bday weekend!

Before I left for Mexico, I was worried about my birthday being a little over a month away and being in a foreign country with friends and family so far away. I shouldn’t have worried at all. My birthday was actually very fun. Most of my classes threw me mini parties so we played games and they brought in food like chips and cookies and we just had a fun day. Two of my students even bought me presents- one a hair clip and some candy and another brought in a cookie in the shape of a heart on a stick.
After classes were done we headed back to the house. A few friends we have met while we have been here came over to the house with a bunch of beer and we turned on some music and had a little party at the house. We had all intentions of going out to the bars as well but ended up just staying in and hanging out. We played some card games and hung out on the roof for awhile. 3 of the guys who came over knew no English either so we all practiced our Spanish quite a bit.
When we all rolled out of bed on Saturday and cured the hangovers, Sandy, Angela and I caught a bus to Uruapan. It is about 2 hours from here by bus and sounded like a fun weekend trip. The guys, Jay, Brian and a former teacher, Ryan were going to catch a different bus later that afternoon. They never ended up coming- we called them at like 10pm after exploring the city a little bit and getting ready to go check out the night life, and they had decided to stay here in Los Reyes. So it ended up being a girl’s weekend in Uruapan and a guy’s weekend in Los Reyes.
The nightlife in Uruapan would have been decent had it not been Valentine’s Day. I think anyone reading this blog knows me well enough to know I have never been a fan nor will I ever be a fan of the holiday. It just received another mark against it. Mexicans love the holiday- all of the stores for the past 2 weeks have been selling any type of candy or flower or stuffed item you could ever dream of. When we arrived at the first bar in Uruapan we were startled to see it all decorated for V-day and the tables all reserved. Apparently the big thing to do here is quite the opposite as we do in the US. Mexicans go out with their significant others to the bars on Valentine’s Day. Here we were, expecting to go to the bars and have it full of the singles who didn’t find a date and we were surprised by couple after couple holding hands, making out and getting all dressed up to go to the clubs and bars for a lovers rendezvous. Ugh! We were very disappointed. We grabbed the first taxi and told him to take us someplace popular and fun where we could dance. He took us to a bar that resembled a ranch on the outside and it was called Casablanca. It was huge inside and had a giant stage with a live Banda band. It would have been fun except the dance floor was absolutely packed with 40-50somethings dancing to Banda. Again…all couples. At this point we were starting to get more than a little annoyed with the whole Valentine’s Day scheme ruining our night.
I had looked through Jay’s guide book on Mexico and had read about Uruapan before heading out there and told the next taxi driver to take us to a bar called BarRio, which had been in the guide book and had been given good ratings by younger people. We got dropped off and at the entrance the bouncer asked us for our membership cards. I started laughing; we just couldn’t catch a break! I’m still not sure if he just took sympathy on us or if it was because we were three good looking gringas, but he let us through anyway. (It’s amazing what you can get away with here with blonde hair!) This bar was still packed with couples but had a decent atmosphere and a big dance floor. We even did the YMCA! It had been an old water treatment plant and the basement was converted into a bar. There were still old pipes along the walls and on the ceiling so it made for a really different and interesting atmosphere.
On Sunday, we checked out of our Hostel and went to Wal-Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart. It was actually really fun to just go someplace familiar. (Believe it or not we tried McDonald’s first but they were still serving breakfast at noon). We explored, got some things we needed and couldn’t find here in Los Reyes, bought some food from the deli and had our own little picnic outside of Wal-Mart. In the US, you may say white trash? Here in Mexico- Chafa. After Wal-Mart, we headed to the National Park. All of my students had told me about the park in Uruapan and how beautiful it is. I’m not sure how many acres it covers, but it was 12 pesos for the day (just under a dollar) and we explored a good portion of the park. It has many natural waterfalls and some places look kind of like a jungle. A lot of the water has been diverted into man-made fountains and waterfalls and as cheesy as that sounds they were actually quite beautiful.
All things considering, it was a splendid birthday weekend!