Saturday monring walk in Zona Central, Cd. Mante, Tamaulipas...

Saturday morning, September 30, 2006, I woke up just after 7 in the morning, checked my watch, and realized that I had just a few minutes before the sun was going to rise. I'm a huge fan of sunrise shots, so I quickly threw on my clothes, piled out of my hotel room, and ran downstairs, just in time to catch the sun rising over the Sierra Madre Orientál mountains, to the east.

Photo: Taken from the corner of Av. Juárez and Calle Escobedo, I'm looking west on Juárez on this early Saturday morning. Note the compact police car, and the guy on the bicycle, and the parked bicycles. If you've ever been to Bangkok, you'll find this familiar.

As my luck would have it, sunrise turned out quite spectacular, as it was a warm, humid morning, which produced clouds, as they rose over the mountains. I checked my watch, and noted that the sun rose at exactly 07:18, and the temperature was already 84, muggy degrees; I had no way of reading the humidity, but I could guess that it was quite high, as I was already sweating. I took a few shots of the sun rising over the city scape, went back into the hotel, and found Jerry and Rodolfo waiting for me in the lobby. They didn't seem particularly eager to get up and at 'em, so I suggested that I might like to take a walk around town for an hour or so while they got ready for the day's activities. They agreed, so off I went, to explore downtown Cd. Mante on this humid September morning.

Photo: This stray dog was roaming Av. Juárez, and he caused quite a sensation with a couple of dogs perched on the roof of a nearby building.

Photo: These dogs are barking at the dog in the previous photo, as they're on top of a key store. I've never seen dogs on the roof of a building before.

Hotel Monterrey is located on Av. Juárez, which happens to be the main street in town, so I decided to take a walk west, along Av. Juárez, to explore the Zona Central, and to see what the town really looks like. Between dragging in last night after dark, and taking a trip to the clinic to treat the bed bugs that I'd acquired the night before from staying at the deluxe hotel in Llera de Canales, I hadn't had much of an opportunity to explore Cd. Mante, and I wanted see what the town was really like. The best way to explore a town is to take a walk, as you get to see and do many things that you can't when you're riding in a vehicle, or for that matter, riding a bicycle.

Photo: Looking west on Av. Juárez, from Calle M. Ocampo, in downtown Cd. Mante. The downtown is very clean, and appears to be quite prosperous.

About three blocks west of the hotel, near the corner of Av. Juárez Calle Escobedo, I noticed a funny sight: Two dogs on the roof of a commercial building, barking at a stray dog, that was running around the city street. In Mexico, there don't seem to be any leash laws, and it's common, even in a small city, like Cd. Mante, to see stray dogs running around town. I suppose the dogs on the roof of the building were taking offense to the stray dog wandering about their territory, but to me, it was hilarious, as I'd never seen dogs on the roof of a building before, and it proved to be a rather entertaining moment for me.

Photo: Looking west on Av. Guerro, just before it begins to head downhill. Guerro runs from west to east, and like Av. Juárez, its one-way through downtown Cd. Mante.

Rodolfo told me that Cd. Mante has a population of about 30,000 people, but the town actually seems bigger, due to the compact footprint that it has. It is the financial and trading center for the south-central part of the state of Tamaulipas, so it's quite a town, and actually rather cosmopolitan in nature. At this hour of the morning, things were busy, as there was a lot of traffic on westbound (Av. Juárez is one way, westbound) on the street, lots of pedestrians, and lots of businessmen opening up their stores, and getting ready for the day. With the exception of open restaurants and street vendors, Cd. Mante seemed more alive than Tijuana, during the many times that I've had the pleasure to visit the Baja California city on a Saturday morning. Whatever the case, it was a very pleasant morning to explore the central part of town.

Photo: Very busy taco stand near the corner of Av. Juárez and Calle Norelos. Undoubtedly, they were serving either tacos de barbacoa, or cabeza, which are popular breakfast tacos in the state of Tamulipas.

Photo: Impressive building under construction near the east end of the town square, at the corner of Av. Guerro and Calle M. Hidalgo.

September is patriotic month in Mexico, due to the fact that September 21 is Independence Day, and patriotism is celebrated all month long. Downtown Cd. Mante was decorated in red, white and green bunting, which are the national colors of Mexico, and I was privileged to witness a flag raising ceremony in the park, at the town square, across from the municipal building. The flag raising ceremony that I got to watch is covered in this chapter, so click on the link to read more about it, or hit your back button to go to the index page, and follow the link.

Photo: Tacos El Cuate, which is located at the corner of Av. Guerro and Calle M. Ocampo.

After spending a few interesting minutes watching the flag raising ceremony, I headed to the west end of the town square, at Calle Norolos, where Av. Juárez, and parallel Av. Guerro go, literally, downhill from there. I noted a very busy taco stand at the corner, which was doing quite a business serving hungry people, and I had to fight temptation to heading over there to grab a taco de cabeza, but I knew that Jerry and Rodolfo had planned to pay a visit to the central market for breakfast, and I didn't want to pass on that. I continued downhill on Juárez until I came to the major cross street of Calle Zaragoza, turned north on Zaragoza until I came to Av. Guerro, and noticed the central market, on the northwest corner of the street. Again, I had to resist temptation, but I knew that we'd be visiting the market shortly, so I decided to head back to the hotel by walking east on Av. Guerro.

Photo: Looking west on Av. Guerro shows traffic moving to the east, as this is the main east-west street in town, and it parallels Av. Juárez, one block to the north.

Photo: Another building under construction, at the corner of Av. Guerro and Calle Escobedo. Note the lack of concrete pumper, and it seems that much of the construction is being done by hand.

Like Av. Juárez, Av. Guerro is one-way, and it's the main east to west street across town. Near the market traffic was especially busy, as lots of trucks were bringing goods to the market, as vendors were setting up shop. I didn't have a whole lot of time, so I briskly headed east on Guerro, but I did have time to take a photo of another busy taco stand at the corner of Guerro and Ocampo, serving breakfast tacos, and a photo of building under construction, at the corner of Guerro and Escobedo.

Photo: Looking west on Av. Juárez, at Calle M. Hidalgo, shows the main street in down decorated in patriotic colors. September is patriotic month in Mexico, and most towns display the patriotic colors on the main street.

Back at the hotel, Jerry and Rodolfo were almost ready, so I took a quick shower, packed all of my worldly possessions into my suitcase, and met them at the lobby, to check out. Next, it was a trip to the central market, for the meal that I love the most... breakfast!

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