Unas Fotos #3

More photos from around town.

Here's our local abarrotes, or convenience/grocery store. This is where we buy giant jugs of drinking water about twice a week. Notice the three red posters over the doorway trying to get people to vote for Pepe Brizuela, PRI candidate for the Presidente Municipal. Yep, it's election season in Mexico. (Election day = July 5).


The PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institutional) uses the red-white-and-green colors of the Mexican flag. I could definitely fill a post and a half about Mexican politics, but I'll save a longer discussion for another day. (Also, Chris still needs to write a post about the pregnant Olympic kickboxer campaigning for the conservative party! Anyone who wants to read a Chris post, please write in!) Below, folding up the national flag.


Speaking of national flags and the red-white-and-green tricolor, El Tri, Mexico's national team, played a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup last night. El Tri has been nothing less than terrible lately, but last night they managed to win 2-1 against Trinidad and Tobago. All the commentators said Chicago Fire star Cuahtemoc Blanco made the difference. They were right - Blanco's passing is a joy to watch - but the Cuahtemoc worship in Mexico is pretty astounding all the same. Other fun thing about El Tri - half the players have nicknames, usually animals: The goalie is "El Conejo Perez" (Rabbit Perez), one of the strikers is "El Venado Medina" (Deer Medina), and so on. It's just pretty awesome to hear a commentator exclaim his surprise at the Rabbit's fantastic block and the Deer's speed... it makes the whole event seem more mythical! I think the US National Team needs more nicknames. Landon Donovan, you're on notice.

Anyway, we watched the match literally outside, because Pepe Brizuela was shilling for votes by broadcasting the match on a projector against an outside wall in a big courtyard. Hmm... Maybe the US National Team should try this, too. Well, not so much the shady political campaigning - we've probably got enough of that - but the broadcasting of games outdoors on giant projection screens. US Soccer, you're on notice, too.

Below is a photo of a dirt soccer field just down the street from our apartment.


Great thing about our apartment? It's so full of wildlife... Like just yesterday, I came home, walked into the bedroom, and felt a crunch underneath my sandal. I looked back to find... yep, a scorpion. I think it was already dead, though - I've sprayed scorpion-killing-spray along the walls, so we've been finding dead scorpions for the last week. Not a big fan of the fumes, though.


And what collection of photos would be complete without a few scenery shots? I particularly like the last one, which shows the dark clouds bringing rain into Lagos de Moreno.