Passport Stamped! Three Days in Saltillo, Mexico

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to spend three days in Saltillo, Mexico with some of my office colleagues on a business trip. I had never been to Mexico before and honestly, I didn’t quite know what to expect. You already know the story: unfortunately, the media portrays Mexico in a bad light more often than not, which scares the average person away from traveling there. We’ve all heard the awful stereotypes, so I’m not going to spend any wasteful energy repeating them here.

At the end of the day, my summary is this: what place isn’t dangerous? I can name several streets within my own city that are deemed to be dangerous, but that doesn’t stop me from living and experiencing my life as normal from day to day. It goes the same with traveling; lots of places have steer-clear-of-that-area spots within them, but that doesn’t make them generally bad places, amirite?

As a traveler, the important thing is to always be aware and alert of your surroundings, do your research, and you will be just fine.

In my 28 years, I’ve come to learn that the best stories, moments, and memories from my life so far are thanks to my travel experiences. I love exploring new places and immersing myself in new cultures; these two things make me feel so fulfilled in this life. I’ve been to some really great places with my passport and as I sit here writing this post, I smile knowing how lucky I am to add Mexico to that list of great places. And it’s exciting knowing I’ll get to go back that way in the future as well.

So, let’s chat a little bit about Saltillo and things I loved about my trip, shall we?

Saltillo is an industrial city in northeast Mexico, a far cry from beachy, resort Mexico that a lot of people know from cruises and all inclusive vacations (or Bachelor in Paradise haha!). Driving to Saltillo from Monterrey, you will pass by lots of open land, beautiful geography, sporadic villages, and many many production facilities. I work in the automotive industry which holds a big presence in this area, hence the purpose of my visit.

Aside from being extremely tired throughout the entire trip (cheers to early flights, long workdays, and late dinners), I had so much fun in Saltillo. I met a lot of great new people and got the chance to see and experience life in a different way. What a win!

Reflecting on my trip, here’s a list of things I loved the most about my first Saltillo, Mexico experience:

The beautiful topography.

I spent the entirety of my trip to Saltillo in awe of the topography. The mountain views surrounding the city were both amazing and spectacular. From the airplane and car windows to my hotel room window, I spent every free moment gawking at the mountain views. Be it morning, day, or evening, let’s just say I took a lot of pictures of the mountains surrounding the city.

The palm trees.

The palm trees were definitely a curve ball for me; I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting to see them in the Saltillo area. I guess it makes sense given the climate, but I associate palm trees more with coastal, tropical areas and Saltillo isn’t exactly tropical you know? In any case, the palm trees coupled with the mountain views were everything I never knew I needed.

The food.

I had different cuts of red meat for dinner all three nights, which is more red meat than I’m used to eating any given week. There were so many steak specialties at the local restaurants that I couldn’t help but want to try them all. Especially when I’m out for dinner with locals, I like to order the things they order. This helps me ensure I don’t just order American comfort food.

Aside from the delicious red meats, some of the other foods I ate while in Saltillo included fried parsley (weird, right?), crickets (yeaaaaaa), and my personal favorite, the best little street tacos.

More on the fried parsley.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about fried parsley at first, but I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised by it. The eating process was to put a big scoop of the parsley into a tortilla shell, then squeeze the shell together to condense the parsley even further. I had about four of them while waiting for my actual meal, so they must have been good.

More on the crickets.

Surprisingly enough, they didn’t really taste like anything. If you can get past the psychological fact that they’re crickets, they almost give off the same taste as burnt popcorn (gross, I know). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to eat them like they’re M&Ms, but if I had to eat one every now and again it wouldn’t kill me. By the way, these crickets weren’t dipped in chocolate or anything; they were just plain old crickets. YUM.

More on the best little street tacos.

