El Paso

Monte and I made a trip to El Paso Texas this week. Monte had some training meetings with the sales reps there and I served as company for him.

Initially Monte said the Alamo was there which I was excited to visit...until I figured out it is in San Antonio not El Paso. El Paso is also a border town, bordering Juarez Mexico and New Mexico. Since neither of us had ever crossed the Mexico / US border we thought this might be a good time to do so.

The first day of Monte's meetings I did the usual, run on the treadmill, more cardio and strength training in the room then out the door to do some sight seeing. I am learning to appreciate Mesa and area, the roadways are so easy to get around and the signage is awesome. Not so much for El Paso. I had done some research looking for things to see while I was killing time, I decided to drive to the Holocaust Museum and the down town area. After a few wrong turns I found the Holocaust museum and came upon the down town corridor purely by accident. The museum was very informative with pictures and stories of survivors. The down town area looked really fun, but I couldn't find parking and I wasn't sure if I should be walking around down there alone.

When Monte got back from meetings he informed me that the sales reps who were mexicans raised in Juarez but now living in El Paso told us not to go to Juarez. Two years ago it was incredible safe and a great place to visit but now not so much, if you don't know where you are going. They told him a couple times not to go down there and double checked with him the next day to make sure we didn't go across the border. It was interesting to see the city lights and realize that more then half of them are from Juarez. Leaving the city driving up the freeway there are a couple spots that you can see the "wall" dividing the two countries. The wall is apparently called "the wall of shame."

Unfortunately the border towns between the US and Mexico are becoming less safe, I guess we'll have to fly over them and visit the southern part of the country some day.

Interestingly enough El Paso is known as one of the safest cities in the US. There wasn't a much to do in El Paso but I did enter New Mexico and Texas for the first time. Look at me go!