Sao Paulo, Brazil Aug 1 - 5, 2010

This week’s blog is about my trip to Brazil. Now Brazil is one of my all time favorite places to go. Let me first, before I get into Brazil, pass on a comment from one of my readers, Jim says: “David, regarding authors, I recommend Vince Flynn and the series of books he has written featuring Mitch Rapp. There is a chronological order to the books which I can get for you. Very good reading if you are into CIA / espionage type books. You've posted another great blog on your travels.” I too, along with my wife, are big fans of Vince Flynn books. I think Mitch Rapp is one of the all time strongest characters fighting for the USA against the forces that want to harm us. The books are very good reads.



Brazil is an eight hour flight from Miami but only one hour ahead of Eastern Daylight Time so you don’t get screwed up by time zones and if you sleep on the plane it is like any other day. I flew down on American from Charlotte to Miami and then Miami to Sao Paulo. Each of my planes was on time and I arrived into Sao Paulo at about 8:30 am, about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Getting through immigration took about 15 minutes, very fast for Brazil. To go to Brazil you have to get a Visa, which is a time consuming process. It takes about 15 days (3 weeks) to get this Visa from Brazil, which includes surrendering your Passport for this period of time. If you have been following my blog you know that this is a very difficult thing for me to do because I go somewhere almost every week. I solved this issue by getting a second US Passport. This is something I did not know was possible until I talked with a guy in our company that has been traveling internationally for a lot longer than I have. You have to apply for a 2nd Passport like you do for any Passport and write a letter describing why you need it. The best reason is: That you fly to countries that are not friendly with each other and cannot have a stamp of one in your Passport when you visit the other (as in Israel and Saudi Arabia). Anyway, I secured my 2nd Passport and used it to get my Visa while I continued to travel internationally.


The people that were meeting me were waiting on me outside of Customs and we went direct to a place in the airport called Fast Sleep ( http://www.fast-sleep-guarulhos.com/ ). It is place to take a shower and rest for a couple of hours so you don’t feel like crap for the rest of the day. Since I arrived on time and the people that were also coming on this trip from our company were late (They were on Delta), I actually got a couple of hours sleep. The rooms at Fast sleep are just big enough to take a shower and a small bed. But it is wonderful when you have been on a plane all night. All the planes I was on during this trip (American) were early, all the Delta planes used by the people that went with me, were late.


We left the airport and drove into Sao Paulo. If you have never been to Sao Paulo it is a huge city. It probably has 14 million people in the city and a total of 20 million in the surrounding area. And of course has the traffic of a big city. This was a cloudy day in Sao Paulo (It is winter now in Brazil, south of the equator) and about 60 degrees F the whole time we spent in Sao Paulo. This is fairly chilly for people that are experiencing a very hot summer in the USA. But I had brought my windbreaker and was comfortable. I advise before going anywhere is to check the weather on the internet to make sure you bring the right clothes.

Cloudy Day

As we drive in I am reminded of the Motorcycles in Sao Paulo. Because of the traffic in Sao Paulo a lot of companies use Motorcycles to deliver goods, so you see a lot of these while driving on their freeways. A Sao Paulo freeway consist of 3 lanes. Each lane is jammed with cars, trucks, buses, etc. The motorcycles use the distance between the cars in the 2nd lane and the 3rd lanes for travel. While the cars are going anywhere from 0 mph to about 40, the motorcycles going about 60 mph. It is an accident waiting to happen. This week saw several close calls and the people there talk about several of the guys on motorcycles get killed every month.

Motorcycle playing Chicken with cars

We spent the day at the plant and a competitor. We drive on one of the main streets of Downtown Sao Paulo (it starts with an I, can’t remember, I’m sure some of my friends in Sao Paulo will let me know). But it is a beautiful street with lots of people, nice looking buildings, an old train station and a grave yard that was originally built outside of town but now is part of downtown. People 100 years ago never thought the city would get this big.

