Tag Archives: travel

Day of the Dead isn’t the only thing celebrated at The Pink Store. And not everything here is on the kitschy side. Far from it. Most of the merchandise here is high-end. Owners Ivonne and Sergio Romero make frequent trips deep into Mexico to search out quality items from some well-known artists and craftsmen. Here are examples of statuary and artisan pottery:

Is furniture more to your liking? Well, then, take a look at this:

More pottery, as well as an example of one of the many lighting fixtures you can get here:

Are you perhaps more into textiles, rugs, or clothing? The Pink Store will float your boat in that department as well:

The Pink Store is also a great place for some really awesome religious art, such as this massive Archangel Michael:

Time to sneak in a scarlet blooming hedgehog cactus (from my front yard) photo just for the random heck of it:

Not all the arts and crafts in The Pink Store reside on shelves and tables. You’ll also find the walls packed with marvelous finds:

Yes, the lighting fixtures you find here work on U.S. current, as Mexico and the U.S. share the same voltage and plug schemes:

This entire store is packed with so many finds that we always take at least two, and often three, trips around the aisles. We do this upon arrival, before lunch, and again after lunch before departing back to the U.S.

Need a wall fountain? The Pink Store has you covered:

But The Pink Store is more than just a store. It’s also a restaurant. On Friday I’ll show you what we and our guests had for lunch.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

I‘m going into coast mode over the next two weeks. That’s for several reasons. First, I just struggled to complete thirty-four articles in rapid order for prescheduled publication. Second, by the time you read this, I’ll have just returned from seventy-one days away, which is why I needed over ten weeks’ worth of blog articles. So, I’m also preparing this two-week series in advance so that I can recover. And, thirdly, it’s been nine years since I last showed you The Pink Store, and the owners Ivonne and Sergio Romero have since completed a full revamp of the entire building. The interior looks nothing as it did when I first showed you The Pink Store back in 2013. Indeed, here’s how it looked back then:

Interspersed among this two-week series will be a review of the restaurant inside (this week’s Fun Food Friday) and some recent photos I’ve taken of desert flowers and an El Paso sunset. So, it won’t all be boring, I promise.

Puerto Palomas, Mexico is a border town directly across from Columbus, New Mexico. And, unlike Ciudad Juarez, Palomas is a safe place to visit.

And if Columbus, New Mexico doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps the “de Villa” in the sign above might refresh your memory. Still drawing a blank? Well, on 9 March 1916 the town of Columbus was the sight of the very famous Battle of Columbus, in Pancho Villa’s (born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula) División del Norte (Division of the North) attacked the town. This resulted in the Pancho Villa Expedition (at the time referred to as “Punitive Expedition, U.S. Army”), which saw the U.S. Army under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing pursue Pancho Villa deep into Mexico. Serving in that expedition was 2nd Lt. George S. Patton Jr. in his first military campaign. This expedition also marked the first instance of the use of U.S. military aircraft (1st Aero Squadron) in a combat role. Yeah… I’m a military aviation buff; can’t you tell?

The Pink Store is simply a wonderful destination on a day trip from El Paso, or any of several southern New Mexico locations stretching from Lordsburg to the west to Las Cruces in the east. It’s not just a destination for great Mexican food. It’s also a place where you can spend hours shopping for handcrafted Mexican arts and crafts:

Some of their more popular items are Catrinas (La Calavera Catrina — The Elegant Skull), which are skeletal female figures, and other Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) items. I have in my home office a rather nice depiction of Day of the Dead Beatles reenacting the Abbey Road album cover, for instance. No such statuary here today, but they did have Day of the Dead Freddy Mercurys on hand. Here are some other examples:

Beyond Day of the Dead articles, there are lots of others art forms available here:

Well continue this tour on Wednesday and through next week.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)