Viva Mexico!!!! Yesterday was Mexican Independence day which is the day in 1801 that Mexico gained independence from Spain. If there is one thing that I've learned since arriving here is that Mexicans like to party, the festivities over the last couple of days have just proved that.

Despite that most locals started partying the Friday before the students at the Spanish Cat decided to wait until the eve of independence day. We headed out on the Monday evening to Pascal's a bar run by an eccentric French expat (married to a Mexican movie star from Tepoztlan). Some friends over to sing some traditional songs so it had a pretty good atmosphere.

Having been to Pascal's before I steered away from his margaritas as I knew just how devastating they could be. These margaritas are infamous. Pascal basically takes a glass milkshake glass rubs the top in salt, fills with ice, adds tequila and then the juice from about half a lime - needless to say they are bloody strong. One of our group (one of the more senior members) who hadn't been to Pascal's before started into these and just didn't stop. Six margaritas later when we left to the local night club he promptly had to return and be taken to bed. The amusing thing was the next morning when we were walking up to the parade, Pascal came out to see us and was in disbelief that someone had drunk six of his margaritas's in one sitting - apparently this was some kind of record. Needless to say our drinking champion didn't join us to dinner that night and was fairly sheepish even then!

The parade was pretty impressive in town, the highlight was the local cowboys on their horses and traditional dress. Many of them had their horses 'dance' down the narrow cobbled streets in time with the music. People who know me will know that I'm not a horsey person but the skill with which these guys handled their mounts was impressive. I have to admit I did get a tad uncomfortable when the dancing horses got close to me and started snorting.

Later in the day there was a rodeo in town which just about the whole population attended. It was a very slow and drawn out affair. Basically 10 seconds of bull and rider doing battle followed by half and hour of prep for the net rider. It was running on Mexican time and all happened a little too slowly for us impatient Gringos.

One thing I've noticed about Mexicans is that they like loud noise. At the parade and all through the rodeo there was loud marrichi music. Since I arrived in Tepoztlan there has been very loud fireworks going off at random intervals throughout the day and night with people all over town celebrated various Saint's feast days, birthdays, having too many tequilas and just about anything else that can be celebrated. I asked one of our teachers if there was any pattern or method to this madness and his reply was that he's worked in Tepotzlan for a year and he still is mystified by the population's fascination with fireworks. Most of the time it doesn't worry me but on a few occasions the fireworks have made me jump.