Mucho Gusto!

We're back from Mexico, thankfully. The above pic on the left was our group, minus Dad. From l to r Charlotte and Dr.Bill Stouder, Pat Takasugi (Sec of Ag, Id) Alan Stutzman, Moi, Jill Stutzman, Doris Naerabout, Rick N,Bob N,Dr. Greg Ledbetter and Armando (our Translator). The rt pic is a calf milk hauler at an actually really modern dairy, minus the donkey! Dad got a case of "el touristo trot-os". We think that he may have eaten some cantaminated food, several of the men in our group-o had intestinal problems, none of the ladies. We drank bottled water all the time, we tried to be very careful of what we ate. We went on a city tour of the downtown area.

Our first 4 days were spent in Guadalajara, Jalisco, staying at the Hilton Hotel. We toured several old-fashioned daries and creameries. Many of the sanitary conditions were highly questionable. We toured in a big bus with only 10 of us, so we got to strech out.
Then we flew to Torreon, Coahuila. The air and water smelled like a sewer, we didn't like our hotel, fortunately we were only there one night. Here we visted a brand new 10,000 milking cow dairy, it had 5 rotary barns that milked 80 cows at one time. It was a beautiful setup.

Then we flew to Monterey, it is a beautiful city setting, approx. 6 million people. Dad went to one business meeting where the executives had all graduated from Yale, Harvard or Stanford. He was quite intimadated. They seemed to have on $2000 Itialan suits.
We saw the poorest of the poor and the very wealthy, there was such a wide spread.
All of the creameries and cheese factories had armed guards at their front gates, with tall fences surrounding the building, topped with barbed/razor wire. Many of the guards we saw had large machine guns. The shopping stores that I visited all had armed guards at each entrance. Apparently poverty is so rampant that tight security is needed.
It was a intense trip for dad and I, we're not the 3x per day business meeting types, nor do we care to be. Our schedule was very full. We were so glad to arrive safely home on Saturday night. We traveled with some very kind and knowlegeable people, we both learned alot by going on this Trade Mission for the Idaho Dariymen. We have a tall stack of business cards. Hopefully this trip will bring more business for the Idaho dairy industry.