Monday, December 11, 2006 - "Living in California"
This blog ain't dead! This is a cry from the heart as well as a reality since I'll remain in Mexico City for a couple of months more before sailing to the North Pacific ocean. Our entire development team will also remain in the capital and I expect to pay them frequent visits. Yet it won't be the same, I know. I'll post even more infrequently after February 2007 (if that's at all humanly possible, snigger) but I do intend to keep Living in Mexico alive.
For those who are interested in following my acid trail to the USA, you are cordially invited to visit my brand new blog Living in California. I hope to see you there!
Posted by Serge @ 06:34 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: 12 (+/-)] [2 comments]
Saturday, December 9, 2006 - "Nada de esto fue un error!"
Five and a half years after landing in Mexico City Benito Juarez airport and only a few months before taking my destiny to the USA the time has come to reminisce about some incredible years of smiles, tears and hard work!
Living in Mexico turned out to be a completely different experience than what I expected from the 37th floor of the Nikko hotel when I was over here on a fat expenses account in British Pounds. No more spontaneous, tequila inundated, weekend breaks in Acapulco. Just a normal, busy, life of an entrepreneur doing his best so that his company survives and grows in a difficult market.
Was it all worth it? Today my bank account is only a pale reflection of what it was in 2001. Love has come and gone, victim of the tremendous stress associated with the struggle to build a new life in a foreign country.
What would I have lost if I had followed a quiet and rewarding corporate career in Britain instead of taking the plunge in Mexico? This is my personal “best of” Mexico in the last couple of years, in no particular order:
- Climbing in the middle of the night, in total eerie silence, under a scintillating veil of stars on the icy slope of the Pico de Orizaba volcano.
- Dancing reggaeton the whole night with a sweet friend of mine in the VIP lounge of the Bandasha disco in Bosques, filled to the brim with frantic teenagers trying to sweat off their excess of alcohol.
- Jogging at sunset on the white sand beaches of Cancun, feeling the warm waves against my ankles and glancing at the horizon seemingly ablaze.
- Working for the third night in a row at 2:00AM and seeing all the team online busting their guts to be ready on time for the release deadline. Thank you guys, we’ll make it big in Silicon Valley!
- Swimming in a frozen river at the bottom of Copper Canyon, chasing toads and smelling the marvelous scent of the pine trees all around me.
- Trying out a vast array of new drinks ranging from Licor de 43 to warm Sake and letting my soul melt away in the bright eyes of an all too brief love.
- Receiving the prize of most competitive high-tech company in Mexico from the hands of Intel’s CEO, feeling that after all we did quite a good job creating software.
- Lacerating my legs on the gorgeous private beach of the Camino Real hotel in Acapulco on a Saturday afternoon and leaving a trail of fresh blood until the Palladium disco, helping the pain subside with ample amounts of Cuba Libres!
- Reaching the very end of my resistance and finally arriving in the enormous expanse of Mexico City’s Olympic stadium during the TV Azteca 10K race, finding a new lease of life to cross the finish line like a champion of Chariots of Fire!
These and many more events are what make life worth living! Commuting from Woking to Reading and working for a leading consulting firm might be the most logical thing to do in order to live a pleasantly comfortable and constructive life. But is it what will make you smile nostalgically when you turn 90 y/o and contemplate the meandering path of your existence?
Nada de esto fue un error, as the song goes, I stand by my choices and look forward to the new chapter full of promises that stands unwritten in the book of my life.
Posted by Serge @ 01:18 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: 10 (+/-)] [3 comments]
Sunday, November 12, 2006 - "Paul Van Dyk in Mexico City"
On Friday night I went to the concert of the “other No 1 DJ in the world” (ranking also claimed by DJ Tiesto), Paul Van Dyk at the Roots Magic Club.
I can’t imagine a more “Mexican” night than that one! The guy who was supposed to buy the tickets turned up late and came up with a lame excuse and our money back, but no tickets of course. So we had to queue to buy some last minute tickets, in a joyful mess that thankfully did not take too long.
The Roots used to be called La Boom in a past era, and I was one of the many regular visitors of that “antro”, committing there various youthful sins that are locked up in the same dusty cupboards as my personal collection of skeletons. It is quite obvious that the new owners have invested vast sums of money in an extensive refurbishment of the building, which looks quite awesome today, a jewel nestled in an eye-sore area of Mexico City.