Old Train Station

Old Graveyard

We turn onto Ave Pauilsta, which is the Avenue where most of the commercial banks, etc. reside. This is the business side of Sao Paulo, beautiful large buildings and lots of people.

Ave Pauilsta

Downtown

This night we go to a traditional Brazilian Restaurant, Fogo de Chao ( http://www.fogodechao.com.br/ ). This is the original of the popular restaurants that have several locations in the USA. It is the restaurant that has different cuts of meat and will continue serving you until you say enough. They usually have a Red and Green card on the table, green is “I want you to come by with food, the red is stop”. In Brazil they also serve a special drink called “Caipirinha”. It is a drink with a lot of lime (lemon in Spanish or Portuguese) mixed with a lot of sugar and Cachaca ( a liquor distilled from sugar cane). Pretty strong drink.

We end up at the Sheraton World Trade Center a very nice Hotel in Downtown Sao Paulo for our stay in town. There are a lot of beautiful buildings around the hotel and the hotel has attracted a lot of customers. Because I am a member of Starwood (The Sheratons loyalty Program) they put me on the club floor which includes a little better room and free drinks from 5 till 7:30, a nice touch the first night I am there.

Out my Hotel window

Hotel lobby

Sheraton WTC

The next day we meet a guy we want to get to know for lunch at “a bela Sintra” (  http://www.abelasintra.com.br/ )on a street called Bela Sintra. The restaurant was a nice location just off the really ritzy part of Sao Paulo. The main course was not anything to write home about but the desserts look great. Didn’t have any, but they looked wonderful.

a bela Sintra

Desserts

That night we met with a lot of people from our office and went to a really great restaurant called Figueira (I think it means Fig Tree) ( http://www.rubaiyat.com.br/ ). There is this huge tree growing in the middle of the Restaurant. We were there on a Tuesday night and the place was packed. I took pictures of the massive Dessert Bar which Jorge modeled. I also took a couple picture samplings of a dish or two (Seafood, Jorges meal and a Steak, can’t remember). We had several of our group there are dinner and the conversation we as good as the meal. This is the second time I have been to this restaurant and it was even better than the first. We got to the restaurant by taking Brazil Ave, turning onto Venezuela. Venezuela turns into Bela Cintra (where we had Lunch) then right onto Oscar Freire (this is the street in Sao Paulo that is most like Rodeo Dr) lots of name brand stores (Gucci, Tiffany’s, Hugo Boss, etc) and then turn onto Haddock Lobo where the Restaurant is. A beautiful part of the city.

Bar at Figueira

Jorge presenting Desserts

Guests at dinner

Jorge's Seafood Dinner

Steak Dinner

As in any big city (doesn’t have to be big) there are a lot of areas of beauty and signs of progress. There seemed to be a lot of construction of buildings (Condo & apartments) and roads and bridges. There is a lot of people walking the streets, shopping, going to restaurants etc. I think Sao Paulo is bustling city with a lot of upside. There are also those areas of the city that poor and the houses a constructed poorly and look as though they are built on top of each other. The future for this part of the world is very bright. Brazil is one of the hot spots for business and sports Olympics in Rio de Janerio in 2016 and World Cup in 2014 . I think it is a wonderful spot to visit.

As always in Brazil, had a great time but was too short. Hope our business there will grow so that I can go there more often. I really enjoy the people and the city. Look forward to going back soon.

Monterrey, Mexico City, Mazatlan, July 26-30, 2010

Well here I am writing my blog on a Friday sitting in the Mexico City Airport waiting for my flight home. Hopefully I will finish this before I get there. I started this morning in Mazatlan. More about it later. But before I start on the week I wanted to address a couple of comments from past Blogs. Kathy writes: “What were those models advertising? Are trade show models normally dressed in costume as the one's you've pictured above?....” Funny you should ask, because I asked the same thing. I think it was Transmission Parts, not sure, but they were having fun. Last year the same organization had models dressed in Skimpy Police Uniforms and were arresting Guys and bringing them to the booth. They are one of the few out of all the booths that actually were in costume. Other models are just dressed in tight, skimpy clothing. My youngest son said he liked the “Bat Girls”. I actually thought they were dressed as “Cat Girls”. I guess either is just as interesting.



