The road to hell starts in Albuquerque
On Sunday, August 11, the beginning of the end began. The last season of Breaking Bad started with a record audience in the United States: 5.9 million. In Albuquerque, where it has been filmed for five years, almost 500 people watched the episode at an event organized by the city council. If the rest of mortal seriéfilos already wept on the corners for the next goodbye to Heisenberg, in the most populous city in the state of New Mexico the sorrow is even greater: with the end of the series you could finish your goose of the eggs of… blue methamphetamine.
Known until now as one more stop on the historic Route 66 , for its Hispanic-influenced historic center and, above all, for its international hot air balloon festival , Albuquerque, a large city in the middle of the desert New Mexico, has seen how in recent years and, especially in this year 2013, visitors they have multiplied. And that they took to see the business. At first, its citizens were concerned about being associated with "a series about drugs." Towards the third season, when the success of Breaking Bad was already worldwide and the tourists began to stop there without asking about the balloons, l or they saw crystalline. Like his famous sky.
The hot air balloon festival
Candy Lady , a sweet shop with more than 30 years of history in Albuquerque's Old Town, was among the first to go bad: has sold more than 30 thousand bags of blue candy methamphetamine (a dollar a bag), the same one he made during the first two seasons as props for the series.
The Bad Tour It is also a classic already in Albuquerque. The guides, Jesse and Mike, chosen perhaps by their names, although they do not resemble the homonymous characters of the series, teach for more than three hours half a dozen locations from the series: starting with what was Jesse Pinkman's house and ending with Walter White's. With a strategic stop at Twisters Grill, the Mexican fast food joint that served as the location for Gus Fring's famous Pollos Hermanos. The ride, which must be booked in advance, costs $65 per person.
There is also the option of knowing the locations by bicycle thanks to the Biking Bad tours, where they offer “Five ways to get your ‘fix” for $50, $45 if you bring your own bike: The Pinkman Experience, centered on Jesse; Walt's Descent, following Walter White's descent into hell; It's Good to Break Bad, focused on supporting characters like Saul, Hank; The Baddest of the Bad, who are the real bad guys? Gus, Tuco… And Breaking Albuquerque, a complete tour of how Albuquerque has become just another character.
To recover from tours, they have it all covered in Albuquerque. There are several options. For example, a **Blue Sky vanilla donut sprinkled with blue crystal at Rebel Donuts**, the same ones commissioned and made famous by leading man Aaron Paul. Also, since last August 8, Marble Brewery , a bar that makes brief cameo appearances in the series and (according to them) was a team meeting point, is celebrating the end with two new beers: l to Heisenberg's Dark, dark as Walter's soul; and Walt's White Lie, blonder and softer , as the Walter White family man.
The blue sky donuts from Rebel Donuts
And, finally, the multi-offer of those who have best known how to exploit the series, its name and all its products: the spa ** Great Face & Body .** Here they began offering an exfoliating treatment with blue salts and now they even offer classes candy methamphetamine kitchen or bath salt and a whole line of blue cosmetic products, Bathing Bad (how many puns can you make on the title?), for whose name, surprisingly, they have not had to pay royalties. Yet. All these attractions and merchandising are only for adults. If at first in Albuquerque they did not like that they were known for a series on drugs, now there are critical voices about having made the production and distribution of **this fake drug (candy or bath salt)** a tourist business.
You also have the option to skip these holdings of your pride and geek pocket and opt to go to the most famous locations in the series yourself. Must-sees: the car wash Walt buys and Skyler runs, called Octopus; Y Twisters, or as we know it better, Los Pollos Hermanos. If the Twisters food doesn't convince you, here is a recommendation from Bryan Cranston himself, who after spending so much time in Albuquerque has bought a house there: ** El Pinto , Mexican restaurant, and a diner "that never fails", Flying Star .**
He and the rest of the team publicly declared their love for the city a few weeks ago on huge billboards that, surely, more than one Albuquerqueño has hung on the wall of his house: “Thanks, Albuquerque! We had a great chemistry together!”
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balloons? Nope, Breaking Bad