Self-Quarantine In New Mexico Or Visit Somewhere Else? Here’s What We Decided.

At the end of last year, Shae and I decided to head out west for 2021 (see Here Are Our Tentative Road Trip Plans For 2021 for more).

We knew we wanted to visit New Mexico at some point and initially that seemed like a good first stop for 2021. However, when looking into it we discovered that Carlsbad Caverns were closed due to COVID; that was an attraction we really wanted to see, so we figured it might be better to visit New Mexico another time.

Shortly after writing that post, the National Park Service announced that Carlsbad Caverns would be opening back up. That put New Mexico back in play for the start of the year, so Shae and I decided that’s where we’d visit first.

There was a slight wrinkle in our plans though. New Mexico requires all visitors to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the state or for the length of their stay – whichever is shorter – which meant we had a decision to make. Should we visit and spend a fortnight self-quarantining, or would it be better to visit a different state and head to New Mexico once that requirement was no longer in place?

Our Decisions

In the end we decided to go ahead with our plan to visit New Mexico next and self-quarantine for two weeks. That meant we had a different decision to make though – where should we self-quarantine?

My first thought was that we should book an Airbnb for a month somewhere. That way we could self-quarantine for two weeks, then have two weeks to explore that area before moving on to somewhere else in the state. The benefit of that is that many Airbnb hosts offer a large discount when booking for a month or more.

Spending two weeks self-quarantining meant we’d want a yard or outdoor space so that Truffles would be able to run around. The problem we encountered was that the best accommodation options were all in fairly rural areas and so we weren’t sure how reliable the internet would be. We both work online and so need a good internet connection, with Shae in particular needing a fast and reliable service because she teaches online using Zoom. It would therefore suck to book a month-long stay somewhere, only to arrive and find that the internet was poor and be stuck with that for so long.

I then came up with a different solution. We spent several weeks in Albuquerque last year when COVID first hit. We didn’t do much at the time as it was still early days in the pandemic and so there was even more uncertainty as to which kinds of activities were safe and which weren’t. However, we did do a couple of things and weren’t overly concerned about spending a lot of time exploring the city this time around.

My solution was therefore to book a two week stay in Albuquerque. The internet connection should be good and we wouldn’t feel like we were missing out by not getting to explore the area during that time. We found a couple of potential Airbnbs, but they didn’t have much outdoor space for Truffles. It wasn’t like we could really take her for longer walks either as those properties were in residential areas.

Thankfully a third solution showed up – an Airbnb in Bloomfield, NM. It was located on a farm and so there’d be plenty of space and the listing stated that they had a great internet connection – perfect! The property was available for three weeks from the end of January, so we booked all three weeks. That way we can self-quarantine for two weeks and then spend the third week exploring the local area. Bloomfield is in the north-west part of the state, so it’s close to a number of outdoor attractions such as Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Self-Quarantine Shortened – Sort Of

Our initial expectation was that we’d spend the first two weeks in Bloomfield self-quarantining. To get there, we’d be driving from Abilene, TX and that was a longer journey than we wanted to make in one shot. As a result, we booked a two night stay in Albuquerque along the way until the Airbnb would be available. We’d self-quarantine for those two nights and so would then only need to do that for 12 nights in Bloomfield.

That ended up changing again this week. We’d booked four nights in Abilene along the way, but had a terrible experience for a couple of reasons (incredibly rude staff and no one – not even staff – wearing masks). Shae and I left after one night and made our way on to Albuquerque early, cancelling our two night reservation and booking five nights instead.

We’re currently in the middle of that stay and are self-quarantining there, so that means we’ll only have to do another nine days in Bloomfield, thereby giving us almost an extra week to explore that area.