Frank writes “I like the author list. I do like Grisham but I tired on him after reading most of the early books. I must say though, I really enjoyed "Playing for Pizza" (I am reading this to my kids before they go to bed) and his non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man".” I too thought “Playing for Pizza” was a very enjoyable read. If you have not read it you should try it. Also I would suggest you also read his “A Painted House”. For those of you that grew up in the same area as I did you may think, like I did, that this is like reading about my childhood. Thanks for your comments.


I started out on Monday morning very early (6:10 flight to Dallas, then to Monterrey Mexico, State of Nuevo Leon), which meant getting up at 3:45 am. Early rising does not bother me much, it’s working late into the night that is tough and when you do both, it is hard. Flew American to Monterrey and the flight was on time, which is always great. Mexican immigration is always slow and they always have twice as many working the National (returning Mexicans) as the International side (Foreigners), and there are always twice as many Foreigners as Mexicans on the plane. Oh well, such is the life of us world travelers. Not much to tell about my visit to Monterrey and Saltillo (Saltillo is just west of Monterrey about 1 hour). The rains of a couple weeks ago (Hurricane Alex) did some tremendous damage to the area including several roads and bridges washed away. If any of you have ever visited Monterrey, you no doubt have driven on the road next to the river that flows through a big portion of Monterrey. This river is normally a dry river bed. They have built soccer fields, a race track in the river bed and several bridges across this river. All of it is gone now, including the road, as water gushed down this dry river bed. The brand new highway they built between Monterrey and Saltillo was damaged in several places. This area is normally High Dessert in climate with little rain. They are not used to the amount of water they have received. In most Mexican cities after a big rain the streets are flooded and stay flooded for a good while, because there is nowhere for the water to go.

Flew to Mexico City the next day (Tuesday) on AeroMexico. The big difference between flying on a Mexican Flight (same in Eastern Europe) and an US carrier is that the Mexican Plane is seldom more than half full, as was the case on Tuesday. This and the fact that the Flight attendants will give great service, makes for a nice flight. Driving through the city, I see things that are very interesting. We passed a WalMart (they are big in Mexico) and it looked like workers were bracing a Wall of the store to keep it from collapsing (hopefully, not the case). I also passed a site that is common in Mexico City. Shops that are little more than huts selling all kinds of stuff. One of the guys I was with said that these “informal shops” are one of the biggest employers in the country and pay no taxes. He also said they steal electricity to run their business (which is oblivious). Also anytime there is a stop of traffic (which is a lot) people show up selling something. (You find this throughout Latin America). Very industrious people.

shopping in Mexico

Terminal 2 Mexico City Airport

Shopping In Mexico

We went to a prospective customer and had a great meeting. He took us to lunch in the Polanco area (if you have read my previous blogs, you know the Polanco area is the best area in Mexico City) to a Restaurant called “Torre De Castilla” http://www.torredecastilla.com.mx/ This is a 10 year old Castle in this area that serves Spanish cuisine. Great food and very good ambience. I took a picture of our potential customer’s Desert (I did not have any Desert).

Desert

After lunch, which ended about 5 o’clock, we drove to the Santa Fe area of the State of Mexico (Just outside the city limits of Mexico City, but still plenty of city) to call on another potential customer. This area is in the hills west of the city. It is a mix of the very poor (houses on the hills looking like cardboard boxes) and beautiful new large modern buildings. After our meeting, we drove back into the city on Reforma (this is one of the major Thoroughfares of Mexico City, not a freeway, a 6 lane road) in heavy traffic. Now we were staying in Northwest (State of Mexico) part of Mexico City just outside of the city limits in a Crowne Plaza (Tlalnepantla)  www.crownplaza.com .

