Mexico City & the Virgin of Guadalupe

I have just returned from a week in Mexico City where I was working at a manufacturing plant and a distribution center.  Throughout both facilities near the end of most assembly lines and shipping doors were shrines dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The company has allowed workers to build these.  I am told that the intention is for the Virgin to watch over the workers and protect them.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is a powerful symbol in Mexico.  She seems to be a cross between the Catholic Virgin Mary and the native mother-goddess Tonantzin.  Her features are not quite indigenous and not quite European, representing the modern Mexican. You see her everywhere in Mexico City... on clothing, buildings, cars, key chains, everywhere.

Working in the Cave

Go-Live #3 went quite well.  Every implementation is smoother than the last.  I worked locally and mostly supported the local plant.  During the middle of hyper-care, I moved my family from Lexington to Florence, a suburb of Cincinnati. 


In December, I took my family on a long road trip through Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The primary objective of the trip was to visit family members scattered throughout the central part of the United States.  It is the first time that most had the opportunity to meet Kaden, my baby son.

In January, I was asked to help support our Columbia, MO plant.  They have an off-site storage facility within an old rock quarry.  They had often mentioned storing material "in the cave" but I hadn't realized until now that it was really a cave. 



The Cave

On Monday, I leave for Mexico City.  We have a plant and DC in Rojo Gomez.  Due to travel restrictions in countries labeled as "red", I will probably not get to see and do much outside of work.  My hotel is inside the airport.  They will shuttle us in armored cars from the hotel to the plant and back again at the end of the day.  I'm not allowed to go out in the evenings and will likely eat dinner at the hotel or inside the airport.

The Swine Flu Scare of 2009

The company has banned all travel to Mexico and El Paso due to the recent swine flu scare. Because of this, our good buddy's down south are having to join our meetings by phone. Here is a picture of our team from the Monterrey plant.

Paco's Bachelor's Party

Paco is getting married next week. So, we took him out on the town in Nashville.

@ Hooters

@ Coyote Ugly's

Can you guess what this fine young lady is holding? Ha, ha... Paco knows what it is.

Day 3 in Monterrey, Mexico

Last night, we had a wonderful low-carb meal at one of the most famous restaurants in Monterrey, El Rey del Cabrito (The Goat King). This restaurant's speciality is cabrito (baby goat). And yes, we ate baby goat. It was greasy and flavorful, like a cross between lamb and pork. There were essentially no side dishes, just a plate of peppers and a few garnishes of boiled broccoli and cauliflower... As an appetizer before the goat, we had "dried shredded meat" (apparently beef). This restaurant is a low-carber's dream. My camera batteries were dead but co-workers took pictures. The staff let us into the kitchen and my buddies took a wonderful picture of myself surrounded by baby goats on sticks roasting over open coals.
Breakfast at the hotel was eggs with warm spicy salsa and a small side of refried beans.

Lunch today, at the office was a large hamburger. I gave away the fries and stripped away the bun. There was plenty of meat, avocado, and cheese to keep me happy.

It is currently after 9:00 PM and we haven't left the office. Yes, I'm posting from work as my ability to attention in the meeting is beginning to wane. They ordered pizza. The only non-pizza items were salads. A no-no in Mexico. But, everyone assured me that Monterrey food and water is not as risky as other parts of Mexico and that eating their lettuce wasn't all that dangerous. So, I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. About half way through the salad, I found a rat turd. Argh!!! This sucks. I just hope I don't get sick. I didn't make a scene... I just quietly threw my salad in the trash and ate the cheese off of a few slices of pizza.

It's past 10:00 PM my home time. I'm ready to get the heck out of here but it looks like we may be here for a while...

I'll be going home tomorrow arriving on the last plane into Lexington, Kentucky. I'd love to see more of Monterrey but am getting rather tired of the conference room inside the plant.

Day 2 in Monterrey

Today is the second day at the Monterrey plant in Mexico. For some unknown reason, were were greeted at the front door by a bunch of clowns...

I think it had something to do with safety and health awareness.

Tijuana Trip

The business trip to Tijuana went great. The Mexicans were very intelligent, knowledgeable, and excited about working with us. Mission accomplished.

Apparently, Northern Mexico is no longer safe for American business men and tourists. Our driver told me that tourism is down 90% as compared to previous years and that the government is desperate to get tourists back into Mexico.

Due to security concerns, our company required us to stay in a hotel in San Diego, California and to commute daily. We were provided with a driver and an armored vehicle. The first day, the car was a modified Jeep Cherokee. It had bullet proof glass and armored plates inside the door panels. It looked like any other Jeep Cherokee but weighted around 9000 pounds. The car was a bit small since there were six of us counting the driver. On day two, they upgraded us to a much larger armored car which also looked like any other SUV on the street.

Each day, we went directly from the U.S. hotel to the Mexican factory and then back across the border. So, I didn't really get a chance to experience the real Tijuana. This is the only picture that I was able to take inside of Mexico:

We were told that if we reached the boarder after 5:00 PM that there would be a three hour wait. So, we left the office at around 4:00 PM each day to avoid the traffic bottleneck. This gave us the evenings to explore San Diego. The next picture was take just in front of the restaurant "World Famous on the Beach" where we ate a nice sea food dinner.


On Wednesday, we decided to hit Target, a store near our hotel, to buy swim suits. We spent a couple hours at the beach before going out to dinner.

Here's Mac & Chad showing off their new swim-wear:

Status Report

Sorry for not posting during the last couple of weeks. Last week, I worked in Nashville, TN. I don't have any pictures.... nothing much worth taking pictures of. Evenings consisted mostly of typical American chain restaurants.

This week, I am working from home. It is suggested that everyone take vacation this week. Due to lower seniority, I have half the vacation of most of my team. I don't want to burn my vacation yet as I hope to visit relatives in November. The result is that it's hard to get much work done as I can't seem to reach many people for calloboration. I might take a day and bring Sky & BJ to a water park depending on the weather. Next week I'm back in Nashville with the data team.

The upcoming trip to Tijuana is on. Don't expect many pictures. I can't take photos during work. And, they'll have an escort (possibly armed) to drive us each morning from San Diego across the border to the plant. Then, they'll take us back at the end of the working day. So, no exciting evening jaunts in Mexico. And for dinner, I suspect we'll wind up at a steakhouse chain.