FELIZ DIA DEL AMOR

Valentine's Day is as big a deal here as it is in the U.S. Since Friday, I've been seeing people walking around with bunches of flowers, cakes, and wildly elaborate balloons -- balloons are VERY popular here. Fortunately, this weekend I got to talk on the phone or skype with almost all of the people I love back home.

What I did here was my favorite Sunday thing to do: I walked up to Plaza de Armas to hear the midday concert. Today it was a group of 14 men, Estudiantina or Tuna, using traditional instruments: mandolins, guitars, accordians, castenets, tambourines, and their fabulous voices. It's very upbeat, energetic music and the men with tambourines at various times during the concert perform with them, jumping, twirling hitting the tambourine with their feet, knees, elbow, head. It's pretty spectacular. I wish I could post a recording of their performance on this blog because it's very Mexican and very fun.

Then I met Kay, the woman in my spanish class in Burlington who is here for the month, and she and I went for Sunday dinner at Chucho El Roto, a nice restaurant in Plaza de Armas. I had been craving a bowl of their Crema Prehispanica which is cream of huitlacoche soup. Huitlacoche is a black fungus that grows on some corn here -- I know it doesn't sound appetizing, but it actually is quite delicious. I guess it's sort of Mexico's version of French truffles..... but they don't need pigs to look for it.