KD's Pan-American Trek #16: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

We've made it across Canada and the United States now on my Pan-American Trek using using Google Street View. Here's a review of the path so far.

Let's virtually drive across the border now and see what Mexico looks like. It's been a few years since I've been to Mexico. The only extended time I've had in Mexico is when I went there for my high school graduation trip in 1978. That's me on the right on top of one of the pyramids outside Mexico City.

So welcome to Mexico and Nuevo Laredo!

The first thing that is noticeably different between Mexico versus the U.S. and Canada is that there are people outside. Up until now, it's fair to say that most of the people I have seen in Street View were in cars, or moving between a car and a house or store. What we'll see through most of the rest of the trip is the opposite - people outdoors aplenty. The image below is a Catholic processional with school children.

Another feature of note in Latin American towns are the one or more city tributary statues, usually as part of a roundabout.

Yet another strong theme that we will find in Latin America is graffiti. Before this virtual journey, I did not pay much attention to graffiti, but it's impossible to ignore in Latin America. While much graffiti is crude, as we go farther south, much of its transcends the term "graffiti" and is more appropriately called "wall art".

Gym shoes hanging from the power lines are supposed to denote places where drug dealers are. I have no idea if that's truth or myth. It does make for a more interesting cityscape.

Nuevo Laredo is a logistics hub for North American trade. The downtown area is prototypical for a border town, made as much for tourists as locals.

Many of the houses and apartments in Mexico appear to have been abandoned during construction, and then repurposed as needed.

Houses of the rich betray their feeling of safety in the city.

Here's a Catholic cemetery as we virtually drive out of Nuevo Laredo.

In the towns a bit south of the border, we begin to see architecture that is decidedly Spanish. Here's a house in Villadama.

The urban feel of the border quickly turns rural.

A farm in Bustamante.

Note the large mountains in the background of the image above - that's where we're going next, to Monterrey, Mexico. Here's a preview, with a panorama view of Parque Nacional Cumbres de Monterrey.

Previous posts:

• Alaska: Northern Alaska; Alaska to Yukon
• C?anada: Northwestern Canada, Icefields Parkway; Alberta, Canada
• Montana: Great Falls, Montana; Central Montana; Billings, Montana
• Wyoming & Colorado: Eastern Wyoming, Eastern Colorado
• Summary of Trip so far in Polaroids
• Texas: Texas Panhandle, Amarillo, Memphis & Clarendon, Southern Texas to the Border