Friday, March 6, 2009

Let’s start this one at midnight. At that hour, Criterion Theaters began showing previews. By 3:30, I had taken in Watchmen. At 5:30, with the sun rising behind the veil of clouds, I picked up my laundry from the drier. At 7, I finished packing and went to bed.

We left New Haven at noon on a bus to JFK. I think I fell asleep. In any case, we got to JFK several hours ahead of our departure time, so we amused ourselves with crossword puzzles and other fun stuff.

Checking in at JFK.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful. By virtue of alphabetical seating and an empty last row, I was able to take 3 seats to myself, which was quite the luxury. At around 7:30, I saw Washington, D.C. from the sky. In Mexico, we relinquished our bags to various bellboys, not to see them until they sat outside of our doors at the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Plaza Florencia, where Alan, my roommate, and I had a balcony with a view of several night clubs and a giant poster advertising “Los Monologos de la Vagina.” Cute.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

There was no concert that night, so it was a day of tourist activities. We went to Teotihuacán and saw its gigantic pyramids. The city is a couple thousand feet above sea level, so climbing the (really steep) stairs up the pyramids was an adventure. But we made a human Y on the Pyramid of the Moon and we hung out and made a human pyramid on top of the Pyramid of the Sun. We also got our introduction to haggling with the somewhat English-speaking peddlers and shopkeepers.

The view from the Pyramid of the Moon. You can see the sun pyramid to the left.

Our human ‘Y’ on the moon pyramid.

We left Teotihuacán and headed to lunch at a buffet-style restaurant. The food was spicy (predictably) but not too terrible. I tried out cactus, which wasn’t bad at all. We were entertained by our first mariachi band and some traditional Aztec dancers and drummers. After lunch, we went to a crafts warehouse, which happened to be on the same street as a Goth Market. Needless to say, there was a continuous stream of Mexican Goths walking past our buses.

It was still mid-afternoon when we returned to the hotel, so I joined a group and wandered around the immediate vicinity of our hotel. We found a pedestrian-only business area, where we saw a McDonald’s, a Burger King, a Popeyes, a KFC, a Starbucks, and a sex toy store in close proximity.

Dinner was at a really nice restaurant with (yet another) mariachi band, singers, dancers, and alcoholic beverages as the set drink when we sat down. Within hours, people were dancing to the Mexican beat along with the dancers on stage. We did our best interpretation of their style.

The traditional dancers at dinner.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The day of our first concert began at the Museum of Anthropology, where we saw hundreds of ancient artifacts and models explaining what life was like for the indigenous people of Mexico. A lot of the stonework was quite fantastic, including a gigantic stone representation of the Aztec calendar.

A giant Aztec calendar. Imagine having this hanging on your wall.

Afterwards, we headed to the President’s Palace and the magnificent Catedral Metropolitana. The cathedral had a massive organ, a black jesus (supposedly black because it absorbed poison), and several huge murals. Interestingly enough, this city center was built over ancient Tenotichtlan, which was built over a lake. Thus, all the buildings here were slowly sinking. Most noticeably, half of the cathedral was tilted to the right as it sunk into the soft ground.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant with another mariachi band. This one was probably the best of them all, though. The lunch itself was tasty, but a bit small. From here, we headed straight over to Sala Nezahualcóyotl, our first concert venue. The hall was really nice and fairly large, and turnout filled about half the hall, which wasn’t bad. We played our music, which was more difficult than expected due to altitude, to a great reception. We ended with two encores to mucho aplauso.

Monday, March 9, 2009

After breakfast, we headed over to a traditional Mexican market, which sold household goods from cow brains to Winnie the Pooh piñatas. Afterwards, we went to Xochimilco and the lunch cruise – on a boat. Expectedly, this peaceful cruise was dominated by several scintillating performances of “I’m on a Boat.” Another mariachi band played for us, and we even saw a marimba on a boat!

Marimba on a boat!

