Mexico City - May 2008

My new position started out well enough with a quick visit to Mexico City in May, just prior to leaving for vacation in early June. Since my territory includes Latin America, and our field marketing people in Mexico had scheduled a CIO breakfast, I decided to make a quick (2 day) trip to Ciudad Mexico.

There is no easy way (read: nonstop) to get from Denver, which is my home town, to Mexico City. Since I’m a United Premier Exec, I try to fly United and Star Alliance carriers whenever I can. Also, with all of the international flying that I have been doing, my top goal for this year is to hit 100K miles, after which you get added bennies from United (including free international first class upgrades). The reason I mention this is that, in the spirit of trying to garner as many “EQMs” (elite qualification miles) as possible, I decided to fly to Mexico City via IAD (Dulles Airport in Virginia). I know, I know—you’re thinking that I’m crazy, flying 1000 miles the wrong way, but heck—I wasn’t sure how much I was going to fly this year and every mile counts.

The flight down on United was fine. Since my company will only spring for business class tickets if a flight segment is over ten hours, I flew coach the entire distance. That’s OK, as United’s Economy Plus section, combined with exit row seating (which United blocks for everyone other than Premier Exec and above), made the trip quite bearable. I arrived into Mexico City on time, took a pre-arranged car to my hotel (the JW Marriott Chapultepec) and checked in. I then met one of our sales reps for a beer at a bar nearby, which was fun. The area around the JW, which is Chapultepec Park, is very nice and safe. There are many really good restaurants in the vicinity, as well as the famous Anthropological Museum. The “Zona Rosa”, which is an area of upscale restaurants and shops, is also nearby. To give you an idea as to how nice this area is, there is a Bentley dealership across the street from the hotel!

The JW Marriott in Mexico City, like all JWs, is a very nice facility. Not cheap by any stretch—around $300 US a night—but with all of the comforts of an American hotel, including a flat panel TV and fast Internet. Also, thanks to my Marriott Gold status, I was upgraded to a superior room for no added fee. Frequent traveler perks are definitely worth it. I didn’t get a chance to experience much of the property, unfortunately, as I was only there for two nights, but the staff were extremely helpful and accommodating.

The next day, I delivered the marketing seminar as promised. It was a breakfast meeting at the JW, and the room (and food) was very nice. The event was well attended, with about 30 local IT execs in attendance. If you are planning on having an event like this in Mexico City, I highly recommend the JW.

After the event, I paid a visit to my company’s Mexico City office (in “Las Lomas de Chapultepec” – the hills of Chapultepec, which is literally in the hills above the Chapultepec area). Our offices are very nice and it was good to meet everyone that I will be working with closely. I had lunch a couple of guys from the office, including the country manager for Mexico. They took me to a great Japanese restaurant (I need to get the name of it!), where we had a selection of sashimi and nigiri sushi. The chef at the restaurant is very good, and prides himself on creating unique dishes. It was definitely one of the best Japanese meals I have ever had, rivaling the chefs at Nobu in the U.S. Very unexpected for Mexico, to say the least!

That evening I joined one of our local sales guys for dinner at an upscale restaurant in the general vicinity of the hotel (need to get that name as well). The food was wonderful. We started with an appetizer of ‘Jamon de Jalisco’, which is a Spanish-style ham that is carved from the leg at your table (this might turn some people off, as they wheel the entire leg out on a cart—hooves and all—but it didn’t bother me). They carve the ham, which is somewhat like carpaccio, in very thin slices, which you place on buttered bread. It was very, very tasty. We also had fried parsley, which I have never tasted before and I highly recommend. For a main dish, I decided to try the Pollo de Mole (pronounced “mole-ay”), which is a chicken dish prepared in a traditional sauce (which is a very rich sauce that has, among other things, chocolate in it). It was wonderful. I order this dish in Denver quite often, but the authentic Mexican version is even better. They served the Mole with freshly made tortillas that were perfect for sopping up the yummy mole sauce.

The next morning I was off to the airport for the return trip, again through IAD, which went off without a problem. I needed to return home so quickly because we were leaving for vacation three days later (see my next post).

It's Been A While, and I've Traveled Far...

I have to admit that my pattern of blogging has, to put it lightly, been non-existent over the past few months. There is good reason, as you might guess. If you have read my previous entries, you know that I took on a new territory for my job a few months ago that is known as “Rest of World”, or RoW for short. In the several months since I first began working on RoW, I have been lucky enough to travel to a number of international destinations, including Mexico, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Singapore, and yes, even Detroit!

I am writing this entry on a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Brisbane, Australia. As I am currently in hour four of seven, I anticipate that I’ll have plenty of time to do some serious blogging. I plan to write separate articles on a number of subjects, including my experiences in each of the locations mentioned above. I also plan to write an article that will contain some tidbits of travel wisdom that I have gathered over the past few months of travel, and also an article that discusses a number of travel-specific topics, such as security in the various countries and the various airlines that I have used this year (which at present is around seven).

I also plan to devote an article to the experience that I had falling ill in Hong Kong. I think this is particularly germane, as before that I had never had to visit a doctor outside of my home town, much less cut a trip short due to illness. It taught me several very important lessons about health and staying healthy while abroad.

So fasten your seat belts, return your tray tables to their locked position, and bring your seat to its fully upright position—this is going to be an interesting ride!