We were out of bed early this morning 4:15am to be ready for our 5:00am pickup. Thence a short drive in a minibus to the Balloon companies headquarters for a light breakfast followed by another short bus ride to the launching area. We hung around at the launching area for maybe half an hour while the crews inflated and otherwise prepared the rigs and in truth also waited for the sun to get closer to rising. It was interesting to watch the balloons being inflated as this was now a somewhat familiar procedure having watched it many times at last years Albuquerque Festival.

The ride (my first ever in a hot air balloon) was very interesting and spectacularly scenic. The morning was clear and cold with only light breezes. So there was a real sense of tranquility as the pilot controlled the direction of flight simply by choosing altitude. It was evident from watching the other balloons that the breeze was blowing in different directions at different altitudes.

We were surprised by the number of balloons flying, I counted over 50 before giving up the count.

The pilot demonstrated his skill by landing the balloon right onto the trailer that the crew used to transport the rig. This meant the crew simply had to tie down the basket rather than carry it to and lift it onto the trailer.

While the balloon itself slowly deflated we were served champagne and orange juice and presented with our certificate. All in all a very satisfactory experience.

Late in the afternoon we walked from the campground down to one of the nearby villages along one of the many valleys. This gave us an opportunity to see up close some of the famous cliff dwellings. It is really quite amazing, these guys have dug churches, rooms, stairs and storage areas into almost any piece of rock that has an approximately vertical face.