I said, I grew up in the South Valley, went to church on the west side school in the northeast side, and those were all very different experiences all coming from the same city. And now getting to know the downtown core has its own flavor. And so we’re large enough to have all of that going on, but we still know each other. And I really, really love that about Albuquerque.

Bunny : (27:11)
Well, and I would say for people who are coming to visit, um, it’s, there are some beautiful places to stay and see. And, um, I, we’re happy to link to some of those, but Eric, you’re doing this all as a labor of love, um, which is, which is amazing. Um, not charging. And I want people to know how to find you, but I also wanna know if, I mean, are we ever going to see you turn this into a full-time business so that you can be available to people all the time?

Eric : (27:48)
Well, I’m glad you asked that. I, I just posted about this on my blog, so if folks wanna learn anything about the walking tours, about what I’ve got going on, they can go to www.followeric.blog. It’s e r i c, um, follow eric.blog is also my Instagram. Um, and I think you can find me on Facebook as well that way. Um, and so you can see all the things I’m up to. Um, this year I really wanted to make sure to offer these free tours every weekend. Um, they are totally free. I do accept tips, um, as a way to support future tours. Um, and so I’m gonna do this tied through the rest of the market season. And so basically through October, um, my final one will be the first weekend of November in the downtown, um, for year two. Um, we’ll see, I haven’t finalized, so I’m not ready to make those announcements yet.

Eric : (28:33)
There will always be a free component, whether it’s once a month, twice a month. There will always be an opportunity for folks to just come out for free to get to know their city or to, if they’re visiting. Um, but there may be some, some private options, paid options as well in the future where we may get the chance to go into some of these buildings to meet with some business owners, maybe get something to eat. Um, and so as I finalize that, I’ll be pushing that out on the blog. And so that’s where folks can learn more.

Bunny : (29:02)
Eric, I just wanna applaud you because you are, um, what New Mexico is all about people living in beautiful space following their dreams and wanting to share it with others. I mean, that’s, that’s why I do this podcast. It’s, I mean, I want folks to know we’re not making a cent off of this podcast, but we’re having so much fun hearing stories about New Mexican and about new Mexicans. So hats off to you for doing something that feels both like fun and really important for your city and your state.

Eric : (29:37)
Well, thank you so much, bunny. When I saw, you know, a call for, for guests, I was like, what you’re doing? I love New Mexico lines up so well, and we’ve both been blogging for at least the same amount of time. I’ve had to archive a lot of my old material. But, you know, 2009 I launched follow Eric officially. And so I think I love Mexico has been around for at least as long.

Bunny : (29:55)
Yes, yes. And I did it, and, and I tell people this, the reason that I started writing that blog, other than my friend Elaine telling me you got a blog, you know, none of us knew really what a blog was, but, um, Gary Vaynerchuk says, write about what you love. If you’re gonna blog, you gotta write about what you love. And so I thought, well, I love New Mexico, so, so here we are.

Eric : (30:16)
It’s amazing. Yeah,

Bunny : (30:19)
14 years later and, and you’re doing it as well. So Eric, I wanna come down and do a tour and I wanna encourage other people to do it as well. So there will be links in the show, lo there are links in the show notes and, um, hopefully a few pictures of those beautiful windows at the, um, rail yard. So absolutely. I can’t wait to meet you in person.

Eric : (30:41)
I look forward to it very much. Thanks so much, bunny.

Bunny : (30:43)
You’re welcome. Thank you.