Santa Fe

Now for us to drive back in the city from the west and then turn and go to the Northwest I thought was not the wisest thing to do but I was just along for the ride. Anyway it took us 2 hours to get to the hotel and was past 9:00 pm when we did. Driving into the city on Reforma was a real treat however, (if you ever get the chance, please do), it goes past some of the best parts of Mexico City. The Los Lomas (The Hills) area has some of the more spectacular homes in the city. Large houses behind tall walls. Home to a lot of embassies also (to you Polish friends I passed the Polish Embassy on this drive).

I do have to tell you about Atole. It is a very unusual drink that I had on a previous trip to Mexico. We were driving from Mexico City to Cuernavaca (State of Morelos), about 45 minutes south of Mexico City, when the guy driving tells me that the best Tamales can be found at this roadside place and we should stop. I am always ready for adventure so we stop. He pulls up by this push cart vender that was selling tamales. The tamales have chicken and peppers inside of them and were very good. Those of you that know me know because of my past cancer I cannot eat anything without having something in which to wash it down. This is where the Atole comes in. I asked the guy if there was something to drink and he said Milk. There was this pan of milk on the cart and he scooped out a cup full for me. Now when he poured it into the cup it came out in clumps. He gave it to me and I took a drink. First it was hot, second it had clumps in it. The clumps turned out to be corn meal. They say you can mix anything with it, strawberries, nuts, etc. Unusual!

Wednesday we drove north about 100 km to Queretaro (State of Queretaro) to meet a potential customer for Breakfast. We met them at “Mision San Gil” www.hotelesmision.com , which is an old mission that they have turned into a hotel, restaurant, and convention place. It has very beautiful grounds (with peacocks) and nice facilities. I took some great pictures. It turned out to an excellent place to eat.

Inside "Mision San Gil

Yard at "Mision San Gil"

In a previous post I had decried the lack of Freeways or expressways in Mexico City. Driving back into Mexico City from Queretaro they are building a pretty elaborate elevated Toll Road. This probably goes for about 50 km and when finished will be a better way to get out/into the city. Unfortunately, it is designed to carry those that pay a monthly fee (no others will be allowed). So visitors to the area will not be able to use. My experience in Mexico is that the Mexicans don’t like to pay for the use of a road. I am wondering how successful this will be.

New Toll Road

On Thursday, I flew to Mazatlan (State of Sinaloa). Now Mazatlan is on the West coast of Mexico, almost due East from Cabo San Lucas down at the tip of Baja, Mexico across the area where the Gulf of California and the Sea of Cortez meet (I’m sure a lot of you have been there). Mazatlan is a beautiful coastal city that has panoramic views and some great old buildings. Unfortunately, parts of the city, and the buildings on the coast, have seen better days. It had rained that day and most of the streets were flooded, so getting around was difficult. But it looked like everyone was having fun.

Mazatlan

"Senior Frogs"

It is very typical of most beach cities you go to, lots of touristy things to do, Home of “Senior Frogs” (a popular Tourist location in most of Mexico. The Taxi’s were VW cars that looked like Golf Carts. Our Potential customer drove us around the city pointing out most of the sights. He drove past my favorite Mexican Beer Brewery, Pacifico, and past the docks where there must have been more than a hundred Fishing boats tied up (Maintenance Season) and down the coast line. We met with the potential customer for several hours and at 10:00 pm he tells me he wants to take me to the “New Mazatlan”. So we get into his car and drive north along the coast for about 15 km. This area is lined with Brand new Hotels, condos High Rises, casinos, etc. It is good to see the new stuff. I would rather look at the old stuff.

Pacifico Brewery

Fishing Boats in Mazatlan

Well here it is my week in a nutshell. It turned out to be a great week. I had lots of fun and the business was very good also. I caught the early flight out of Mazatlan to Mexico City where I was when I began this post. Finished the majority of this on the flight home from Mexico City. The great news was the immigration was empty and so I sailed right through, when I went to wait on the bus to take me to the car, it was there when I stepped outside and there was no line at the place you pay for parking. Fantastic end to a great week. Sunday I am off to Brazil. Looking forward to the trip. It will be a fairly short trip but hopefully will be a good week also. See you.

