First...I just saw John Mabry fly out to center with Rollen on first, thus ending a potential Cardinals comeback and giving the Cubs a 3-1 victory tonight--Which is good.

Anyway, great day today. Got a lot done at the customer site. Things went very well. We had a great customer contact onsite, and I'll say it every day of the week...having a great contact onsite is 95% of the job.

After work we headed out to pick up another Motorolan whom my two colleagues here also knew. Very nice guy who works in Mexico City. For dinner we went to a great place that was right across from Christopher's Columbus' house down here.

Absolutely amazing. It's in an area of the known as the 'spanish zone' (though I may be messing that up) and there's a lot of neat architecture around there. They really know how to make government buildings down here...almost every one looks like the Field Museum. There are a number of high-rise buildings which resemble a high-rise apartment that's just off of 83 back home...basically a rectangular shape rising up into the sky with a lot of symmetrical balconies jutting out...they kind of look like a game-in-progress Jenga stack, if you've ever played that. Very neat.

The people are VERY friendly. I think I've heard 'muchacho' and 'hermano' a million times today. Wherever there's parking there's usually a guy or two hanging around. If you give them a tip they'll watch your car and make sure nobody messes with it. I'm surprised they don't have this in Chicago. (though maybe they do)

There are far more beggars and such in Chicago. Here I've only seen one, really, and he was a little boy who we saw on our way from the airport yesterday. One of my colleagues said that it's hard to give because that just encourages it, but he felt bad and gave anyway. There are a lot of street vendors selling food and stuff. We also saw a dog at the Avis office which was just kind of hanging around outside. He made me think of Hooper though he looked nothing like him, besides being black. A cat running around outside the place we ate today made me think of Boots.

We passed a school letting out on the way to our late lunch. All the kids were in uniforms. I'm not sure if that is the norm down here but if it is, more power to them. I'm sure a ton of problems don't even come up at all with a system like that.

Someone who has been here before had mentioned there were a lot of armed people on the streets. The only people that are armed here (that I have seen) are in uniform, so that's cool. I have seen them with shotguns and M-16s (I think) but this was around the Presidential Palace (very nice, and amazing to see) so that's understandable I think.

On our way to and from dinner we drove on the coast, and along the coast is a HUGE wall...something like 40-50 feet tall I'd say. Very thick too. It was build to protect the city from pirates. I'm telling you, this whole area there looked like it was plucked from Tortuga and the 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. I've really never seen anything that was REAL like that in my life. I kinda wish I had taken my camera but I kind of got warned away from taking anything valueable and looking too much like a tourist. There are also a lot of beautiful statues and monuments here as well.

One thing I am noticing...my high school spanish is making *something* of a resurrgence. If my colleagues are speaking slowly enough (which they do, as they are both non-native spanish speakers) I can understand somewhat of what they are saying. Together with hand movements and stuff I probably understand about 30-40% of it which is not too bad. They don't speak Spanish to me, but they do to people here that don't speak English. (or prefer Spanish)

A long day today, but it was a productive one. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive.