Monterrey and around

The third-largest city in Mexico (with four million in the metro area), and capital of Nuevo León, Monterrey is a dynamic, hard-partying showcase for contemporary Mexico, though the heavy industry that made its wealth has far less importance these days – the biggest steel works closed in 1986. While the vast network of factories, the traffic, urban sprawl, pollution and ostentatious wealth that characterize the city are relatively recent developments, the older parts retain an air of colonial elegance. The city’s setting, too, is one of great natural beauty – ringed by jagged mountain peaks, the Cerro de la Silla, or “Saddle Mountain”, dominates the landscape. But what makes Monterrey really outstanding is the abundance of modern architecture and the bold statuary sprouting everywhere, expressions of Mexico at its most confident.

Most visitors’ first impressions of Monterrey are unfavourable – the highway roars through shabby shantytown suburbs and grimy manufacturing outskirts – but the city centre is quite a different thing. Here, colonial relics are overshadowed by the office buildings and expensive shopping streets of the Zona Rosa, and by some extraordinary modern architecture – the local penchant for planting buildings in the ground at bizarre angles is exemplified above all by the Planetario Alfa and the Instituto Tecnológico. The city in general rewards a day of wandering, but there are three places specifically worth going out of your way to visit – the old Obispado (bishop’s palace), on a hill overlooking the centre, the giant Cervecería Cuauhtémoc to the north and the magnificent Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MARCO).

Of Monterrey’s two main markets – Juárez and Colón – the latter, on Avenida de la Constitución, south of the Macroplaza, is more tourist-oriented, specializing in local artesanía. Incidentally, the best of Monterrey’s flea markets (pulgas; literally, fleas) is also held on Constitución: market days are irregular, but ask any local for details.