Back from Mexico

Well, I am back from Mexico after a whirlwind 36 hour visit.

The visit was good, got done what needed to get done for work, so I am pleased with that. I have only been to Mexico twice before: once to Monterey, which is still very Texas-like, and Cancun, which does not count. This time we had to drive 1.5 hours from the hotel in Villahermosa to Paraiso, which let me tell you is paradise in name only. We were at the Dos Bocas marine terminal of PEMEX. They generally insist that visitors speak Spanish, but since this was an "emergency" visit they got stuck with me, so it was a little tense: Female engineer from Columbia (two strikes) with blue-eyed non-Spanish-speaking gringo (three more strikes) translating back and forth (sixth strike, you go home now).

Anyway, as soon as I got off the plane I was whaled with the smoke in the air: between the burning rainforests and the annual local grass/crop burning, there is a nice smoke hanging in the air. I managed to get a nice case of bronchitis within 12 hours of landing, just shaking it off a bit now. Driving was a fucking nightmare. Dark Lady knows what she's doing, so I just closed my eyes or looked out the side window and trusted her. She likes to use the horn and drive in low gear to take advantage of high-end torque. We had an awesome dinner in Villahermosa, I am not sure what I ate but it was damned good - lots of meat and fish and bread, and great desserts.

Below are some pictures I took along the way.


View from hotel room, nice smoke, huh?


On their way to work.


Something you can do with that '79 Diplomat you have hanging around.


Entrance to the PEMEX facility. They are organized so that the geologists and engineers are housed at the same location as the operations - not common. So you sit in the workroom doing geology-stuff, and look out the window and up, and there's a drilling ship hanging out getting ready to drill a hole in the spot you're looking for. Security here was amusing: I nearly got strip-searched but nobody paid any attention to the car, which we drove deep into the facility. And nobody bothered Dark Lady, either. Hmmm...


Caution, big-ass crabs in the road. Sign within the terminal facility. Better than in my pants.


Employee Compound, note barbed wire. This is where staff live, since it's quite dangerous to drive to/from Villahermosa each day... as we learned...


Lines? We don't need no stinkin' lines on the road!


Rest-stop on side of highway.


Happy Puppy in Villahermosa.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, getting ready to leave for Calgary in the evening.
Going to read the book from SHG in bit, did not have a chance on this trip since I was sleeping off my bronchitis when possible. He's in Syracuse, wish he was here, would be nice to see him.