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Today, we said goodbye to Santa Fe. We got up early and were the first ones in the hotel restaurant for our breakfast. By 8:15AM we were on the road toward El Paso. Being a Sunday and the day after Christmas, the roads were very quiet… easy driving all the way. The weather was variable but the wind very strong.
We stopped at White Sands National Monument… and surprise! It was packed. People were there to spend their Christmas weekend with family, relatives. There were kids everywhere sliding down the slopes of the white sand dunes. Way too crowded for us.
Also, it was too windy to take too many photos. We didn’t want to damage our camera equipment. We still managed to do one short walk and take some nice photos (mainly Jim as he has a weather-proof camera). We also drove the short loop of the monument, and then we left to get back on the road to El Paso.
We arrived in El Paso just before 4:00PM but our room was not ready. 45 minutes later we were finally able to get settled in our room. To compensate for the delay, the hotel gave us two free drinks of our choice (we chose two red wines over dinner).
The hotel we’re staying at is called the Plaza Pioneer Park Hotel and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has a long history anchored in the heritage of El Paso going as far back as the 1800s. The Hotel was the location of the meeting between US President William Howard Taft and Mexico’s President Porfirio Díaz.
The hotel went through a ten-year renovation effort to restore the building back to its former grandeur. It finally re-opened in the summer of 2020. Our room was very spacious and tastefully decorated.
Once we had freshened up a bit in our hotel room, we went back outside to discover the downtown of El Paso. Walking around, it was very apparent that the area is rather poor and in need of some cash to rejuvenate the downtown area. Later, I read that El Paso is one of the poorest cities in the United States. However, there are some joint private and public efforts to renovate parts of the city
The L-shaped structure of the Kress Building is one of a group of distinctive art deco buildings designed by the late Kress retail chain’s chief architect Edward Sibbert from 1929-1944. Kress used to be a famous department store. The building is being renovated as part of the various efforts to renovate downtown El Paso’s numerous historic buildings.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Ambar, a tex-mex fusion restaurant. The restaurant didn’t anticipate to be full and was short staffed to serve everyone. We had to wait a while to get our meal. Luckily, it was good… but the kitchen made a mistake and Jim’s short ribs were cold. Of course, they fixed it, but still, not a good thing to happen.
After eating our dinner, we went to check out the activities on the San Jacinto Plaza. The hotel staff had told us that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the Plaza hosts several Winter Fest activities. The decorations were very colorful and the loud and vibrant energy was contagious.
Being right at the border with Mexico, we noticed the culture differences with Santa Fe. While the festivities at Santa Fe were rather subdued (too many old people, maybe, or too many White tourists), the festivities downtown El Paso were lively, rowdy with kids playing and running around on their scooters, families talking loud, laughing, taking photos in front of the Christmas decorations, kids dancing to the rhythms of Christmas music… and lots of Spanish-speaking words (actually, all Spanish speaking).
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Ambar, a tex-mex fusion restaurant. The restaurant didn’t anticipate to be full and was short staffed to serve everyone. We had to wait a while to get our meal. Luckily, it was good… but the kitchen made a mistake and Jim’s short ribs were cold. Of course, they fixed it, but still, not a good thing to happen.
After eating our dinner, we went to check out the activities on the San Jacinto Plaza. The hotel staff had told us that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the Plaza hosts several Winter Fest activities. The decorations were very colorful and the loud and vibrant energy was contagious.
Being right at the border with Mexico, we noticed the culture differences with Santa Fe. While the festivities at Santa Fe were rather subdued (too many old people, maybe, or too many White tourists), the festivities downtown El Paso were lively, rowdy with kids playing and running around on their scooters, families talking loud, laughing, taking photos in front of the Christmas decorations, kids dancing to the rhythms of Christmas music… and lots of Spanish-speaking words (actually, all Spanish speaking).
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