Afterwards, we headed to our second concert at the gymnasium of the Monterrey Tech University’s Mexico City campus. We were hosted by the Children’s Choir of Mexico (and their ridiculously talented soloists). They told us the place would be packed. It wasn’t even close. And worse, most of the people were there to see the Children’s Choir. Of course, they were still polite, but the energy just wasn’t there. Worst of all, a couple of cameras were stolen. And they served us cafeteria food. In Mexico.

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

We spent 4 hours on a bus to San Miguel de Allende, but it was definitely worth it. The hotel was fantastic. San Miguel de Allende was an expatriate community and a beautiful cobblestone city. We spent the afternoon wandering around the craft markets and the streets of what became our favorite city on the tour.

The pool at our hotel in San Miguel de Allende

We played a concert for the expats, which included several Yale alumni. The concert was outdoor, staged in the town square beneath the tolling bells of two churches and a beautiful full moon. Musically, it wasn’t that great due to altitude and being outside, but it was still really fun. We had a reception afterwards with several of the Yale alumni and their expat friends, among whom included a former Playboy bunny.

Afterwards, we stayed in the city and went to a karaoke bar, which was extremely fun and entertaining. People sang and danced to Britney and ABBA and Destiny’s Child. The native crowd was fun and even danced with us.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sadly, we would leave beautiful San Miguel de Allende the very next day. During the 6-hour bus ride, we stopped at a Mexican mall, which had a gambling place (with the most confusing slot machines) and an arcade (I won 4 pieces of candy!). But after we got to Real de Catorce and the 25 km cobbled road that shook the teeth out of my head, we piled onto trucks that took us through a tunnel to the mountainside town. The experience was quite exhilarating, with 9-10 (or more) other kids piled on the back of a truck, speeding through a dark tunnel and up and down the twisting roads of the village itself.

“I’m on a truck!”

We explored the town a bit before heading to another buffet-style dinner. Everyone was feeling a little sick though, as Real de Catorce was over 9000 feet about sea level. Without a concert, the night winded down slowly and quite uneventfully in the cool outdoor courtyard of the hotel. One of the shops sold a striped poncho that ended up being purchased by about half of the male band members.

The view on the way back down the mountain.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Another six hour bus ride took us to Monterrey, where we checked into the very nice Hotel Gran Ancira before immediately heading off to the School of Music and Dance for our fourth concert. Back to relatively normal altitudes, we had the best concert of the tour to a highly appreciative crowd of what seemed to be mostly students. A few of them even joined us to play the second half of our concert.

Back in Monterrey, we spent the night at a local bar, joined by the Whiffenpoofs, who were in Monterrey to sing for the Alumni Association’s efforts in Alianza Real, a really poor village we would play for on Friday. A really annoying live band provided the music for our dancing and reveling.

Friday, March 13, 2009

We got to sleep in, so I woke up late. We went to a Mexican buffet, which was fantastic (and less spicy!), before heading off to Alianza Real. What was meant to be a 45-minute voyage became almost three hours because we got lost. With numerous cell phones frantically working, along with paying a cab driver to lead two coach busses, we finally arrived at closing festivities for the Yale Alumni Association’s work with the village. The village itself was almost depressingly poor, with tiny cement houses and a school that served 10,000 children. We played under the tent on a dirt field with no stands surrounded by hundreds of the children, but it was exhilarating nonetheless.

The village of Alianza Real.

Back at the hotel for dinner, we were congratulated by Yale’s Vice President, who bought everyone in the band a round of drinks. The rest of the night was quiet, as I packed for the eventual return to America.

I won’t include Saturday, as it was just a early wake-up that led to a plane flight back to America. All in all, the trip was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. There was a lot of unpredictability, a lot of new friendships, a lot of beautiful sights, and a lot of fun. I’m really glad I decided to go, and I certainly know the people in the Concert Band far better than I did before. But still, I’m glad to be in America where I don’t have to: speak broken Spanish, brush my teeth with bottled water, drink bottled water all the time, sit on busses forever, and the spicy foods. However, I do miss Mexico and its cheap EVERYTHING, its charming little cities and villages, the trucks, the wonderful audiences, and the great times it gave us.

I’m really looking forward to the next YCB tour in 2011!