Monterrey Revisited (This time with nice things to say about it)

July 17, 2012

Monterrey, Mexico

For anyone who read my first post about this city and thought I gave it the shaft I'm truly sorry. I know now that every city in Mexico has an enormous amount of urban sprawl attempting to hide each cities inner beauty. I guess after a being in a few cities in Mexico that's just a fact I have to accept and without a doubt Monterrey isn't any different.

While I can see why people passing through tend to skip of this gigantic maze of streets, skyscrapers, and one unsightly dried up river bed Monterrey really does have its own charm. Today I took a few hours to walk around its city center and got a huge surprise. While the main pedestrian streets seem to be overrun with overpriced stores selling top names in fashion, the rest of the area is like many of the other places I've been to here in Mexico. It has majestic parks, great colonial style streets, and even a gorgeous if not obviously man made canal running through one part of the town.

I know it looks a little bit like an amusement ride in some theme park, but I just could help but be intrigued by the time, effort, and money that must have gone into the canal here just to give the people of Monterrey something nice to do on a hot day. Its surrounded by some impressive museums talked of being some of the best in Mexico and at the beginning theirs even a massive fountain where children and families can splash around and swim in.

A sunset like no other I've seen in Mexico

Without a doubt the mountains surrounding Monterrey make it one of the most beautiful places I've been to in its own right. In fact it reminds me a lot of Rio de Janeiro: a lot of danger, but a lot more beauty.  In both cities you have to be on your guard at all times, but the mountains in almost every backdrop and the jewels just waiting to be uncovered inside of the cities center make it a worthwhile destination.

I'm really glad I gave this city a second chance though the choice wasn't really my own. As its the last day before payday I had to scrape together everything I had just to pay for my lodging tonight, and to my disappointment Saltillo had no hostels that I could find so the obvious choice was to come back to Monterrey as its so close to the border. But as fate would have it I feel like I was supposed to see more of Monterrey and now that I have my opinion has definitely changed. This time I didn't get lost for 2 hours trying to find a place to sleep, I know now that every suburban area of any city in Mexico looks as uninviting as junk yard, and I found a nice little hostel well within my budget. Its nice here, its clean, and the people are friendly. Yet again another great city to be explored in Mexico.