The big enchilada

Friday, January 31, 2014

El Paso, TX – Enchiladas, refried beans, rice, and tacos topped with cheese – that was Val’s Mexican special at La Malinche restaurant in the heart of El Paso today (named after a Mexican heroine of the Spanish Conquest).  I had tacos with pork, guacamole, chopped onions and cilantro and refried beans.  We also enjoyed beef soup – a hot bowl of broth with vegetables and a meaty beef bone.

Mexican food for lunch seemed appropriate in a city that has such a close relationship with the country next door.  Everywhere we went today, we could hear Spanish spoken, and I for one felt like a highly visible minority with my blond hair and blue eyes.

We headed in to downtown El Paso this morning to get information at the visitor center about things to see, and perhaps book a tour.  As we exited the Interstate 10 onto city streets, we blanched somewhat at the sight of those big orange signs and cones, knowing how scrambled our GPS can get when the streets don’t behave the way they should.  Just about everywhere in the centre of town, crews are drilling, scooping, scraping, craning, digging and erecting any number of streets and buildings, with barricades everywhere and sidewalks closed right left and centre.

We did manage to find the El Paso Visitor and Convention Center, and turn into its parking garage.  Once back at ground level, we had no idea where to go, so we wandered around the huge plaza of the center till we found a door that would open.  We were greeted by Linda, a kind lady who offered to take us to the visitor center, because it had moved about four months ago!  It was a block and a half away! 

Tours were not available, but Nora, the other kind lady who served us, provided self-guided walking tour booklets, maps and brochures to help us on our way.  We found the El Paso History Museum, and learned a bit more about the founding of the city.  In the early days, the town was known by four C’s: climate, commerce, copper and cotton – drawing people in greater and greater numbers as it developed.

The tall downtown buildings are concentrated in a small area, and many of them date back to the 1920s, 30s and 50s. We stepped in to the Camino Real Hotel to see the Tiffany stained-glass dome and chandeliers in the high-ceilinged dining room.  We stepped around a lot of barricades and closed sidewalks as well! 

After lunch, we went to have a look at the El Paso Saddleblanket, a huge emporium of all things Mexican, from jewelry, sombreros, brightly-coloured blankets and serapes to leather goods, garden ornaments, pottery and even dried cattle skulls.  Day-of-the-dead items, painted brilliant colours, were also on display; the one that tickled me the most was a life-sized skeleton, dressed in rags with a toothy grin, that is mechanized so it jiggles!

Back on the I-10, headed for the RV park, we watched huge brown gusts of dusty wind sweeping across the city.  A sand-coloured blanket of smog obscured much of the view, and as we ate our supper, we felt continuing gusts nudging the RV walls.  [Posted a day late due to poor wi-fi at our site.]