Martín's Mariachi Celebration

Yesterday I took public transportation into Mexico City, and returned the same way.  The metro part of the trip was pretty intense!  I'll talk about that tomorrow.  Suffice it to say today that I just about had some ribs broken in the metro.  The amount of people during rush hour in the subway is impressive.

Last arriving back in Ixtapaluca, we attended Martín Méndez's birthday party, complete with pozole, lots of friends and mariachis! (This is not to be confused with the Dorito comercial...this is the real Martin party!).

It was amazing to me to see how many songs the mariachis knew just by the titles of the songs.  They must have played 15 or more, all without music, all by memory.  Two violines, a trumpet, a cornet, a contrabass and a cuarto, or smaller guitar.

There were probably 40 of us packed into the Mendez's front porch and house, kids all all.  Good times!  I was reminded by several that I have to learn how to do a waltz for when Cathy turns 15.  At least a waltz!  One and two and three and four...