Viva la Revolucion!

OK, there was no revolution while I was there. I had a nice 4 day trip to Monterrey, Mexico. I was mostly in a very limited section of the city, but aside from signs in Spanish- you'd never know you weren't in the US. Cars and building styles were very similar in the city anyway.

A few facts. Monterrey is the 3rd largest city in Mexico with about 4 million people. Up until a couple years ago when the drug issues crept in, it was consistently the safest city in Latin America.

Similar to what we saw in the UK and Brazil as well, people will push to get their kids in good schools or sacrifice and pay for private school. Then University is very good and quite cheap. At work I was with just people with college degrees and they seemed quite content with life in Mexico. Minimum wage is the equivalent of $4 per day, so they are not surprised that the vast uneducated masses would still find it easier to 'get ahead' by making $4 per HOUR in the US. Of course, getting kids access to good education for free is by far the biggest perk of coming to the US.

One perspective was that it is America's fault that crime has exploded in Mexico. The US cracked down on drug importation and drug cartels then had to sell drugs in Mexico at of course much lower prices. Well, you don't do illegal activity for 'low-margin' activity, so then the started the Kidnapping, extortion, and the required violence to enforce payments in Northern Mexico. They don't mind the US enforcing drug laws, but think we should supply more resources to help Mexico with their phase of the drug business. Interesting.


The view from my temporary office. They say the humped mountain in the Middle is an 'M' for Monterrey.

Another mountain is 'Chair' mountain.


A large mountain on the way from the airport to the city.

The Cat Financial office is in one of those lovely purple towers. I suppose you never lose your building when it's painted that color.

May be a bit hard to see, but many traffic lanes were separated by these large attached humps in the road. It didn't always keep the traffic separated, but did make for bumpier rides.

I didn't drive past much 'normal' city housing, but this seemed more standard than the high rises where my hotel was. Not exactly the same as Brazil, but the gated front yards and driveways were definitely the same.

They had very good Mexican food. Two mornings a week the office provides fruit for breakfast. I decided to be local and put some 'pepper powder' on the fruit. Turns out it has a lot of lime mixed in, so it was really quite a nice addition.

Not what I would think of as Mexican, but this was the best cup of french onion soup I've ever had.

Forgot to take a photo until I was half done, but everything was covered with avocado or guacamole. Even these taquitos were awfully good when smothered with the right sauce.

Overall it was a very nice trip.