Safi Royal Luxury Hotel Centro Monterrey

... day. <br><br>The surprising part, at least for me, was that I really enjoyed Monterrey. The city itself is interesting, and we explored several free museums and an interesting park. We also went for a nice long walk along a canal (not clear if this was a natural canal made pretty or a man-made canal). The entire length had been made into a park, where they hold concerts, yoga, have boatrides, whatever. There are also ...

... of back alley in downtown Monterrey. It has a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom with AC! All for US$10 per night! Sometimes even though we seem to be taken care of - there's just no peace. Monterrey is a BEAUTIFUL city, although very Americanized. After two more meetings were set up for this weekend, we knew we had to cancel and keep moving. It was confirmed by MANY. The people were not happy, but oh well. On to Tampico!

I am sitting here in the middle of Monterrey, Mexico. There is an air conditioner to my right and a clock ticking away to my left. All I can think about at this time is, "This is not what we came here for". <br> Rob is downstairs, having a meeting with the ministry whose base we are currently staying on. We arrived to the border of Mexico on Saturday morning. Starting at the Brownsville border, we bussed four and a half ...

... a boat trip around the lake in a boat belonging to Evers' friend Jimmy along with his son also called Jimmy (who also entertained us with their brilliant family band and some great rock and roll!). All in all, Monterrey as great fun, it was great to meet with a familiar face and be shown such a good time with great people. Thank you Ever, Laura and all the Garza family!

... most of the other people were wearing t-shirts and jeans. Got through immigration and customs, which took so long that both my baggage and I almost didn't make it to Monterrey on time. Thank God we did. Monterrey is breaktakingly beautiful. It is surrounded by the mountains, la Sierra Madre. Everywhere you look, there are mountains. You can also easily see the influence from its northern neighbor. Just about everything ...

Arriving at the airport!! ahh freaking out still not knowing if my friend was going to be there waiting for me. I was an hour later then nwhat i orginally was going to be so there could have been any chance that no one was at the airport waiting for me. Picking up my bag off the machine, while keeping every eye out for my amigo, looking looking jaja Ahhhhh Yay!! :D i see him im happy now. Driving from the airport in monterrey to sabinas a small townlike 3hours away way ...

... me. there was no problem. coming back to Mexico, we were just waved through. I've never been "waved through" a border crossing before. apparently burrito stands for little donkey, because burro is donkey. :P Marichu and i went for tacos at a place, and ironically she's the one with a bad stomach ache now... it's funny because she took so many careful measures to make sure my stomach would be able to deal with the food. lol.

... a destination at a mid-mountain behind Monterrey. as we were driving Marichu told me about the wildlife in this park as i noticed an eagle soaring above... she also mentioned that there were bears, something she later said she was joking about... but suprisingly enough, we saw a black bear mother and two cubs!! Mexican bears look very similar to Canadian bears I think. I ...

... part. It's hard to have a meeting with three or four people who have completely different schedules. Other than that, it has been great so far. In my international economics class, I am the only non-Mexican student, so my group members only speak Spanish. It's really forcing me to think in Spanish almost all of the time. I also am in a group with a guy from Mexico and a guy from France. The ...

... chores, or was given lunch by a friend of Eva's. One afternoon I went with Baudelio and the kids to a swimming pool. I was expecting a public place (like Letchworth Cath) but no - we ended up at a house in the country with it´s own pool that the use of had been donated to AMMAC. We swam on our own for a short while, then a mini bus from the orphanage arrived along with bedlam in the form of 15 kids from maybe 5 to 16. It was OK, but again I found it hard to interact ...