Viva Mexico!

This year a friend of ours invited us and another family here to spend Independence Day with him. We went to San Francisco Soyaniquilpan, a small town (population 4,000) located 40 kms. outside of Tepotzotlan. We spent the 15th and 16th with him.

We got to celebrate Independence Day the traditional way and it was a lot of fun for the kids to experience real Mexican culture this way. I'll let the pics tell the story:

Tasting the traditional Pozole.

Our friend was having a family get-together to celebrate Ind. Day, and it was cool to see how all of his relatives came dressed up in traditional outfits. They had a table with a bunch of extra sombreros, red-white-green jewelry and face paint, etc. for people who hadn't come dressed up.

Our friends' wife (left) dressed in a traditional outfit from Oaxaca and a relative (right) dressed in traditional garb from Chiapas.

The girls sang a few songs for the guests. It was cold which is why they wore their costumes over their regular clothes.

There were a lot of children there and Lily and Ben had a blast playing with them. Ben, who is usually quite shy, was very outgoing and befriended a group of older boys. He assumed they understood his English so he talked on and on, as they made an effort to understand him. (It was very cute!)

At around 11 pm we all went to the town Zocalo to see the fireworks. They were pretty amazing.

Ben enjoyed the fireworks but not the booming sounds they made.

Lily dancing on the stage at the Zocalo after the fireworks.

Our host with Justy. He loved holding him.

We spent the following day at our friends' house and had a BBQ with his relatives.

Ben trying out the electric shock machine, a traditional game to see how much electricity you can handle.

Relaxing at the hotel.