¡Viva Mexico!

Tuesday was Independence Day. It's a big deal, two days off kind of a big deal. It all starts with El Grito in the Zocalo at 11pm on Sept. 15. Since the Hamilton's were visiting (more on that later), and Carrie offered to tend to all the sleeping children, Phil and I went.

Here's the proof:

Phil thinks my extreme whiteness in this picture is very funny.... ha. ha.

Here's Phil on our walk into the Zocalo, which meant running the shaving-cream-like-substance and confetti gauntlet. Everyone had these cans of white foam which they were spraying all over everyone and everything. The streets were white from all the foam, and so were most of the people.

When it zooms, notice the guy with the huge fake mustache. I think that it a little homage to Emilano Zapata, but I'm not sure, please fill me in if you know. They were selling the fake mustaches all over.

And if you thought that looked crowded, here we are trying to leave:

Unfortunately, this year's celebration was marred by violence. In town plazas all across Mexico this same cry is lead by local government leaders. This year in Morelia grenades were thrown into the crowd. Here's a link to an article: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1634595120080916

I can't imagine how frightening that would be, to be in such a large crowd and hear those blasts. Horrible.