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.