WalMart

Hogue's Top 15 Best Authors List

This past week I did not Travel.  I stayed in the office and caught up on some paper work, did my expense reports, had a doctors appointment, refilled my medication, had a couple conference calls, etc and caught up with my family. 

Since I did not Travel this week, I thought I would do something different.  Because I do a lot of Traveling, most of it by Air (I do go by Train some in Europe, which I enjoy), I get to read a lot of books.  I have a lot of Authors I enjoy and for the most part I can read them faster than they can write them.  A few others that are not on the list that I have enjoyed in the past: Michael Crichton (Dead) "Sphere", "Congo", "Jurassic Park", "Next", Robert Ludlum (Dead) "Jason Bourne Series", Tom Clancy (Stopped Writing) "Clear and Present Danger", "Patriot Games", "Hunt for the Red October", "Red Storm Rising", John Grisham (Latest Books not as good as in Past), "The Firm", "The Painted House", "Rainmaker", "Playing for Pizza".

Here it is my Top 15 Authors.  If you have any I should look at, that you think I may enjoy, please send them.  I enjoy real Horror, supernatural, not slash & cut or the "Fu Fu", girly vampire books that are in vogue now. Those that are Real scary, can't go to sleep at night books.  Detective novels and save the world single handed character books.

1. Stephen King - King of Horror and real spooky Books, especially the books he makes into a series
2. Dean Koontz - Love his Characters and Surreal Stories
3. Randy Wayne White - Greatest Character "Doc Ford" Part Time Gov agent and marine Biologist
4. Vince Flynn - Kick Ass Character "Mitch Rapp"
5. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Great Character "Pendergast" Great Stories, he is an unusual FBI Agent
6. Lee Child - Take no Prisoners "Jack Reacher" a loner that works for good
7. Greg Iles - Location Natchez MS not far from Where I grew up. Several characters that show up in different staring roles in each book
8. Stephen R Lawhead - Great Fantasy, Old Scottish stories
9. James Lee Burke - So. Louisiana, The Dave Robicheaux Character
10. Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch & Mickey Haller LAPD Detective and a Lawyer whose Office is in his car, only in LA.
11. Robert McCammon - Boy's Life, Gone South, Swan Song really spooky books. Too bad he doesn't write more
12. Brad Thor - Scot Harvath, may be moving up
13. James Patterson - Love Alex Cross Character and the Maximum Ride books
14. John Sanford - Prey Books and Lucas Davenport. I Have hard time remembering which I have read
15. David Baldacci - Split Second, Total Control, Absolute Power, etc.

In Mexico City, July 12 - 16, 2010

Well here I am back at my Blog. Another week and another trip. I am back in Mexico (Mexico City) to attend a booth show this week. Flew down Monday on USAirways. They have a non-stop flight from Charlotte to Mexico. Before I get involved with this week’s Blog, I want to say I appreciate the words of encouragement from a lot of people on last week’s blog. Thanks.

I did make an error in last week’s blog that was pointed out by a couple of friends from Mexico. I was talking about visiting Durango City, home of “Poncho Villa”. Actually, it is “Pancho” Villa. My apologizes to Pancho, Durango City and Mexicans everywhere. “Poncho” is actually a nickname for Alfonso in Mexico. You learn something every day.

A little word about Mexico City. If you have never been here, you should come just to say you have been. It is a massive city that measures about 100 KM across, has about 25 million people, and is difficult to get anywhere very fast. It has a lot of nice things, such as a decent airport, the rail system is fairly modern but is limited, a lot of history and museums for those interested. My youngest son visited here with a friend about 3 years ago, visited a lot of museums, used the subway and had a great time. For a city this size it severely lacks an adequate freeway system (It probably has less freeway miles than Charlotte). If you drive you will spend most of you time on surface streets in stop and go traffic (more stop than go). The people are very helpful, though. Everyone will give you directions. The guy I work with and does the driving because he is from Mexico, has no problems with flagging down another car and asking for directions. One woman, one time said to him to follow her and we drove about 10 miles to where we wanted to go and then she just waved and said bye and drove off.

