Pleasant Environment in Mexico with Great Team

At the Monteblanco location of El Corralito, there was a great team spirit.

Basque born Chef (manager) Luis Astier (left) with his Sous Chefs...

Yep, preparing good compost substrate is the most important ingredient to success in mushroom growing!

A coffee break was always great for catching up with everything going on in the different areas.

Husband Pieter is 2nd from right, wearing his Monteblanco overall for hygienic reasons, just as I wore my white coat apron (3rd from right).

Left my cap on the table...

Chef Luis Astier was a great manager and also a real hobby Chef; hence that first photo with the Chef's hats.

It was Luis, who installed a coffee break with fresh fruits for his staff!

You can now see my plate with fruits... The 'Chef' is 2nd from left, next to husband Pieter.

Agustín, one of the owners is to Pieter's right.

They sure had some great Lady Chefs on the premises, who prepared a delicious lunch for the staff people and we both got lucky for being part of that!

Speaking the language and managing to pass down a compliment to the Lady Chefs, they learned that my Pieter LOVES arroz con leche (rice pudding) so they saved him some leftover for surprising him next day. 

Pieter was smiling from ear to ear. 

Kind people!

View from the window over the compost slab with the mountains in the back.

Related post:

Consulting in Mexico Brought us Again to Mountainous Areas | previous post about this very farm

Consulting in Mexico Brought us Again to Mountainous Areas

 Yes, most of the mushroom farms we did consulting work for, were located in mountainous areas...

Here, Pieter is smiling happily in our new surroundings on Saturday, February 19, 1994 at our very first consulting trip to Mexico. On our way to one of the Champiñones Monteblanco farms outside of Mexico City, called Rancho El Corralito.

Approaching the mushroom farm...

A very nice layout for a mushroom farm and complete with garden!

Having a closer look

Very well maintained!

Taken during a different trip, from the car...

Together with Juan Carlos I did go to four of their locations on that Saturday, the ones around Mexico City. 

Just to get an idea of how we will start the training for next week.

Juan Carlos told me that it meant a lot to those Mexicans; part Indian and part Spanish, that a blonde blue-eyed Dutch was coming to work with them, at their level. Showing them how it is being done by using my hands and verbally explaining to them 'why' and 'how'.

For both of us, no reservations but it seems that still in many countries people look up to Europeans as being superior. What a pity but at least the two of us have worked on that in many countries for evening it out.

~

In the afternoon, Agustín and his wife Carmen took us both to the Highlights of the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City or Museo Nacional de Antropología which was very interesting!

It made us want to eat, and love, our Aztec soup, once back at our hotel and we went to bed early.

A lovely day!

Sunday, was a lazy day for us with swimming in the heated pool at the Camino Réal Hotel.

We also walked to a nearby Church for attending Mass. 

On Monday, we both started our work and I had the back up of Juan Carlos, IF I got stuck with my Spanish, and it went well, with a few times his help.

After work we had a quick change at the hotel and Agustín took us to Carmen's Parents; Don Victor and Doña Conchita. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and talked a lot about his almost 45 year old mushroom business with now 3 of his children running it.

Their etiquette was impeccable, as their servants served the ladies first and the lady guest(s) before their own ladies and then the gents.

That was a real honor and it's all so obvious in our work, as compensation or as an extra appreciation. 

It sure builds a fine and lasting friendship with such people.

We went home feeling grateful.

On Tuesday, after work, we had the BEST experience that we've ever seen so far... Agustín and Carmen came to pick us up at the hotel for a beautiful Mexican Folklore Ballet 

That was a superb dance group!

The Ballet was in Mexico's Palace of Fine Arts a wonderful, beautiful architectural marvel in itself. 

And there you are, as two humble market gardeners' children, enjoying such a famous group in all its exotic colors... More beautiful than anything you could ever see on T.V. 

Palace of Fine Arts in the Historic Center of Mexico City has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Another spectacular evening, above all expectations of Mexico City.

A city that already amazed us...

On Wednesday, after work, Juan Carlos took me to his home for introducing his wife and baby-daughter to me. A very pleasant meeting and good for both parties to know who is working with whom.

On our route from the mushroom farm we saw a pilgrims tour. Every village makes yearly a pilgrimage on foot to Maria of Guadalupe. They walk about 100 km on foot with a few small trucks in-between for food, water and blankets. When evening sets in, they sleep alongside the road, against houses on the pavement and rolled inside blankets... also in groups beneath the trucks if they park them alongside the road. Entire caravans and they do block the traffic for a moment when passing by.

