Stroll around the downtown! In...
by ephobius
Stroll around the downtown! In this park is Crocodile Fountain. Can you see them? They are behind my friend Gloria (she lives there). According to the locals, there were real crocodiles in this area many years ago. Pasea por el centro! En este parque está la Fuente de los Cocodrilos. Los ves? Están atrás de mi amiga Gloria (vive allá). Según esto, hace muchos años hubo cocodrilos reales en el área.
Corn or Flour Tortilla?
by kd_baby
When visiting some hotels in the El Paso area, you may be asked if you want corn or flour tortillas. This question is frequently asked in Mexican restaurants along the Texas/Mexico border, and even San Antonio. This doesn't happen in North Texas (like my current home, Dallas, TX).
Anyway, I always want fresh corn tortillas, and that's my recommendation.
White Sands National Monument (95 miles) WOW!
by matcrazy1
This National Park is absolutely a blast! The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 710 km² (275 mi²) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. Gypsum is rarely found in the form of sand because it is water soluble. I have never seen anything like that. I was there exactly on Easter Monday and I could easily see hundreds of Americans picnicking on white sands of picnic areas and sliding down white sand dunes. It's never to forget.
White Sands National Monument is located in southern New Mexico, 95 miles (150 km) north of El Paso; the Visitors Center is on U.S. Highway 70, 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Alamogordo. No public transportation serves the park. The only way to get there is by car: own or hired.
More details in my White Sands National Monument VT-page.
Hooters
by kd_baby about Hooters
Well I thought the food was horrible, and no I'm not joking. Sure, the prodominately latin waitresses were extremely gorgeous, but they don't make up for the lack of flavorful food. I had their "almost famous" chicken wings and fried pickles. Neither item appealed to me; the wings were improperly breaded and flavored, and the fried pickles just lacked flavor. I didn't finish either dish.
Civic Center Plaza and around
by matcrazy1
A complex of modern buildings covers large area of downtown El Paso (at Civic Center Plaza):
1. Round building of Visitors Bureau (tourist information there),
2. Judson F. Williams Convention Center (picture 2): very modern complex, remodeled in 2002 and worth a quick look for every fan of modern architecture; some parts made of glass look similar to new houses of German parliament in Berlin; check events here,
3. Abraham Chavez Theater (picture 3) of interesting sombrero-shaped architecture, check events here
There are a few more points of interest next to Civic Center Plaza including:
I. at southern side of Main Street east of the Visitors Bureau:
- El Paso Museum of Art - American (mainly Southwestern) and Mexican fine art (paintings and sculpture), European old paintings (Baroque mainly); I paid attention to paintings of Venice by Italian painter Canaletto (1697 - 1768); his nephew Bernardo Bellotto (1720 - 1780) was also a landscape painter (called Canaletto younger) and he was a court painter of King of Poland Stanislaw August Poniatowski in Warsaw; his paintings of Warsaw were used for rebuilding the city after its near complete destruction in World War II.
- Plaza Theatre
II. at Miles Ave., south of the above buildings:
- Camino Real Hotel
III. north of Convention Center
- El Paso City Hall (Mexican architecture)
IV. futher northeast along W. Missouri St.:
- Insights El Paso Science Museum
- El Paso History Museum
- Main Branch of El Paso Public Library, the first public library in Texas (free internet up to 1 hour for every visitor there).