Traffic in Mexico City

One thing about Taxis you need to know. Not just in Mexico City but anywhere. In Mexico City airport, when you come out of baggage claim there will be people who will ask if you want a taxi. NEVER take a ride with them. There are booths on your way out of the airport that rent Taxis (several different companies). They will rent you a taxi, charge you the correct amount, and give you a voucher, and point you the way to the taxis. Taxis are relatively inexpensive in Mexico. When in a hotel and in need of a taxi, let the hotel do it. They will get you a reputable taxi and most hotels will charge the taxi to your room and give you a voucher or the cash, so the charge is up front not after the trip.

Taxi you don't want to ride in

We are staying at the Intercontinental Presidente in the Polanco area of Mexico City. The Polanco area is the most upscale area in the city. Beautiful buildings, statues, restaurants and shopping. (I even saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King) The street the Hotel is on is Avenida Campos Eliseos. This street has many first rate hotels and is about two blocks from Avenida Presidente Masaryk. This street has many upscale boutiques, shopping areas, and restaurants. Much like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Stores like Gucci, Hugo Boss, Cartier, Tiffany and many others. It has been declared a “Zona Segura” Safe Zone. There will be many security and Police around the area. On the other side of the hotel is a beautiful park (Chapultepec Park) and in the park is Auditorio Nacional. Avery nice place for concerts, etc.

Hotel Intercontinental Presidente

                                                                                                  Avenida Presidente Masaryk

            Auditorio Nacional

The first day I was here we ate at a restaurant about a 5 block walk from the Hotel. Restaurante Asturiano (http://www.restauranteasturiano.com/) serves Spanish food with the service you would expect. I had Garbanzo Bean and Ham soup. It was excellent. My associate had some kind of Seafood soup that looked pretty good. We both sampled Morsilla (Blood Sausage), it was very good.

One of the things we did on Tuesday is go to where the Booth show will be, Centro Banamex. It is an Exhibition Center with a Horse Track on the other side of it. We went there to check out the progress with our booth for the show (People in Europe and almost everywhere else calls it a “Stand” not a Booth.) It was coming along nicely. Hopefully a lot of customers will show up. It is much larger than the same show last year, so maybe get a lot of traffic. (Chinese companies represent about a third of the total floor space at the Show).

We took important customers out to dinner after the show both Wednesday and Thursday night. As is tradition in Mexico, the Show runs from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm. So our dinner started at 9:30, late for us Americans (very Mexican). The first night of the Show, we had dinner at The Palm Restaurant in the Hotel (Intercontinental Presidente) (http://www.thepalm.com/) The Palm is a chain of restaurants with several in the USA, including Charlotte (Phillips Place). I had a small steak and it was cooked to perfection. I like my steaks medium rare. Because most restaurants will over cook a steak, I try to stress this by saying: ”more rare than medium, bloody”. Most restaurants still will over cook. But this steak was great. Since the service was excellent, I would recommend The Palm. Some of the other people with me had Tuna or Shrimp, all said it was excellent.

The next night (Thursday) we went to an Italian Restaurant, again in the Hotel, Restaurante Alfredo. Service was excellent and the food was good, not excellent. I really like Italian and I have had better, but the atmosphere and the opportunity to dine with our customer really made it a good night.

On Tuesday I had eaten with our company’s credit manager at the Zhen Restaurant in the hotel. Now I love Chinese Food as well and any food I eat. After paying the bill, which included a comment card, the waiter brought the card back and wanted our credit manager to fill it out. I never fill out a comment card. I took it and wrote “Small Portion, Big Bill” and returned it. Not worth the cost.

