Zacatecas & Mexican Military 101

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We decided to have a long dinner at a classy restaurant. Then we got ready for the night. It was dark then. Dressed up all hot, we went to the roof of our hostel to see if there were any other tourists who wanted to go out with us. We learned that the world's only disco in a mine was closed for the night because the "Feria" (fair) was going on in Zacatecas. The view from the roof was stunning but the guys were boring so we left them and took a windy taxi ride in the mountains to the city Fair. On our way we saw a giant beer can and realized that it was a beer drive-thru. You drive you car through the can and you stock up with beer. The combination of beer and drive-thru don't settle well with me but I have to admit, it was quite fun to see.

The "Feria" was massive. I have never been to such a large outdoor event, this was bigger than the Taste of Chicago and more crowded! There was a seemingly neverending market where hair extensions and tattoos to candles shaped like frogs and traditional Mexican wardrobe were sold. Beyond the market was a carnival that was large enough to be a permanent amusement park. Then we found a huge plaza packed with beer and brown faces all having a good time listening to music from one of the several surrounding stages or just from the drummers floating in the crowd. There was a stadium that is usually used for bullfights, from which we could hear music in the distance, but we didn't make it there. We left just as the it started to drizzle and on our way back to the hostal we ran into a Spanish man from our hostel. We all took a walk around the hood just chatting and looking for an open bar. The whole city was at the Feria, nothing was open. So, Linda and I left the Spaniard (who was the second man to make a negative remark at me this weekend because I am from North America) and we just chilled and had a grade-school sleep over.

We woke up at 8 the following morning, Sunday, to visit the ruins of Quemada. These are the only ruins in all of northern Mexico. Archeologists don't know the group's real name but the place is called Quemada (set on fire) because it is believed that the inhabitants of this once prosperous trading post were forced to leave after a great fire. I still can't even believe that we did it but Linda and I motivated ourselves enough to climb all the way above all of the ruins and to the top of the mountain, despite our sucky shoes, giant rocks, and the rattle snakes. I know, we are pretty awesome.

When we returned back to Zacatecas we snacked on cake and warm drinks to warm ourselves after walking through some rain. I had Tres Leches cake and Abuelita Mexican hot chocolate. We invited some British women to sit with us, they were eating fries with vinegar. After exchanging our backgrounds and travelling stories we parted and Linda and I went on another long hike in search of the famous mine. After going higher up on the mountains than we needed, we found the small train that would later take us wearing our fashionable yellow hats into the mine to learn the history of how basically the indigenous perople were forced to dangerously pan for silver. Inside the mine is a the world's only mine-disco. Only aboout 300 people are allowed in per night. Customers have to get to the top of the hill and ride the mountain train to get to the club.

After visiting the mine we rode the teleférico. This is a cable car that cruises the air across the city from one mountain to another. Of course we had to get on the last ride of the night because it was "getting too windy". The operator intentionally shook the car and that woman with big hair did not need to keep screaming, but it was still good fun, and at least Linda had a good laugh.

Once happily back on land we picked up our things at the hostal and had dinner. On our way out of Zacatecas Linda was entertained by queer women checking me out, including a woman who left her job at subway to walk us towards the bus. Linda wanted to know how I "know" who is queer. I suppose it was fair as I already ask her how she was able to point out every German tourist. We left for our Monterrey bus which left at 7 PM and got us back to Monterrey at 3 AM.

I cut this down because I see that the blog is so long already. We both do not remember a lot of the following strange incident because we were really sleepy and really thrown off. We don't even remember the order of the conversation. It was sometime after midnight when I quickly opened my eyes to a man dressed in camouflage hovering over us. He was asking about Linda's bag. I couldn't understand a word he was saying because he was mumbling and speaking really quickly. I asked him to slow down and he just said something quickly with attitude. Then Linda woke up. He asked if we were sisters and then wanted to see our passports. We didn't know who he was so I just gave him my state ID and my tec ID. He kept pestering us about her bag despite her responses and so she just asked him if he wanted to look inside it and he said no and left! I looked outside and there were other militarily dressed men standing under a shack out in the middle of nowhere in this desert. It was surreal mostly because we both felt like we slept through it and agreed at how creepy he was because we opened our eyes and somehow just started participating in this forced conversation. We laughed when he got off the bus and tried to make sense of it all. I have learned that I shouldn't ask frustrated Mexican military personel to speak slower. Linda says it was because I'm brown he just assumed that I was representing them both, that is probably why he woke me up first even though she was closer to him. It is funny how stereotypes work because in reality, the white-German speaks better Spanish than I do. Linda and I dubbed this experiece an "adventure" and in general, had a really good time this past weekend.

This is my first week of revealing and printing my own photos in the lab. I can't wait to share some of them with you! Please, send me an email and tell me how you are doing.

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