Happy Mother´s Day to my Mama

Yesterday was a national holiday here in Mexico. Mexicans may be known for their machismo, or maybe their fanatisism for the Virgin de Guadalupe, but I would say that a deep love for their mothers might just as well belong to the stereotype of the average Mexican. They dont tell any yo momma jokes down here. They would not be funny. So yes Mothers Day was yesterday and everyone was out with their mamas. Friday we had a big school event that involved every student in the school singing or dancing on a stage for all the schools moms. It was chaos and lasted 4 hours. My kids were super cute and danced to the song Madrid Madrid. They were fantastic.
Last weekend we had off for Cinco de Mayo and Labor Day. It was a nice puente, bridge, of a holiday and we had a five day weekend. Puebla, apparently, is the only town that actually celebrates the reason for this holiday. It was the site of the great battle against the French that led to this national holiday. I guess they might have a parade or special events but only in Puebla, everyone else goes everywhere else to enjoy their time off. And that is so interesting because in the States Cinco de Mayo is the biggest holiday celebrated by the native Mexicans, while Mexicos Independence Day, Sept.16, is hardly celebrated by them in the States, but is the bigger national holiday here in Mexico. Very interesting. We went to Veracruz for the first half of the weekend and enjoyed the city. The Zocalo is nice, the food is great, and city has real character. I loved the fish a la veracruzana and we found the BEST nieve, its like italian ice- ice cream, purely a mexican thing, but this nieve shop by the zocalo is called El Guero and they make the best peanut nieve I have ever eaten. I think i ate it 4 times in 2 days. So that was nice. We visited the big old fortress that used to guard the Veracruz harbor and the aquarium they have on the coast. The beaches along Veracruz are nothing to write home about in my opinion and they were absolutely overloaded with Mexican families on vacation. Almost gross.
So we headed up the coast a couple hours to a town called Tecolutla, purely a beach town and probably a fine beach when its not tourist season but that one was packed too and we had to go far out in the waves to get away from all the people. Sunday we went to the ruins that are close by called El Tajin and i felt like i had entered South America or something, we were suddenly in a sweltering jungle. The ruins are impressive and there are heaps but I couldnt stay in that heat very long. We watched the famous voladores, or flyers, fall upside down and spin from tall pole and that was cool. Later that night we thought wed buy bus tickets back to Pachuca. But oh no. Shouldve bought them long before. All sold out. Next best was a 245 bus to Mexico City and then wed have to back track to Pachuca. So we swallowed that, and took the seats by the toilet, and 2 hours into the trip got stuck in traffic that didnt move for 4 more hours. Everyone got off the bus and hounded the little convenience stores of the hobunk town we were close to. It was dark by the time we started moving. Apparently a semi had had an accident ahead of us and its cargo required a crane to remove it. Everyone overused our bus toilet and it was leaking deadly fumes on us. Then the evil bathroom door kept flying open on its own and i had to kick it back with my foot. What a night. We got in at 230 to Mexico City and crashed at a hostal. What a trip!
On a sad note, I saw my last Pachuca soccer game last week. A couple of us went on Wednesday with our prepaid tickets to see the first of 2 games that Pachuca had to play to qualify for the Mexican finals. The stadium sold out and we got in line right before the game started, waited in line a half hour, and then we finally got in had to stand or sit on the stairs cuz there was no room! Oversold a tad. It was a tight game, with a ridiculous intentional hand ball call against Pachuca that led to a penalty kick which led to the win for San Luis. And then last night Pachuca played them again in San Luis and even though they won by 1 last night, San Luis´s record is better and in a tie they win by default. So Pachuca is done till the fall. What a bummer. I loved my Tuzos.
Anyway, this week is tranquilo. Hope you and your mamas had a nice Mothers Day :-)