You know, these street tacos really deserve their own category in the things I loved about Saltillo listing. One of the colleagues I traveled with grew up in the Saltillo area, so he took us out for morning tacos one day before work at one of his favorite local shops. After a lot of mindful consideration, I decided on two morning tacos — the cachete de puerco and the chicarron en salsa verde. We got there before the morning rush which was good considering the “waiting room” consisted of plastic Coca Cola chairs in a cold, unheated area in the front of the building. And it was chilly that morning for sure!

Honesty hour: while I loved a lot of the food in Saltillo, one thing I didn’t love were the lunch enchiladas with mole sauce I ate at a local restaurant near the production plant. I found the chocolate flavors didn’t pair well with the red sauce, making them almost inedible without copious amounts of salsa added on top. All the locals were talking them up, so I had to try. I just felt let down by the flavor I guess.

The enchiladas were also served with a side of potatoes which I found to be odd and surprising. Let’s just say I wouldn’t order them again if I had the choice. BUT, if they were the only things left on Earth and I needed to eat them to survive, I would. You can’t win them all!

The language.

I have always been a lover of the Spanish language. I took three Spanish classes in high school, so I can read and recognize words and phrases quite well. It’s been about ten years since my last real Spanish class, but I have practiced here and there several times in the past years. I’m planning to start up my studies again this year to help my listening and speaking abilities; it’s a personal goal I’ve set for myself to gain fluency in the Spanish language, so I see it as a positive challenge.

All together, I was amazed by how much I was able to understand given the gaps in my Spanish studies. I even ordered food in Spanish where I could and made sure to use por favor y gracias whenever possible. By the end of my trip, I was feeling like a professional for sure!

The tequila.

Okay, so who doesn’t go to Mexico and sip some tequila? My last tequila shot was the summer of 2014 in China, so I’ve been out of tequila practice for quite some time now. Nonetheless, I tried a variety of tequilas each night after dinner and they all tasted so smooth and yummy.

On our first night in Saltillo, we all tried the Mexican Flag — one shot of tequila, one shot of lime juice, and one shot of a red tomato/vinegar mix. With the Mexican Flag, the usual process (or at least the process described to me) is to take a sip of the tequila followed by the lime juice. After the lime juice, you take a sip of the tomato/vinegar juice to cleanse your palette. It just so happened to be buy BOGO free tequila shot night at the restaurant, so we deliciously doubled down. Not bad for night one!

The second and third nights in Saltillo were devoted to sipping tequila straight, no chasers or palette cleansers. The tequila in Mexico was much better than the tequila I remember shooting back in my college days. I didn’t bring any bottles home with me this time, but it was tempting. Maybe next time…

The Carajillo. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Last but certainly not least, more alcohol! I’m ending my love list with this coffee drink because it was my favorite thing I tried over the course of my days in Saltillo. As a coffee lover, I’m always looking for new drinks to try; I used to think Millionaire’s Coffee was the best coffee + liquor drink out there, but my life was forever changed when I got my hands on a cold Carajillo. You might think I’m being dramatic, and to some degree I am, but that drink was so so good! The funny thing is there’s a translation for Carajillo that means “corrected coffee” — is that not the most perfect translation!?

So what is in this magical drink you ask? Caraijllo is an easy, three ingredient drink: expresso, Licor 43, and some ice cubes. Though a simple cocktail to make, it’s simply one of the best drinks I’ve ever had! Now that I’m back stateside, I’m on the hunt for an expresso maker and a bottle of Licor 43, and then I’ll be in business right from the comfort of my own home. I’ll be using this recipe I found on Pinterest. Let me know if you try it as well!

So, not bad for my first time in Mexico, eh? I thoroughly enjoyed myself in Saltillo and I can’t wait to visit the area again. We were so busy with work, work, work during this stay, but I’m hoping to see more things (like Downtown) in a future visit. I left Mexico with tired eyes but lots of good memories, an all-in-all success in my books. I feel like I learned so much about the culture, the people, life in Mexico, and everything in between. What a trip!

Passport stamped! Where to next?

Enjoy!

JB