Independence day, fried bull entrails, bullfights, tacos and beer

So as I mentioned in my last post, last weekend was Mexican Independence Day. I was thinking about just staying in Merida and probably going out for a bit, instead I ended up going this small village about an hour out of Merida called Cansahcab with some friends. The reason we decided to go to Cansahcab was that they were having their annual “fiesta del pueblo” (a sort of big annual village fair). One thing that struck me right away was how out of place I felt (not like this does not happen to me all the time), however the people there were really friendly, so its not like it bothered me at all. We all had a good laugh because as I was finishing up my beer, Sergio took my can from me and gave it to this guy who was collecting cans, his response… not a “muchas gracias”, but rather a very friendly attempt at “thank you very much”… apparently Sergio seems to foreign to pass off as a local, so I guess that did not leave very much hope for me. Cansahcab is really small, about 4/5000 people, but they really go all out for their fair… there are tons of things to eat, mechanical rides and even a makeshift bullfighting ring made out of sticks and all sorts of things. I was pretty pleased because a friend of Sergio who is from the town got me permission to go up on to the church roof and take some pictures… hehehe this kind of thing makes me very excited. Anyway as the night went on everyone shuffled in to the city hall were a “mobie disco” had set up… there was much drinking and dancing, and at about 5am we all shuffled back to a friends house and slept in our hammock for a few hours before it was time to go back to Merida. All and all a very cool experience.

Statue of Mestiza woman in the plaza

Panoramic shot I took from ontop of the church (I figured the ring has a capacity of 5-700 what do you figure? remember it has two levels and is packed)

And ofcourse the food... tacos, fried bull entrails (called Xix), asorted meats... yummy and VERY cheap


View of the town center

Row of houses

Friends and people we stayed with, by the way... thanks again!

Shot from up on top of the church

Inside the ring

a shot of the bullring from outside

A couple friendly locals enjoying a Tecate

Señores y Señoras, I give you...The matador!


He looks quite pleased with himself, hehe he will be happy I did not post the picture of him locked in to the wall between the bulls horns... ohhh how the tides had changed

Here is one of the other matadors... I think there were about 7 in all

Anyway thats all, I have a bunch more pics, but the post is getting fairly heavy. Thats all for now.

Turibus and Mexican independence day

Hey there. Well its been a couple weeks since I last posted so I figured it was about time to haul some pics online. Anyway, yesterday I went with the first years at TTT (the school I work at) on a kind of touristy bus (aptly named the Turibus) on a bit of a ride around the city… since many of them are not from town and it’s a good way for them to get their baring a bit better. Anyway its always a nice opportunity to take some pics…I got quite a few but I will only be posting four, since I want to save the other ones for a series of posts on Yucatan I’m thinking about doing in the coming weeks. So anyway here are the photos. Oh yea, in case you are wondering what’s up with all the flags… its Mexican independence day this weekend, check out the wikipedia article if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_independence

I love my zoom lens... I got this pic all the way from the bus and still its so nice and crisp. Creepy looking buskers eh?

Flags we got flags... hey.. I said flags!

Just a shot of one of the city hall buildings

"Monumento a la bandera" or monument to the flag... this is the place yucatecos go celebrate when ever we win anything in any sporting event... its fairly nifty, i should post some more pics of it some other day.