Random Guadalajara Adventures

I realized Danny and I had a few random pictures from adventures that we'd forgotten to put up on the blog, so I'm gonna catch you folks up on the things we've been doing here in Mexico...

 First things first, a couple weekends ago, a guy named Edgar whom we had met at a party through a mutual friend invited us to his country house for his sister's birthday party. No one lives in the home, it's strictly for partying on the weekends. The house was located in Tonala, a small artesan town about 40 minutes outside of Guadalajara. Saturday night, Edgar sent us a facebook message saying he would pick all of us up on Chapultepec at 8:30 (in ahorita time that means 9pm) So Utsav, Anosh, Kinjalk, and Danny & I all waited on the corner for Edgar to show up. He finally arrived and told us that his friend was across the street waiting to take us to Tonala. At first, I saw a nice Audi SUV, but then that pulled away and behind it was sitting a small Toyota pick up truck. We realized that we were meant to ride in the back of this truck for the entire trip to Tonala. Being the only girl in the group, I got to ride shotgun with a complete stranger who spoke zero English for the 40 minute trip (lucky me!). It was pretty funny looking back at all the guys in the truck with the wind blowing in their face. By the time we got to the house, they were all pretty chilled. 

On the ride to Tonala. Comedy.

Typical fiesta fare in Mexico. They're basically fried air which is then covered in hot sauce. Delicious AND nutritious

 When we first arrived, there weren't many people there (it was still fairly early). We had some Agua Loca which is a punch served at parties. I'm pretty sure this agua loca had a few types of liquor and some fruit juice in it. It basically tastes like a hangover. More people began to arrive and the agua loca started flowing. At one point, a box of wigs and masks was brought out (doesn't everyone have a dress-up chest in their house???) which made things even more interesting.

 

Utsav and I in disguise

 It doesn't get much more authentic than the experience we had in Tonala. We danced the night away in the living room, high-school party style, and got to practice our Spanish with some native speakers once our inhibitions were lowered. Super fun.

Another recent adventure is the trip we made to Areno Coliseo to watch a Lucha Libre fight. Lucha Libre in Mexico is fairly popular. The closest thing I can compare it to would be WWE wrestling in the States. The luchadores come out to some sort of crazy music and some of them are wearing masks (some of them are even women! I was pretty surprised). The fighting is mostly fake and heavily rehearsed, but you've gotta admit it does take some talent for these guys to throw each other around and make it look real without killing each other. The crowd actually pays little attention to the fighting itself and mostly chants insults at each other/random people in the crowd (ex. "The guy in the green is a loser." obviously cleaned up immensely since this is a PG blog) or they chant "vuelta!" or "turn around" whenever a pretty girl walks through the crows. Needless to say, I was frozen to my seat for the entire time, afraid I'd be called out and embarrassed in Spanish. It was cool to experience part of Mexican culture, but I doubt we will go back. I did, however purchase some Mexican movies today, one of them starring the famous Luchador, El Santo, who did several movies from the 50's to the 80's here in Mexico. The guy is an icon here. We watched "El Santo contra Los Monstros" in class on friday. It's every bit as bad (good?) as the old Batman and Robin movies. Defintely worth checking out. Hasta la proxima!