Posted May 15, 200619 yr i finally reached the end of my cross-country 'la frontera' border vacation qwest in matamoros (pop 400k+), a fine city in the state of tamaulipas, mexico across the rio bravo from brownsville, texas. it's main industry is the nafta legacy maquilidora factory trade. it also has the oldest u.s. consulate. the best thing about matamoros is that is is by far the most typically 'mexican' city on the border, rather than primarily a border oriented town. in fact, there was no tourist strip just across the border at all and you have to walk quite a ways thru a normal looking city to get to the main plaza, which was refreshing and almost familiar. this makes sense given it's u.s. neighbor, brownsville, is prob the most 'mexican' of u.s. towns along the border. anyway, here's matamoros: crossing the border from brownsville, texas into matamoros well all righty now wait a sec, am i on far hills in dayton? walking toward downtown, i almost could be anywhere in the usa oh look, there's baskin-robbins in spanish plaza they named a calle after themselves? i love colorful beat down signs like this wow, that's a beautiful theater dios mio, es el rey de hamburgesa classy street signage city hall i learned matamoros is one of the very few mexican cities to have the honorific 'h' in the title (it means heroica) we're at the main plaza, btw it's early morning wait until you see this up close quite beautiful underneath, eh? from inside onward to the church on the square off the square wha...? herbie fully loaded these power lines humm and buzz like you would not believe, it feels dangerous just walking around them! a modern outdoor arena in the park for inkaelin: wacky modern street lighting goes with the program here some more mex style burb-ish housing on the way back to the border crossing like i say, pretty normal looking around here aint it? shiny *** adios matamoros, way to break any mexican bordertown pre-conceptions! ***
May 15, 200619 yr might as well add matamoros's neighbor brownsville, texas to this thread (pop 140k). not much to see. es nueva york! stately and nice mmm kay no, not really uno peso market square area too bad it was closed -- so we're doing the walkaround the stillman house grounds, he's the city founder nice enough sharp looking grounds i liked this shot finally, the one thing you have seen and brownsville is most known for by us urban fans....... it's alleys..... bzzzt bzzzzzzzt bzzzzt bzt oh yeah and one more thing, the port ^but it didn't look like you are allowed over there unless you work there *** thats brownsville texas ***
May 15, 200619 yr Excellent tour! Matamoros certainly doesn't look like the typical dusty, kitschy, tourist-trap border town. Very pleasant and reasonably prosperous-looking.
May 16, 200619 yr A little ragged around the edges, but colorful and not really trashy. Works for me. Brownsville looks a bit uninspiring. Still fun to see these border cities. Thanks for the tours mrnyc.
Create an account or sign in to comment