Villahermosa, Mexico

After two very full days of work, with essentially no free time, last night I took a look at the competitive hotels - and therefore my first look at the city.

Villahermosa is a green city, but largely industrial.   The Hyatt is an older building wedged on a small street off one of the city's two main roads.  Adjacent is another hotel (of obviously lower star quality) and a modern and very tall glass office building.   Across the main road is a beautiful large park with a lagoon and a museum housing some of the famous huge Olmec stone heads (I've seen them on tv before).   I plan on going there today.

The city has another main road that intersects; I can see this road rising above the trees from my window, it is very busy and crosses the city south to north.    Along this other road are some of the main shopping centres - nothing fancy, more like strip malls.    But at least all of the streets are lined by trees which is nice.

From the window of my room, which faces south, I can see the cathedral off in the distance.  I plan on taking a taxi there today to check it and the main plaza out.   But the rest of the city looks industrial and rather unattractive.     Villahermosa is an oil town, the headquarters of Pemex.    Scattered across the horizon are water towers, offfice buildings, radio towers, highway bridges and concrete houses.   

The hotel is very hip.   The rooms are modern, sleek, in cream colours and cherry furniture accented with brick red upholstery and red mexican patterned pillows.    The bathroom is small but has a glass stall with a rain showerhead and beige limestone with red granite vanity.  Surprisingly nice!    The lobby is still traditional but they plan on renovating this during the Fall. 

Today I plan on taking my time relaxing in the room, then going to the park and museum, then off to the cathedral, returning to go work out and then work in my room tonight.    The goal is to RELAX.   I leave for Mexico City tomorrow late morning...