Mexico

Mexico City Friday 7/3/03 (continued) By 6.30pm the four of us were dressed to kill and downstairs waiting for a chartered bus. Shaila and Gordon were there, and also Brian Dowd. We were all going to a wedding. Ignacio and Patricia were having a large ceremony followed by a huge reception. This was the principal reason for our coming to Mexico. In a few minutes Robert and Lisa showed up looking great. But the bus was late. About 30 min late when it did show, Biff and Lily said the driver may be a little lost. We spent the next hour driving (with little apparent directionality) through the most hellish traffic I have ever seen. “You should see India.” Was Shaila’s comment. The driver, after stopping to ask directions and following one of “those” taxis, got us to the church barely on time. Cool. Patricia looked heartbreakingly beautiful and Ignacio was sharper than a knife. It was fantastic to see them again. There were about a hundred friends and family present. We were at a place that was called, as far as I could find out, Idontknow. Later we would go to a place called Ihavenoidea for the reception. The service was very nice and conducted entirely in Spanish. So we were taking our “stand” and “sit” cues from the family. It was pretty cool actually and the church was all gold and altitude. Afterwards everyone poured out into the night to mingle and chat while the bride and groom vanished like an unguarded purse. Our driver eventually rounded enough of us up to begin the second part of the evening’s bus oddessy. This included reversing down a one-way street and then backing down a three-lane thruway, all the while asking directions from cops, taxis and assorted nightpeople. We got there, and on time too. Given the traffic we’re pretty sure our driver was the best there ever was. The reception was unforgettable, they had a fantastic mariachi band, and I mean really fantastic. The music, the performance, just awesome. The room was huge. Candles everywhere. A god-damn fountain in the middle. Big dance floor. About a thousand waiters. I swear the glasses never emptied long enough to dry up. The four-course menu was great too. Although those evil little green chilli peppers at the start were just about the most intense 30 seconds of my life. We ate, drank, danced and chatted with friends we had not seen for a long time. The bride and groom opened the dancing and we joined in from time to time. Somewhere around 1.30am we were being clobbered by jet-lag and so made our goodbyes. The taxi we caught back to the hotel was fast. The way the driver locked all the doors just after we got in was a nice touch. Slept well, but not for very long.