So Tuesday was Mexican Independence Day, and the festivities began on Monday evening...
Omar and Liz, the couple who took us to Taxco on Sunday, invited Victoria and I to their friends' town for the celebrations--Acambay, a little town near Atlacomulco, about an hour away from Toluca. We left Monday evening, and the drive was gorgeous. It's interesting to see the pasaje, the scenery, after you get out of Toluca and Lerma, which are apparently the industrial hub of the country... which means not so pretty. But outside of the city lines, especially due to the extra rain lately, everything is lush and green and beautiful...
So turns out the friends in Acambay, Lili and Alejandro, are awesome. :) Lili, turns out, is a member of the local government, which meant that we got invited to the party in the presidential palace, and hob-knobbed with the local bigwigs. And everything was free! ;) We walked around the plaza a bit, bought some snackies (obviously), and then participated in the "grito": a short historical account of the revolution/independence is read, then the highest local political official (in this case, our friend the President) leads everyone in a "shout:" He says "Viva México" and we answered "Viva!"; then names some of the revolutionary heroes, and more "Viva"s... then the gunshots begin. This is apparently the only night in which people can fire their guns off in the street legally... that went on for quite a while. It got loud! And some dum-dum shot out the electrical cables, so everything went dark for a few hours... oops!
After the grito, we went back upstairs for the gvt shindig, and there was a huge mariachi band, drinks, more snacks, and lots of dancing! There were few females, so we danced a TON! We stayed out real late, meaning we missed the parade on Tuesday morning cause we were sleeping, but then we went to get breakfast again in the plaza-- my first carnitas here in Mexico! O man they were delicious! Then trying some other foods, like huaraches... also nummy. Then we went back to Lili's parents' house, and they have this beautiful mini-orchard in their backyard... we picked some fruit and enjoyed the sunshine and company... all in all a beautiful celebration!
Today back to work, my students' assignment for this Friday is a Facebook profile in English... can't wait to see what they write! :)
Hasta luego~ besos!
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