Viva Mexico!!!

Hola a todas y todos,

After two months speaking in Spanish, I could not avoid to start the email in this language. Anyway, I have to get used again to speak in my peculiar version of Shakespeare’s language.

Let’s go with my summer update! The bottom line is that it has been great, especially socially speaking!!! After ten days in Spain in May, I moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, where I started my internship helping an Endeavor entrepreneur. As I explained to some of you, he has a network of small market research firms that use the same patented technological platform. In theory I was there to help writing a business plan to seek external financing. However, after some days of diagnosis, it was clear that we needed to redefine the strategy and the organization of the firm. So that was my job for almost 9 weeks…a little bit too close to my previous consultant experience, but interesting in any case, given the small size of the firm.

But let’s change to more important things…which is partying!!! Mexicans know how to party (like the Spaniards, I would say…). In addition, like most Latins, they are very hospitable. From the beginning, they treated me as a friend, and I have been going out substantially. Guadalajara is a huge city (4 million people) and, although it does not have the social and cultural life of Mexico City, is full of nice clubs (“antros” in Mexico) and bars. But the best is that Guadalajara is considered in the Mexican Republic as the city with the most beautiful women in the country, which is really good when you combine it with the fact that they love the accent from Spain…

In addition to going out and drinking, I had the opportunity to travel around the country during weekends. I visited Maralty and Liz in Mexico City. Excellent archeological sites and nightlife!!! It has been widely reported my incident with the tequila in Mexico City… It seems that the stomach and liver of a Spaniard are not well prepared to drink too many tequilas in Bandera (which consists on drinking a shot of lemon juice, a shot of tequila and a shot of a spicy red drink called “sangrita”, imitating the colors of the Mexican flag). In addition to Mexico City I visited Monterrey, the town of Tequila (I know what you are thinking), Colima and the surroundings of Guadalajara. It is worth mentioning my trip to Cancun, where Francesco joined me from El Salvador. We had the pleasure to observe dozens of American college freshmen absorbing cheap alcohol like sponges and trying desperately to have sex with each other…Amazing…it was like in the National Geographic Channel!!!

I finished my internship on July 29^th and I traveled to Brazil to join a group of friends from Spain…I went to Salvador de Bahia, Recife and Sao Paulo…all cities that we did not visit in our Spring Break trip…The highlight of the trip was, by far, Salvador de Bahia. It is probably the closest city to Gomorrah I have ever visited (check the Old Testament of the Bible for those not familiar with this analogy). It was really fun to dance samba in the street following a parade of Brazilian dancers and percussionists, drink Caipirinhas and talk with gorgeous women, although compared to Brazilian men, the only advantage I had were the USD in my pocket, which is something I do not want to use in these contexts….

Anyway…I have written probably too much…It has been great to hear from you through the updates…I look forward to catch up with all in September!!!

Take care,

Edu