In the late 90’s, La Boom possessed one of the best sound systems of any disco in the capital, and the Roots has remained true to this tradition, testimony the fact that 36 hours after the concert I’m still half-deaf. The light effects, laser included, were also stunning, on a par with the better discos in Europe. Cold ice showers were a welcome respite to the heat – it seems that Roots is a “Green Disco” bent on energy saving schemes, in particular with respect to air conditioning.
Somehow the organizers of the concert managed to pack 3000 to 4000 people in the building and by 11PM it was impossible to find a place where you wouldn’t enjoy the exotic bodily smells of your neighbors. Going to the toilets became an adventure equal to the best Indiana Jones movies (“take that tunnel, jump over the ledge, shove a few stragglers away and finally relieve yourself”).
Our esteemed Paul Van Dyk himself wasn’t immune to the grid-locked traffic of a Friday night in Mexico City – due to appear on stage at 11PM, he finally showed up at 2AM when I had already totally exhausted my jumping energy! Nevertheless, he threw in a few masterful adrenalin pumping tunes that had the crowd roaring with pleasure and the floor nearly collapsing under so much non-earthquake induced stress.
Techno is amazingly popular in Mexico based on what I saw on Friday night. Many famous DJs will organize concerts in the capital in the next few weeks, including Armin Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto. Having been contaminated by techno during many years in the UK, I can only applaud that ascendance of Mexico City as a magnet for great electronic music events. Well done!
Posted by Serge @ 08:46 AM MEX [Link] [Karma: 20 (+/-)] [2 comments]
Sunday, November 12, 2006 - "Santiago de Queretaro"
This week I managed to escape from “El Defectuoso” courtesy of a customer who sent me on an impossible mission in Queretaro. It was my first time in the fabled city of the Spanish colonial aqueduct.
Queretaro is located a mere 2 hours 40 minutes by bus North of Mexico City. The journey is rather dull with no dramatic scenery worth reporting (unless you consider the ugly northern suburbs and industries of Mexico D.F. “dramatic”). However, the city of Queretaro in itself is impressively clean, especially when you are used to perennial dirt of the capital.
I have heard persistent rumors that middle-upper-class inhabitants of Mexico City, fed up with the increasing pollution and crime rates, are migrating to Queretaro. Indeed, life there is undoubtedly more peaceful while offering most of the facilities available in a large city (e.g. shopping, gym, etc.).
My only disappointment was with the otherwise reliable Tripadvisor Web site which recommended the Hotel Quinta Santiago. I can understand that American tourists with an overdose of standardized, bland, luxury found in Sheraton and Hilton hotels would be attracted by the rustic basic furniture of that noisy, window-less hotel but personally I do fancy a decent bed and some silence coming back from a day of on-site work.
Despite a totally last minute booking at the Fiesta Inn Queretaro I got a nice, clean and very quiet room at a tariff of under Pesos $1000 per night. The old town is only 20 minutes away, a taxi ride that costs Pesos $30. Dinner at the terrace of restaurant 1810 on Plaza de Armas was enjoyable, though by no means was it an example of “haute cuisine”. Strolling through the colonial streets of Queretaro at night was definitely a highlight of my stay.
Overall, Queretaro is a good weekend break destination away from bustling Mexico City. There are several interesting tours available in that historic city, which unfortunately I had to miss because of an endemically packed work agenda.
Posted by Serge @ 07:40 AM MEX [Link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)]
Thursday, November 2, 2006 - "Mexico the Crown Jewel of the British Empire? Alternate history questions"
Reading the excellent Rise and Fall of the British Empire (part of my allowed quota of 2.9 books per year as a resident in Mexico), I learned about an intriguing scheme from colonial Britain to conquer the Spanish Americas via a pincer attack on Mexico and Chile.
This audacious late 18th century plan was a reflection of the British Empire's disarray after losing its North American colonies during the War of Independence. With Spain a declining colonial power, Britain sensed that an opportunity existed to bring under the enlightened and paternalistic protection of Britannia the under-developed yet rich Spanish colonies of the Americas.
The expedition was to set sails from India and land British/Indian troops on Mexico’s Pacific Coast . The expeditionary force was committed to another theatre of operations and the attack on Mexico never took place.