Now, the reason I am in Mexico is to attend the Booth (Stand) Show. It turned out to be an excellent show with some good contacts made. Wednesday was a little slow but we met a potential customer, that, if we get him, will make the whole show worth the time. He actually came back to our Booth on Thursday and talked some more. We have set up to visit him in a couple weeks when I am back in Mexico. We had a great day on Thursday and am anxious to hear how we did on Friday. I left to go back home on Friday and left the show to be handled by the team. Friday there are few potential customers that come to the show. It is mostly young people picking up posters, give-a-ways and getting pictures taken with the beautiful models. This is one of the really good things about Latin America, The Exhibition shows in Latin America will have lots of beautiful Models that are used to attract attention to the Booth (stand), and this year it was no exception.

Now I am finishing this up on the plane back to Charlotte. We will land about 6:30, which I wish was earlier, but you take what you can with the airlines. Unfortunately, Charlotte does not have the “GOES” System (Global Entry) yet that is available in most Foreign entry airports (Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, LA, Detroit, etc). So I have to stand in line with everyone else. This could take an hour (With the GOES System takes me 10 seconds to get through immigration.) They tell me it will come to Charlotte at the end of the year. (It actually took about 30 minutes to get through Immigration).

During all the activities of the past week I did manage to finish my current book by Dean Koontz, “Relentless” and started a new novel by Michael Connelly, “9 Dragons”, staring one of his continuing characters “Harry Bosch”, a LAPD Homicide Detective. He is a pretty cool guy. (I really do have an exciting life, HAHA)

Next week I will spend the week in my office, a rarity for me, but will be traveling again the next week. Don’t know what I will do on the Blog, but might do something.

Mexico, Leon, Torreon, Durango City - Week of July 6, 2010

This is my 1st posting with my blog (http://travelingwithhogue.blogspot.com). I have to admit, I’m learning, so please excuse the novice approach to this. I hope to give those who care (or don’t) a little bit of what it is like to travel around the world. I hope you will find it as interesting as I find the world outside of the USA very interesting. But don’t think I am not a fan of the USA, it’s just that I don’t travel in the USA, I travel outside the USA.

I am writing this as I am traveling between Durango City (State of Durango) and Torreon (State of Coahuila) in Mexico North West of Mexico City. The terrain is very green because of the recent Hurricane that dumped a lot of water in this area. It is amazing the number of Toll Booths on this road. But I am getting ahead of myself.

On Tuesday July 6, 2010 (Yes, I traveled on the day after the 4th holiday) I flew to Leon (State of Guanajuato). I flew American through DFW and connected to an American Flight to Leon. American has good connections to most Northern Mexico airports and I prefer to fly them because I think they are the best of the American carriers. Made it to Leon on time and, went to see a new customer, visited with him and took him to lunch (lunch in most of Mexico is about 2:00 to 4:00pm). But, here is where it gets interesting (to me anyway). One of the great things about traveling is getting to see what everyone else in the world eats. We went to a very nice Restaurant in Leon, Los Agaves Restaurant. (www.losagavesrestaurant.com.mx). Now “Agave” is a plant (see picture). It is grown to make Tequila, and there is of course a lot of Tequila produced in Mexico. As, I’m sure you know, that in some bottles of Tequila there is a worm in the bottom of the bottle. One of the real delicacies in Mexico is “Gusanos de Maguey” (Worms of the Agave Plant) (see picture) and “Escamoles” (Mexican Caviar or Ant Eggs). I’ve had both and prefer the worms to the eggs. Worms are baked to a crisp and served with soft tacos, guacamole and salsa. Not bad, try them. The Ant Eggs are a kind of dip served with chips. The Restaurant also served very good steaks and the service was very good. I would recommend Los Agaves if you are ever in Leon. Try the worms, you won’t be disappointed. I seldom eat steak outside of USA, because no one has better steak than the USA, no comparison. I will occasionally eat steak in some Latin America countries, but never anywhere else.

After lunch went to one of our new customers customer, a large trucking fleet in Leon, “Castores” (1,300 trucks). Nice fleet. Then to airport.

