Mexi-Roadtrip #1: Tula

This weekend we drove up to Tula, ancient capital of the Toltecs. We drove up with Autumn's boss and her daughter, and had a great time. Ruins, popsicles, traffic....what could be better!

LEFT: Pistachio
RIGHT: Banana with chocolate, coconut and pecans!

It was all we could do to keep Autumn from hugging and/or eating the ripe, juicy cacti!

Hola, Toltec warrior-dude!

Guillermo, Jorge, Juan Carlos and Chewy 

We're on a pyramid!

Views of the from the Burnt Palace

Agghh! My back!

Ball court....of DEATH!

Templo Mayor

Pyramid of the Morning Star

How do I get down?

I've got a fever and the only prescription is more PYRAMID!

And more CACTUS!

Military Parade

Day two of the independence day celebrations was capped off with a military parade. We had never seen anything like it. Literally thousands of soldiers parading down the street with rocket launchers, tanks, boats, bazookas, nurses and trained birds. It was crazy to say the least. We made an attempt to watch the parade downtown, but apparently we would have had to arrive about 4 months early in order to get a spot. Luckily we found a shady spot back in our neighborhood and had a great view of the show. Unluckily, we left the house at 9:30 for a parade that allegedly started at 10:00, but did not, in fact, reach us until 1:00 in the afternoon. The people watching was good and we enjoyed the sunny day.

2010

Chicharrones cart...aka deep fried pork skins! MMM!

This guy was carving roses out of mangoes...
I would have tried one if I didn't see the dirty box these came from!

Blissfully unaware that we still had a good 4 hour wait ahead of us.

There was a pretty good airshow going on too...
I never realized that commercial airliners could fly in formation!

Canada eh?

Nothing says best army in the world like plumed caps! USA!

A small sample of the hundreds of tanks that day.

This annoying old man wouldn't stop fishing cans out of the overflowing garbage can and stomping them?!?

Only the finest of modern warfare displayed here...bayonets!

And finally, the trained army falcons!
FYI we use carrier pigeons instead of email here!

Happy Birthday Mexico!! x2!!

So it was Mexican Independence day this week, which was the 100th anniversary of the revolution and the 200th anniversary of independence from Spain....needless to say, it was a fiesta gigante!

That being said, we got a whopping 5 days off for the celebrations! (I heart gov't work!) Additionally, we FINALLY got our Mexican license plates!! SO, the weekend was filled with parades and attempts to get the car up and running...as well as some FAILed fast food drive through attempts. On that note, I will say that the used-intercom-from-the-80's seem to have arrived at our McDonald's just in time for us to try to order a couple of McBreakfast Sandwiches which came out as an odd Styrofoam plate of pancakes topped with a sausage patty that immediately infuriated my lovely wife. Anyway, the parade was very nice, and we saw some great fireworks...I don't know if they were $23M pesos great (that's approximately $1.9 MILLION dollars... as in US DOLLARS!!!), but they were nice.

Traditional dancers

The parade was so colorful! It included groups in traditional dress with dancing and music that was really cool. There were also floats from each continent, each type of latin dance, traditional and modern arts, day of the dead and a myriad of other designs.

1-2-3-4 I declare a skelly war!
 Ooh-aaah-ureshii! Oh wait that's Japanese! Que im-pre-sio-nan-te!

DRRAAAGOOON-HEAAAD!

Oh traffic! Que barbaro!

Can you tell we're excited (for 5 days off!)

GO-GO-MEXI-CO!

Hey dragon! Stop eating Torre Mayor!

???

Con-quista-tastic!

IS that Ms. America?

Go Go Gadget Lasso!

Wouldn't want their job!

Filed under WTF!

See above!

Stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni...oh wait wrong independence day!

Just Dance!

According to the sign...modern art and popular culture

Ranchero...Cumbia...Samba and Cha Cha!

Team Mexico Day 3: Xochimilco

To celebrate the victory of organized labor over tha' MAN, we decided to go float around in some canals and drink beer before noon...just like the real, union guys do (at least the ones I used to see with 40's of Ol' E in front of 7-11 back in Seattle)! Xochimilco is a UNESCO world heritage site that exemplifies the traditional means of transportation throughout the pre-columbian canal system Mexico City. That being said, today it is pretty much a fiesta hot-spot with food, drinks and mariachis!

The boats!

I'm on a boat!

Floating mariachis! Does it get any better?

Naturally, we had a stowaway on board that presented us with a "shopportunity" about 20 minutes into the cruise.

I like it soooo much, I work here now!

A peaceful section of canal.

This was actually a normal sized beer, but it appears to have grown in this picture!

Cactus really can grow anywhere...even in a beer can!

The S.S. Xochimilco!