La Noche que Nadie Duerme and Fería de Cecina

This was another busy weekend filled with festivals and fairs. Friday night was “La Noche que Nadie Duerme” (the night that no one sleeps). I went last year, but this year several more vols decided to go as well, so I had a full house this weekend. We got to Huamantla at about 9pm as the streets were just beginning to be filled with colorful sawdust and sand designs. The idea of this night is that all the streets in the historic center of the town are filled with tapetes, or basically carpets, of colored sawdust. Eventually, around 3am, the virgin and her procession of followers, leaves the church and walks through the streets of the town, on the carpets. We didn’t stay to see the whole procession, but did visit the virgin in her church.

Partial group shot (from Jen)

On Saturday, we made a quick side trip to Cholula. I’ve already put up pictures from there a couple times, but here are some from the inside of the church that sits on top of the world’s largest pyramid.

On Sunday, after most of the group headed home, Kurt and I went to Atlixco to the Feria de Cecina. Cecina is a type of think sliced beef that is grilled and often served with lime, tortillas and salsa, and in this fair, accompanied by a plate of cheese, cactus salad, grilled chilies, and avocado.

Next weekend they are going to make the world's largest chilie enogada in Atlixco, but I will be in the US for my sister's wedding and then off to Belize and the Yucatan.

USA-Mexico Soccer Game

Wednesday, a group of 9 gringos and 1 mexican headed to Mexico City's Estadio Azteca to see the USA-Mexico world cup qualifier. Estadio Azteca is the largest stadium in Mexico, with a seating capactiy of 114,000. It was full on Wednesday and I'd estimate that Americans made up about 200 of the 114,000 people in attendence. It was pretty much a sea of green.

A fellow vol giving an interview

The US section was completly separated from the rest of the fans by a line of police on one side and a line of police and a barbed wire fence on the other side.

As I said our section was 100% closed off, including the concourse area. The good news was that it meant we pretty much had private bathrooms!
They started pushing us towards the exits before the game ended. These were the seats where we had been. You can kinda see the left overs off all the things that had been throw at us: a LOT of beer, coins, noisemakers, medicine, and pretty much anything that could be thrown hard.

Then we were made to walk down the ramps (from the top section) all the way to the parking lot as a group, 100% surroudned by riot police. I think this made it worse as the group of gringos was easily visable and we were pretty much sitting ducks for more beer tossing and spitting.