Saturday. 1.8.11 Out on the town tonight - casino, dancing, tour of the monuments.

Today prima Paula and her girls came over to spend the weekend here with her parents. Josue spent the day hanging out with the girls and teaching them how to play Uno. I’ve been craving salsa and guacamole, so I was in the kitchen making that. In the evening, Tio Arturo got a hankering to go to the “casino” and insisted we all go. Since we’re trying to be up for just about anything - we thought we’d go and check it out! So after dinner, we all piled into is “vochito” (Bug, for those of you over there en el otro lado), because as he says “todo cabe en un vochito, sabiendolo acomodar” (“everything will fit into a bug, you just have to know how to pack it.”) I guess it’s true because we managed to fit all six of us adults into his little bug, and it doesn‘t even have a passenger seat!
It didn’t take long to get there, it was located right in front of a mall. The casino was called “Yak” and we weren’t allowed to take our camera in there. But basically it resembled a casino over there either on a reservation or in Vegas, minus any kind of entertainment, except for the slot machines of course. And the “maquinas” (slot machines) were exactly like those over there, even the same brands in some cases. There was a room full of slots that was separated from the rest just for smokers. There was a bar, here you have to pay for your drinks, even if you’re playing.
But since we weren’t too into playing, we ordered a “michelada de Victoria,” but just to make sure we were getting what we were expecting, we asked him if it had chile or clamato in it, he said no. So we were right! We do LOVE michaladas!! He gave the kind with clamato and chile piquin a different name, but I can’t remember what he called them.
Once we got home we showered and got ready for a night out on the town with his cousins Arturo y Blanca. They said if we were up to going dancing they’d like to take us. So once they got their kids down to bed, we left to find a spot to go dancing, and ended up at a place called “La Maraka” - it was a club, with live music that night for salsa and merengue style dancing. They had four different bands playing there tonight. It was a real nice vibe. We listened a lot and danced a little. We could fake it a little on the salsa dancing, but on the merengue - FORGET IT! That’s really fast! Anyway, we were a little intimidated considering, it seemed to be a lot of “professionals” out on the floor tonight. After a while, I guess Arturo was thinking the same thing, and went over to talk to them to see if they know of any place to take dance classes, and sure enough -they were all dance teachers! So he got their cards, maybe we’ll check it out!
After dancing they wanted to give us a night tour of downtown, where the Angel de la Independencia is and other monuments. So we did that, and got down a few times to take some pictures.
Then went to a restaurant for a real late dinner of tacos al pastor! It was a fun night - and nice to be out! Gracias primos!