La Posta

After several hours of prowling through all the stores around the Plaza of Old Mesilla my sister and I decided it was time to get something to eat. We went to La Posta. It has been in business for 80 years. It is well worth a day in Old Mesilla if all you do is go to La Posta. It was impressive. The building started as a stage coach stop. The building turned out to be much bigger that it looked like from the entrance. You can eat inside or outside on the patio. Plus there is a cantina if you just want a drink.

Sarah and I at our table deciding what we will have to eat. We each chose a combination plate with enchiladas, tacos, rice and beans. The salsa (seen on the table with tortilla chips) was hot but not to hot and really good. 

A really nice water feature.

These tissue flowers were everywhere and so pretty. Putting lots of bright spots of color everywhere.

 The oldest photo of the original store and eatery.

Of all the doors I took photos of this was one of the most unusual. This was the door to the women's bathroom.

 This was the tile wall inside the bathroom.

A very old menu of Café La Posta

I liked this tile on the corner of a wall.

When we got back to Sarah's house we were looking at a tourist magazine of  Las Cruces that had an article about La Posta in it and there was a photo of the table we sat at to eat our lunch.

Billy the Kid Store

 This is a building that the famous outlaw, Billy the Kid, was said to stay in when he was in Old Mesilla. It is now a store with a lot of tourist-type junk in it. This building is on one of the corners near the Old Mesilla Plaza.

In the store. I didn't find anything to buy here.

This is an old brick wall of one of the buildings in Old Mesilla. On the wall is this sign telling some about Old Mesilla. Don't know if you can read it.

Old Mesilla

Here are lots of photos of Old Mesilla New Mexico. The first is the center of the plaza that is like a park with lots of small shops up and down the streets that go by the plaza.

I was there in October and of course there were all kinds of Halloween items for sale as well as Day of the Dead items. Day of the Dead is a big celebration in Mexico. It is to honor the people we have known and loved that have died.

I had to laugh when I saw this sign in a window advertising boots and pecans for sale. It seemed an odd combination. Pecans are one of the main crops in this part of New Mexico and cowboy boots are something that every one seems to want.

Most of these stores are the original building built about 150 years ago when Old Mesilla was a stagecoach stop. Many still have the foot wide adobe walls to protect against Apache attaches and wild cowboys on Saturday nights. This book store still showed the roof made of vegas or logs with straw in between. The top that you can not see is probably more like what we would have on a roof today just for safety and to keep out what little rain there is in this part of New Mexico.

We stopped in one gift shop where my sister knew one of the people that worked there.

Prickly pear cactus

The New Mexico state flower, the yucca.

I was fascinated by all the wooden doors, gates, and windows I saw in the Old Mesilla area.

Some of these building show the adobe walls as the looked then and now. Adobe is a brick made out of the New Mexico caliche soil, straw or some sort of grass like plant mixed with just enough water to make it hold together. In time most adobe will almost melt away and needs to be constantly repaired. Adobe is what the Pueblo Indians used (and still use)to make their villages. Making good adobe bricks is almost a lost art.

The mild weather in this part of New Mexico allows for all kinds of beautiful plants. There are big pots with plants, many blooming in and around all the gift shops and places to eat. Apparently this café had customers pouring their unwanted drinks into the plants. I hope this sign put a stop to it. 

Basilica of San Albino

I have realized I didn't get all of the photos of my trip to New Mexico on this site. For those interested here are a few of the day we spent in Old Mesilla, a small village almost in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Old Mesilla is about 150 years old. It was build as a stage stop for those traveling from Texas to California or points in between.  The catholic church of Basilica of San Albino sits at one end of the plaza with lots of little gift shops and places to eat along both sides of the street. Most of the buildings are very old adobe buildings that have been upgraded just enough to meet safety codes for today.