Gap Year 2013 Jan-Mar: Southwest and south USA: Wed 6 Feb

OK, we really like Santa Fe. Our initial booking for 2 nights has now been extended to 6 nights and we will now leave Sunday. This place is cool!

Today, we are traveling to Las Vegas... That's Las Vegas, New Mexico. A smallish town 1 hour east of Santa Fe and used as a backdrop in many movies, among them True Grit, No Country for Old Men and Easy Rider.

Las Vegas is split into 2 parts, divided by a dry river. West Las Vegas is Spanish in style, with a plaza in the centre called Plaza Park. The picture below is from there. East Las Vegas is traditional US Anglo with a grid pattern of streets. Guess which one is more interesting and which one is predominantly used in the movies...

Plaza Hotel at Plaza Park is very glamorous...

We walked in and were the dumb tourists from Australia again. Worked wonders. We talked to the guy who managed the reception and he told us some stories, printed off the tale of The Ghost of the Plaza Hotel and encouraged us to explore the hotel including any rooms that were open for cleaning. They are too friendly sometimes...

Plaza Hotel's lobby was used in the movie No Country for Old Men (we have to see that movie again now)

The Ghost of the Plaza Hotel story is about room 310, which is said to be haunted by the old owner, Byron T Mills, who died in 1947. Mr Mills was apparently a real character and very fond of practical jokes.

Doesn't Di look a bit spooked here?

In a passageway connecting the 2 parts of Plaza Hotel was this old school desk. It reminded Hans of what he was provided with in year 1, Gamla Enskede Skola in Stockholm all those years ago.

A couple of trees were dying on Plaza Park and were then converted to "art".

Same to you, buddy!

A bit of history... Las Vegas, NM was considered the first town in the West to fall to the northerners in the civil war. Most of the town was built 100 to 150 years ago when a major rail line went through, which was eventually replaced by a more current railway line further south.

Nowadays the big business is tourism and ... Film! The old town is largely untouched and has about 900 historically listed buildings.

Apparently the front of the building below featured in Easy Rider.

Many residences are quite run down but we did wonder how the one remained standing! Some quite unique architecture in Las Vegas, NM.

The only hill in Las Vegas town is dominated by the Highlands University. The feature in the middle was celebrating diversity, hence the flags, but we could not find either Australian, Swedish or Kiwi flags. There was an Iranian flag there. We love the green "grass", the only patch in town and it's all Astro Turf.

After leaving Las Vegas (ha ha) we headed to Pecos, a historic town back towards Santa Fe.

We stopped for lunch. The town is nothing but it does have the fun grill house called Frankie's at Casanovas. Green chile cheeseburger for Hans with green chile stew, and quesadilla with green and beans for Di. Yummy. Great interior.

Note to the boys. Going to the loo and doing your business, you look to the wall in front of you and there is... a woman pointing a pistol right at you. Too dark to get a photo. Only in New Mexico.

We should have gone to the historic monument national park but we were a bit over "history" by then.

We drove the scenic route towards Glorieta hoping to see civil battlegrounds history but there is nothing really except this sign board. Basically the Glorieta pass was where the west was lost for the confederates. The south could not hold it.

We realised we were passing the fashion outlet mall on the way home and it being only 2pm decided to get our shopping done to retire some old stuff we brought with us.

Aaahhhh... New Nike shoes. Not cheap because we buy their top of the line shoes but we could not wait to changeover. We also recycled our old Nike shoes, which apparently will be used for playground surfaces.

Pick the new shoe for Hans and which one got recycled!

Aside from Nike, other stores which got our business - Tommy Hillfiger, Eddie Bauer and Levi's. Apart from shoes, 9 pieces of clothing for $160. All great quality. Now to chuck out some old stuff.

Tonight a treat. We booked for dinner at a Spanish restaurant, El Meson on Washington Ave in downtown, which rated well in TripAdvisor and promoted a Flamenco guitar performance.

The building, decor and menu were all well suited and fairly traditional. We ordered a few tapas and a paella. All good.

After finishing our main meal, we moved into the other room with our desserts to hear some flamenco music.

Dessert was also excellent and Hans finally got his thick, not sweet, Spanish hot chocolate with churros. Catalana Crema for Di.

This is Joaquin Gallegos, the Flamenco guitarist, playing a set, which we really enjoyed. He was very good. Unfortunately he only had a small audience. About 6 of us in total.