So the first night was a little crowded in the Casillas hut pictured above. Not gonna lie, it was a bit crowded and I had to hang my feet out a bit because it was so hot and .......not buying it? Fine fine, this is just some random hobo's hut next to the caves we'll get to in a second. But don't lie, a lot of yall reading this think Mexico is nothing but poor people with mustaches living in dirty places. Well the Casillas have a reeally nice home and were very clean and not a single one had a mustache so take that stereotypers. In fact, here's their amazing home:
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| How's this for a view out the bedroom window? |
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| Courtyard out back |
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| Front door. All floors were marble. |
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| Formal dining area and family room |
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| Kitchen |
We woke up our first morning in Monterrey to an overcast sky and empty stomachs. For breakfast it was spiced eggs with totopos and fruit on the side. Was very different and delish. And today is 9/15, which is Mexico's Independence day. These people LOVE celebrating life so what better time to come than the weekend the entire country is celebrating its right to be Mexican and eat tortillas every single day of the year! The city was promised to be bubbly and Monterrey did not disappoint.
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| Main dining table were most every meal is eaten |
First however, we had some time to kill before the celebration so we all decided to check out some caves that were relatively close. We're not talking a small bloody hole in the wall either. This place was massive. Like a small village could live inside this thing and still have room to sell bat guano statues to visitors. They had really cool lighting everywhere you turn, some Jesus and creepy hand formations, and then to top it off they had a gigantic stalacmite Christmas tree! Other than all that though, it was a pretty standard cave. I've seen Carlsbad Caverns but this cave is definitely a contender. At the end of the day though, who doesn't appreciate gaping village size holes in rocks dug out from water a couple million years ago?
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| yours truly, Bottle, Rodrigo, Santi |
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| Gondola ride to caves |
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| above the clounds! |
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| wild goats! |
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| Can get a better idea of cave size here |
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| The Dead Hand |
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| Feliz Navidad Stalagmite |
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| Some kind of idle of sorts..cave gods? |
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| Chapel in a cave |
All throughout the day there were vendors everywhere selling flags and bigotes (mustaches) and sombreros and food and balloons and horns and anything else celebration related. Downtown there was a huge stage setup with plenty of room in front for throngs and throngs of excited Mexicans.
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| downtown Monterrey crowds |
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| REAL frogs! |
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| Very popular vendor snack of corn with sauce and lime |
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| 2 random frijoles con bigotes en la calle =D |
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| The Ancira Hotel party! |
We checked it out before everything started but the Casillas and extended friends had booked all of us at this really nice hotel called Ancira for the celebration. Basically it was a very nice and very big dinner party with lots of people. At the hotel was an army of traditional Mexican dishes and deserts completed with an open
bar! Oh yes, we had way more than our share of drinks and tequila shots. Something like 11 or 12 shots before we left I believe and about 3 mixed drinks and a cerveza. Soon as everyone had slowed down on dinner the unexpected show (to us at least) began. All kinds of different dancers came out dressed in very elaborate traditional costumes. Even this large group of dudes with 2 machettes a piece came out and started dancing with them and banging them together. Was very cool. But like all good times, it couldn't last forever and soon we made it back to the house.
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| Sugar heeavveeeeen! |
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| Our favorite dish of the night, pulled pork something. |
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| Pumpkin desert. Typical for Dia de Muerte |
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| the table. minus Elias, he photo bombed us |
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| gotta have a cotton candy bigote |
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| Mariachi Band! |
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| Cancun wedding invitation shot! |
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| Me and Santi |
And that's when the after party began! A boat load of Rodrigo's friends came over and there was much more drinking and celebrating and singing. And of course with our bigotes on :) One guy could play guitar really well and then another could sing amazingly but everyone joined in at some point. And several of the guys could speak English so that was really cool to be able to communicate with others. I did throw in some Spanish here and there as well so that was fun to learn my mistakes and improve, but that's been throughout the entire trip. I love being around real Spanish and not a book. All the revalry did finally die down around 5am and some tired and very drunk Americans went to bed. What a great day....
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| I was probably getting initiated into some cartel gang I'm sure |
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