En el autobus

El kiosko en el centro de Tampico

Pescar en la laguna

Hello everyone,

we have had an amazing time in the tampico/altamira/los lomas area. We spent the last few days staying at alex´s parents house in los lomas. The whole family was there for jennas wedding. lots of cousins, 8 brothers and sisters, and many more all in a little two bedroom house. Kenny and I set up my tent in the yard and slept there. The wedding was on saturday and was crazy. they had 600 beers and 12 bottles of tequila for everyone. Tons of soda (they drink soda like water here) and lots of food. A cows neck and leg to make barbacoa. We also had mole with pollo and asada (pork). Again all the food was amazing. We sent up a big canvas tent in the backyard for the ceremony and it was beautiful. I ended up being a witness and had to sign their wedding liscense. After the ceremony we ate and drank and talked. Then the dancing started. it was great. great music and lots of people. After that they did some mexican wedding traditions which was cool to see. I´ll try and describe one but it is hard.

So Alex and Jenna got up on chairs in the middle of the dance floor (which was the dirt under the tent) and held a scarf between them. Then kenny and i held on to alex and Vicky and Lori (Jenna´s friends) held on to jenna. Then all of the friends and family proceeded to form a train by connecting their arms and ran aroud us while music blasted: As the music got faster the people ran faster and started running into us. I´m guessing the point is to knock over the bride and groom because it started getting kind of rough. BUt it was fun. That is a pretty terrible description but I hope you get the idea.

At the wedding our friends Vicky, Lori, Patty (jenna´s mom) and mira (jenna´s niece) were the only other gringos. It was weird to speak more that one or two sentences in a row in english. So far they are the only other gringos we have seen since getting on the bus in colorado. No one speaks english so our spanish is slowly gettting better.

After the wedding we continued to stay at Alex´s house and celebrated new years there with the families. More drinking and eating. I don´t think i have ever eaten so much food in three days in my entire life. Yesterday we went fishing with some of the family in a beautiful laguna. They used a net, some fishing poles and coke bottles with a line and hook wrapped around it. PRetty crazy. We caught about 20 fish and 10 crabs in a couple of hours.

Then the entire family left and kenny and i spent one more night there and now we are back in altamira about to catch a bus. We are on our way to san miguel de allende for spanish class for a week. After that we have our first organic farm lined up to work on. On the way there we will stop in Tamasopo, Rio verde, and Queretaro. Should be a good time. I´m trying to figure out how to post pictures on here so you can see everything we have done. Hopefully it will work this time.

Take care

love

mike and kenny