Beyond such specific locations, though, lies the fact that New Mexico itself is imbued with an awe-inspiring sense of infinite space, and infinite possibilities. Much like Walter White, a humdrum high-school chemistry teacher who escapes his ordinary life to become crystal-meth kingpin Heisenberg, Albuquerque is a normal city perched on the edge of a primeval wilderness. To venture into the bleak no-man’s-land where they conduct their business, all White and sorcerer’s apprentice Jesse Pinkman have to do is keep on driving when the tarmac runs out. Search on for ABQ Studios, for example, where Breaking Bad is based, switch to Street View and face in the opposite direction, and there it is: the boundless desert, stretching away to the horizon.
If watching Breaking Bad entices you to see New Mexico for yourself, you’ll almost certainly begin by flying into Albuquerque. Framed by the Sandia Mountains to the west, which glow a glorious gold at sunset, it’s a sprawling Sun Belt giant that still retains its Spanish core, centring on an ancient plaza. Two of its most conspicuous features barely make it to the screen in Breaking Bad: the Rio Grande river, which flows south through the city towards the frontier with Mexico, and the similarly mythic Route 66, which cuts across the centre en route to California. Both epitomize New Mexico’s historic role as the meeting place of diverse peoples.
The state’s longest-standing inhabitants, the Pueblo peoples, have been joined in the last half-dozen centuries by the Navajo and Apache, migrating south from Canada; the Spaniards, who headed north from Mexico during the sixteenth century, long before the Pilgrims reached Plymouth Rock; and the Anglo Americans, who started to stream in on the Santa Fe Trail two hundred years ago. All those cultures continue to co-exist, making New Mexico a hybrid of the Old and New Wests, where Pueblo Indians, bedecked in turquoise body paint and eagle feathers, dance to the beat of deerskin drums at the foot of the same mountains that hold the secret laboratories of Los Alamos, where the atomic bomb was developed and future weapon technologies are even now being devised.
Santa Fe, New Mexico’s oldest city, 95km north of Albuquerque – a cheap and easy day-trip on the wonderful Rail Runner light-rail system – is deservedly the prime destination for visitors. The strict rule that requires every building to look like it’s made of adobe takes some getting used to – even the multi-storey car parks look like Indian prayer chambers – but it’s a lovely place, small enough to explore on foot, and filled with monuments, restaurants, shops and galleries. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, where Jane kept promising to take Jesse but sadly never did, is just one of several excellent museums.
