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