It was very impressive!

Related link:

Our 1st Time Working in Mexico and stay at Camino Real Hotel Mexico City | previous post

Working Alongside a Retired Portuguese Style Bull Fighter... in Mexico | Juan Carlos Fuentes with whom I worked

Our 1st Time Consulting in Mexico with stay at Camino Real Hotel Mexico City

 Already in October of 1993, during a seminar that husband Pieter did for Campbell Soup at the Holiday Inn in Santa Cruz, California, we met with people from the Monteblanco group in Mexico. One of the owners, Agustín also attended Pieter's seminar and he invited us to come to Mexico for some consulting and training.

Also during another seminar in December of 1993, that Pieter did in Texas, again for Full House customers of Campbell Soup, we met more staff members from Monteblanco, Mexico.

On February 18 of 1994, we both departed for the airport by 6:00 o'clock, driving the two hours to Atlanta and our flight via Houston, Texas into Mexico City.

What a gigantic stretched out city Mexico City is from the air! No wonder it ranks the world's 5th by population and at that time there lived more people than in our entire birth country The Netherlands...

At present some 22,000,000 are living there!

It also is a very unique airport at an altitude of 2,230 meters or 7,300 feet, one of the highest in the world.

And a very fertile plateau with a pleasant climate!

The population is very young, contrary to the aging population of the west.

Traffic is of course a hell! They had already set up one day a week for each car driver to leave the car at home, in order to slow down air pollution. 

It also was the most beautiful city that we EVER saw in our lives!

It is a pity that also the crime rate is high... affecting the safety of the population and its visitors.

So incredibly green and beautiful with large parks and beautiful tropical flowering trees along the streets.

Other countries have botanical gardens but in Mexico City it is inclusive...

 The USA could learn a lot from that. 

Spaniards and Italians in general, love plants and trees for adding color to their lives. 

Trees are also the lungs of such a city; thus a double function.

Camino Real Polanco Mexico Hotel

We were being dropped off at the Camino Réal Hotel, after our visit to the company's main office...

We always loved its special architecture, a kind of Aztec style, with thick bearing walls due to the earthquake region!

That's probably why we also love to stay at the Hyatt Regency Suites Atlanta Northwest as mentioned here in a previous post.

Parque Mexico just click to see more beautiful places within Mexico City.

WISH we would have had more time for walking and exploring... but we worked a tight schedule!

Arriving by car from the hustle of this vibrant city, you enter the very unique Camino Real Architecture, to break the noise from outside and offering a tranquil oasis to its guests.

The Pink Wall Outside Camino Real another of its architectural design.

Camino Real Hotel Bearing Wall and Pool This gives you a very good idea of how the five story hotel is being built with bearing walls.

This is me on a Sunday, March 22 of 1998 after arriving here on one of our next consulting periods.

Relaxing at the pool in my La Perla bathing suit with skirt (seen in photo below!

Those were the perks of doing International Consulting!

Staying at this beautiful hotel, one of the top hotels in the world, in the line of the Mandarin Oriental (where we stayed a few times in Jakarta, Indonesia), Ritz Carlton (where Pieter met our Indonesian boss once in Los Angeles) etc.

We both have been treated royally, all those years of doing international consulting and the fact that over a period of twelve years they had us come back to Mexico speaks for itself.

View of the pool at that time, from a post card we got.

On that lawn, we've seen beautifully decorated tables for wedding events...

Yes, they have a tennis court as well and several fine restaurants.

Also an arcade of shops inside their compounds.

On the walls in the reception area hung portraits from royalty that had stayed with them, such as Queen Elizabeth from England.

We found this on our pillow, next to some chocolates...

We had a very good night sleep at this hotel; so quiet!

You sure can tell that the influences from work have come home with us...

Our home is in the color of the Caribbean (Curaçao) or Mexico and we love this Golden Mist color, see post below.

Previous post:

Working Alongside a Retired Portuguese Style Bull Fighter... in Mexico | from my very 1st work period

{Our Home with Aluminum Interlock Roofing and Benjamin Moore Golden Mist Exterior} | previous post

{What Type of Feet do YOU have?} | photo of me taken at Camino Real