On the Road Again: Monterrey, Mexico

Since I had to spend the week on the road and in meetings, I decided to take full advantage. This post is the result: My 1st picspam!

Teaser:
More below the cut.

The trip down was relatively uneventful.
Except for that.


Lunch in Del Rio resulted in this discovery:
If you eyes are sensitive, please avoid the Denny's in Laredo.


The Rio Grande:
Note: According to the plaque on the right, our trunk was still in the US when this picture was taken.


We had to stop at the border to get our business visas (or we wouldn’t pass the checkpoint on the otherside of Nuevo Laredo).
I was trying to get a picture of the white rock (top) because it had this really cool cracked pattern. I missed.


Nuevo Laredo has several nice plazas with life-size statues, gazebos and trees.
Of course, not everyone warrents the star treatment.


The border is an interesting place. There’s Spanish signs on the US side and English signs on the Mexico side. But sometimes, there’s Spanglish:
Origins: English “Junk” --> Spanish approximation “Yon-kay”.


With the Forum in town, our usually strictly business travellers hotel was packed with this huge gaggle of pink-clad women. I have no idea who they were but they took up most of the parking lot with their three tour buses. Anyway, I got a room at the very end of the hotel. But I had a nice view:


As I sat down for my breakfast in the hotel lobby, I happened to look down:
How had I missed that before?


Since Monterrey is part-desert, they make water conservation a priority. The result are these:
When you push on the lever, the water flows. But if you release the lever, the water stops. I greatly prefer the above design to the motion sensors on sinks at our US office. Those are buggy and prone to malfunction.


For lunch, the “El Buey” taco stand.
These are the nice ladies who made our tacos.


After a long day of meetings, we had a lovely dinner of Mexican-style sushi...
Among other things.

On local TV, they were showing some exhibition shows from the Forum. Wednesday was apparently China’s night to shine. I was not initially impressed. The first act I caught was a Chinese River-Dancing Juggler.
Thigh high faux leather boots are exceedingly unmasculine.

But they got better.

The hands-down, best of the night were these guys:
Imagine an even more-brightly attired Chinese version of the Barn-Dancing scene from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” with no fight at the end.


Thursday I get up early, and notice these around my hotel room.

They aren’t crazy but I find them interesting anyway.


Instead of the free hotel breakfast, we decided to check out a taco place on the way to the plant.
New for me: “Asado de puerco” tacos. Yummy.


After 1.65 days of meetings (and some progress), we left Monterrey.
Magno says “Moo!” [trans. - "Adios!"]


Northern Nuevo Leon:



Six Hours In Car = Help Me.

Getting Car-Searched by Mexican Federales = Not The Most Relaxing Way to Keep Up Your Spanish

Getting Home to Find Tivo Recorded the Supernatural Season Premiere = AWESOME.