The Machida’s Meander to the Missions

   A few days ago we went down “mission trail” in search for, yes, missions.  I was specifically curious because I have never seen a mission in this part of the world made by Catholics, want for a better term.  The one you see above is the Socorro Mission.  There is a good explanation on the plaque you see below. Click on the picture to enlarge it to read it easier.

Here are some pictures of the inside.  It was beautiful.

Catholics have their saints and stations, but also beautiful art work.

This is the ceiling.  WOW

Another angle of the ceiling and rafters.  Look closely on the beams for red circles in dark lines.

This was a table in the foyer.  Notice the red circles with yellow flowers in the dark lines on the shelf.  This design on the ceiling has faded.  The baskets with long arms are for the ushers collecting offerings.

St Francis.  The missions had cute bookstores, but I didn’t take pictures inside.

After Socorro Mission we drove to the Tigua Indian Cultural Center.

The was basically a little museum of about 3 rooms in a small complex with a courtyard.

My trend of selfies with horses.  

As soon as you walk in the door this life sized stuffed dear, just laying on the floor, not in a case or on a stand, is a rather abrupt sight!

A lot of what I read and we saw had to do with how the Pueblo civilization and Spanish culture blended.  A diet of corn, beans, and squash.  Healthy!  Plus meat.

And this is a replica oven the Pueblo people used.

Pueblo baskets.  Another thing I always take pictures of.

This was painted on the wall in the courtyard

After the cultural center we drove to Ysleta Mission.  This one had been through several floods and rebuilds.

This is the two plaques you see on the front wall bottom left.

Inside was the same size.

This is the outside door.  Interesting all through this building is the Pueblo carvings.  

This is my favorite.  I wish I knew who she was.

And across the street is the casino.  This is the back end.  

During our drive we also stopped at a true Mexican bakery and bought way too much.  My favorite was soft sweet bread with pumpkin filling.  Richard had a mini pineapple pie with awesome crust.

   We’ve been quite busy shopping while staying in El Paso.  We are located in Missions RV park right beside the intersection of I10 and 375.  We are very close to Mexico, too.  By the end of the day there is a lot of smog from Mexico.  The shopping we’ve had to do mainly is about my iPad.  The iPad Richard gave me for Christmas had a hardware problem.  I did go through multiple starts and restarts and savings with 2 techies on line.  One must go through the Apple steps.  Yes, they agreed, the volume up button was broken.  So they were going to trade me iPads, but they didn’t have one in the store.  It was going to take 4 days to get one in the store.  Well, got a call the very next day and I picked it up.  We have also been shopping for 2 different things.  1) I am looking for eyes to make more Baby Yodas.  2) Richard is looking for a shelf to put by his chair for his morning coffee and the remotes.

Stay tuned, the next blog post is about our trip to the El Paso Zoo.  Pictures from the zoo have not uploaded onto this devise or you’d see a pic of a monkey, lion, or giraffe here.  

Hugs and Blessions!