Mexico Independence Weekend!

by Toni St.Clair on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7:39pm via FB

September 15th is Mexico Independence Day, and the city, and my friends, basically celebrated all weekend.

It all started Friday afternoon with a rooftop BBQ at the AIU campus. Beautiful weather, great food, and an awesome view: what more could I ask for! My fav part was that a tour bus was driving past the school and some of the people started taking pictures of us on the roof! Hahaha! I felt like a local for the first time!!

Later that night, my friends and I had plans to go out and party. Now people who know me know that I am a fan of planned outings and like to have both a destination and a time. Well Friday night I only had a time and the issue was that in Mexico time is taking leniently...so 9pm became sometime around 10:30. We ended up walking around Zona Rosa for a couple hours before deciding to head over to Condesa and meet some friends at a taco restaurant. By the time we got there it was probably 12:30 and we still hadn't been to an actual place yet...just walking around...so I was slightly frustrated and my feet seriously hurt (pretty shoes, not practical for lots of walking)! Anyways, we ended up at this reggae place, Kaya, that I quite enjoyed. It was super packed and smoky but there was no cover and the beer was relatively cheap! That's right I said beer!! It turned out to be an avdenturous evening; I saw parts of the city I'd never been to before and rode the Metrobus for the first time...can't complain right!?

Saturday was far more exciting! Jaime, Romain and I headed over to the Zona Rosa for an Independence night meal. Quite fun actually! The waiters were dressed up and wearing fake mustaches and such, the restaurant had party favors on all the tables and the music was fantastic! After dinner we headed down Reforma to the Centro Historico, which I have to say was beautiful, even at night. I definetly want to go there during the day b/c I didn't get near enough pics of it! Anyways, we could tell we were getting close to the festivities b/c there were street vendors EVERYWHERE, more and more people appeared, and once we got onto the main street that heads into the Zocalo I felt like I was back on the Red Mile during a big victory celebration!! Once inside the Zocalo, I was in awe! The Zocalo is the second biggest square in the world and you could definetly tell...it was packed with like a million people. There were two big stages set up for entertainment; one next to the palace and one opposite it. At 11pm the president came out and made his speech, to which the crowd shouted 'VIVA' numerous times, and then the fireworks started! I'm not going to lie: this display was the bst I've ever seen! Seriously! Maybe it was b/c I was right in front of the building where the fireworks were being shot off, I don't know. But it was amazing!!! As the crowd started to leave, I started to realize just how crowded the Zocalo was; and I definetly noticed the height differences. I felt like a penguin: forced to waddle my way through and sometimes, strangely, against the crowd! At one point half the people went left and I was trying to go right, and Jaime had to pull me through the mob so I didn't get carried away!! It was CRAZY!!!! We finally got home around 1:30am, were still sort of awake so Romain and I started to watch Pirates 3. Then we realized that we had to get up at 7:30am and figured we should probably got to bed!!!

Sunday morning started bright and early, and by 8:30am we were on Reforma waiting for the parade to start. We didn't realize that the parade started at 11am, b/c if we did there is NO WAY I would have been up that early!!! Oh well, what can you do right?! Turns out that the parade was a military parade and soon there were more troops, guns, tanks and vehicles than I have ever seen! I mean seriously!!! They had all the heavy artillery out!!! I felt both safe and scared at the same time!! One thing I forgot about was sunscreen, and after being in the sun for 4 hours, I realized that I was a bit burnt! My first real burn down here!!

All in all the weekend was awesome! I am happy I got to experience such a strong sense of patriotism and be apart of such a celebration!!

- xoxo