The continuation...
Mara picks us up from the airport, in her Rhino-lined Toyota Hilux Pre-Runner 2.7L VVT-i. Pretty sweet looking thing. Oh, and it's a standard transmission. Which apparently the majority of the people in GDL drive. I am told that automatics are typically more common near the border, because they are unregistered. Manual transmissions are cheaper and easier to maintain. Plus, you definitely have to be paying attention when you're driving here.
Onward march...so the most prevalent thing that I noticed leaving the airport are the amount of bill board advertisements. They're just everywhere!
'My heroic act today is to find a Coke!'
Ha! I couldn't resist. The city is made up of these small freeways/highways. Which is hard to describe. You really have to see it to understand. After driving down another highway (which had a random speed bump in it. Ha! hate to be the poor guy that doesn't pay attention and goes full speed at that...BAM! Aww crap!) we get to the IBM campus, which is in the industrial area of Guadalajara.
It's a technology campus shared with another company, Foxconn.
First order of business is to go through security and get our badges. While waiting I notice this guy here:
'No ledge? no crevice? You block all the places to build my nest? FINE! I'll build it on the wall!' Ingenious really. He just flies up, tucks himself under the net thing and feeds his babies. BEBES!
The campus itself is very nice....and green. Tucson's campus is green.....of cactus....with spots of grey rocks and brown dirt. Desert landscaping FTW!
'SOOOO GREEN!'
After meeting with the majority of the IBM GDL team, Mauricio takes us back to the hotel, Presidente Intercontinental. They are the same company that owns the Venetian in Las Vegas. LEGIT!
Check out this water fall clock thing!
'17:20 not checking in at 11:20 at night! Are you crazy?!'
'These elevators pass through a portal that go up to the executive suites...or so I'm told'
Not sure how many floors there are, but in the elevator, the buttons go, L, 11, 12, skip 13, 14...up to 20+. Dunno why they didn't start with 1, and I know why they skipped 13, which is sort of dumb, but I know many cultures do this.
Here's a shot from the other perspective, looking down from 'floor 20':
'ECHOOOOOOO!'
'SIR! WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP YELLING?'
'SORRRRRYYY!'
Here's a quick walkthrough of my room.
'Don't look down. Too late'
I don't know why I always do this. There's just some weird asian mechanism in my brain that requires me to do this....and take pictures of food!
'Le salsa'
SEE WHAT I MEAN?!
I had dinner in the hotel, or the restaurant in the hotel. First I got this appetizer. Chips and salsa. The chips were fresh baked and had a certain puffiness to it. Like a dual layered chip. The left is pico de gallo which had a very fresh, lemony taste to it. The one on the right was hot salsa, which wasn't very hot. It was very good.
'But what about the wine?'
Had a fresh glass of bottle water. HA! see what I did there? It was a fresh tasting of bottled watery goodness. And...the main course:
'DID SOMEBODY SAY STEAK?'
Consisted of the rib eye grilled to a perfect medium; a fresh bed of greens with crisp slightly bitter loose leaf lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, green peas and fresh avocado; and fried potato square/rectangle things.
Each portion was great on it's own, lots of flavor, with great consistency. However, together, they complimented each other to perfection. The bitter/sweet lettuce crispy with the smooth avocado offset the bites of salty juiciness of the steak. The potatoes brought it together with a salty/sweet taste with crispy outside/soft inside.
This meal was better than 100+ dollar meals that I had eaten. Total cost of this dinner? 291 Mexican Pesos ($MX) That comes out to just under 21 US Dollars. Which is surprising!
Oh I almost forgot...it also came with bread.
'Bread and butta'
I get back to the hotel room, and see this view:
'B-E-A-UTIFUL!'
So after the first day, Guadalajara wasn't at all what I expected. Somethings, were traditional Mexico, and what I think of when I think of Mexico, but there is so much more. And after a long day of waking up early, traveling, meeting IBM Mexico, and eating good food. It is time to get some good sleep on this soo sweet bed.
'So so sweet. I love you bed!'
On the next episode... Day 2! and more food! and RAIN!
Previous Comments:
UT - NICE! I would appreciate food pictures too! :P
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