For fans of alternate history novels this episode of British imperial expansion holds many savory questions! Britain was a far different colonial power from Spain, with different moral values, commercial objectives (as opposed to outright plundering), development plans (exemplified by the laying of railway tracks throughout the Empire), religious dogma, etc.
What would have happened to Mexico if it had become a British Dominion by 1795 for example? Would social and economic development have taken a different path? Would tobacco and cotton fields have flourished on Mexican soil and steel tracks crisscrossed the country? Would the catholic religion have been uprooted? Would the relationship with USA been substantially altered? Would Mexicans have embraced the British as liberators or rejected them as invaders?
I simply cannot devote time to explore all the ramifications of this alternate history, although my gut feeling is that Mexico would have been better off under the British yoke than the Spanish crucifix. Too late, we’ll never get to taste a delicious Indian curry served in Mexico City by a Punjabi grand-grand-children of the valiant expeditionary force that would have conquered Mexico on the behalf of the Crown. Rule Britannia!
Posted by Serge @ 07:58 AM MEX [Link] [Karma: -8 (+/-)]
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - "Book-reading an unpopular activity in Mexico"
Doing my daily world news review I found this worrying result from a freshly published CONACULTA study: Mexicans read on average 2.9 books per year. Two thirds of the respondents mentioned that they do not read more because of lack of time. Yet I haven't seen anyone in Mexico complaining that time was too scarce to watch TV or go party with friends! This is a poor excuse that fails to explain the facts.
However, compared to other fellow Latin American countries, Mexico's results are actually quite good: Brazilians read on average 1.8 books per year and Colombians fare barely better with only 2.4 books per year. Why such a low popularity index for such an important cultural activity as reading books?
Is there a connection with literacy rates? According to the UNESCO, in 2004 9.7% of the Mexican adult population was illiterate. On a global scale this compares quite favorably with most countries, even European nations like Greece that lags at 9% literacy amongst adults.
Perhaps reading is an acquired taste? We can witness a better correlation between the gross enrollment rate (GER) in tertiary education and national reading habits. Mexico's GER is 18.3% while France's is 51.4%. This may account for the fact that the French read 7 books per year, more than twice as many as in Mexico.
The apparently benign statistic published by CONACULTA is a symptom of Mexico's and Latin America's inadequate (for this information age) educational system and developing economy. Kids do not get an opportunity to enter the higher education and adults are too exhausted by their daily struggle in life to take up reading. Books shouldn't be reserved to an elite, they are the foundation of human knowledge and progress since history began. Mexico must read more!
Posted by Serge @ 08:42 AM MEX [Link] [Karma: -7 (+/-)]
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - "Freedom of press in Mexico"
The fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index shows Mexico ranking 132 out of 168 countries considered, barely above Palestine and below Colombia or Afghanistan.
Mexico is faring poorly in terms of press freedom because, amongst other parameters, three journalists were killed in the country while a reporter also disappeared along the US border, where drug-traffickers threaten the media.
Together with corruption, criminality, poverty and a myriad of other serious national issues, Felipe Calderon has a busy agenda for his presidency.
Posted by Serge @ 07:21 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)]
Saturday, August 26, 2006 - "Grocery shopping challenges!"
Exceptionally (please don’t expect this to turn into a habit) I shall be raving about a new shopping option in Mexico City: the City Market upscale grocery store in Interlomas.
I’m afraid but my digestive system hasn’t been designed to process truck loads of greasy tacos and other Mexican ethnic specialties. For a foreigner, finding good quality food can turn into a scary experience reminiscent of Cro-Magnons hunting mammoths in the frozen tundra!
Besides the usually superb green limes and avocados found in Mexico, the average quality of grocery is well below-par compared to the markets of Europe in general and France in particular. My main complaint goes to the quality of bread, just good enough to feed pigeons in public squares. Luckily a few specialty bakeries exist, such as Globo and Bread & Co.
City Market on the other hand is a valuable attempt from Comercial Mexicana to tap into the upper-class population residing in Interlomas. They have plenty of fresh vegetable, European cheese (including my beloved Parmigiano Reggiano), etc. all presented in a spotless environment supported by an organized and courteous staff.
Who knows, one day the ominous Seven Eleven’s and their disgusting taco hot dogs might even get complemented with Sainsbury-style express supermarkets boasting a variety of ready-to-eat fresh salads? Some early signs suggest that Mexico is finally stepping into the modern world of finer grocery shopping – I’m anxious to see more!
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