Just made it to the airport in Leon (Guanajuato) in time to catch my flight to Mexico City (People in Mexico don’t call it Mexico City, they just say Mexico. As in “I’m going to Mexico”, meaning Mexico City). Shouldn’t have worried the fight was about 45 minutes late, which is normal for Mexico air service. Had time to finish my latest Lee Child novel, “Gone Tomorrow”. This is one of the Jack Reacher (the main character) novels I have been reading a lot of lately. Even my wife likes these books where the Hero always wins and don’t take crap off anyone. Of course my wife always reads the last chapter of any book first to see if she wants to read the whole book. Also started a new Dean Koontz book “Relentless”. I have always been a big fan of Dean Koontz. I have read all of his books and eagerly await his new books. He is a very big dog lover which is always a plus. I would like to quote him from this new book in which he quotes Chesterton, “A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is not only a fool but a great fool.”

Made it to Mexico (ie: Mexico City) by 9:00 pm and checked into the Airport Hilton. The advantage of the Airport Hilton in Mexico is that it is inside the Airport Terminal 1 (You can wake up and walk to your gate). They also provide van shuttle service to Terminal 2 (AeroMexico flies out of T2). If you didn’t do the Van shuttle you would have to walk to the Mono-Rail and wait on it and take a 10 minute ride to T2. Saves about 30 minutes and this is a big deal when your flight out of T2 is leaving a 6:30 am.

Flew to Torreon (State of Coahuila) and met our customer there for Breakfast. I bring this customer up because this is the very 1st customer I met when I started calling on Mexico. I met him in the Airport Hilton in Mexico (Mexico City). He flew there to meet me. (a big reason I like the international side of Business, the customers really like you to call on them. They treat you like an honored guest and most of the time they treat you.) This customer has been with us from the beginning and has continued to increase his purchases with us. He told us that in the next couple months he will be able to give us an order every day.

Torreon is one of those Northern Mexican cities that sport a painted steel monument at the entrance to the city. These monuments are all different but they have to be by the same artist. They are painted Yellow or Red or blue and in different shapes. 5 or 6 of these cities sport these. (Interesting, I must find out more).

We drove west out of Torreon to Durango City (about 2 hours). Durango City is the home of "Poncho Villa", which I thought was a famous Mexican Bandito but actually was a Hero that fought against the Spaniards in the battle for independence. There is a lot of evidence of Poncho Villa in Durango (In Mexico the nickname Poncho is used in place of Francisco, so is Pako, Chuy is used in place of Jesus, Pepe in place of Jose. Don’t know why, just is). Called on a potential customer and had a great meeting. We will find out next week if we will get a significant part of his business. Took him to lunch at the Villa Restaurant (yes named after Poncho) he bought (not Poncho the potential customer). The food was good but the service was bad. I think they were too busy watching the World cup game between Spain and Germany.

Now back to the drive back to Torreon and all the toll booths. Two roads from Durango to Torreon, one is free (libre) the other is toll (cuota). The Mexicans prefer the free road so it is jammed and the toll road is wide open. So we take the toll road and stop and pay tolls every 10 miles. Got back to Torreon where I stayed at the Hampton Inn Airport. The thing with Hampton inn is that they are the same if you stay in Torreon or Gastonia, no different. The only difference is the length of the happy hour. From 2 hours in Torreon to 30 minutes at the Monterrey Airport Hampton Inn.

Flew from Torreon Airport (5 minutes from Hampton) to DFW on American. DFW is such a nice airport. Easy to get around. You can go between terminals so easy, just jump on the “Skylink” and you are there. I don’t understand why anyone would go through Houston to get to Mexico. Houston you can walk for miles between gates, go through several security stations and maybe find a tram to ease part of the trip, but don’t count on it.

Next week I go back to Mexico (Mexico City). We will have a Booth (Stand) at the Automekanika (PAACE) show. Hopefully we will talk to a lot of new Potential customers and some of our current customers.