Night of the Tuna

Today is Liz and Fernando's twelfth anniversary, and we offered to watch Romy and Fernandito for the day (and night) while they celebrated like adults. This may seem extremely generous, but Romy and Fernandito are two of the nicest kids you'll ever meet, so it's a piece of cake for us. Our plan was to have a fun physical day with lots of running around, with an occasional break for food.

They came by around 1:30 or so, and we all took a nice nature walk to El Charco up the street. We're still jonesing for nature at least once a week, and this is a great easy outlet. We took a small hike, and as usual it's really pretty up there. Here's a photo of the four kids we took by the reservoir:


The kids on the dam at El Charco Ingenio

Upon returning, we could tell the kids were getting hungry, so we headed out for comida. On the way, we went past Fernando and Romy's cousin's house (Fernando and Lucia), and stopped in to say hi. Cousin Fernando was there, and he showed us some of his and Lucia's amazing photographs. He's also an actor, and general bohemian. Last night, they staged an impromptu street party in a small alley somewhere, where Lucia did some fire poi, Fernando showed his photos, and other acrobats and street artists did their thing. I made Cousin Fernando promise to call me the next time there is any fire spinning going on.

After comida, we headed to the Jardin for general playtime. There was a stage set up, and a banner for a Festival de Tunas tonight. Apparently, Tuna is a style of music, sort of like Gypsy Kings meets Mariachi. The bands are all string instruments - guitars, mandolins, ukulele, bass, etc. Bryce was off-kilter today, probably exhausted from his big play-day yesterday, so he went home with Sue, while I stayed and watched for a bit. Laura - a super nice petite Mexican mom I have met before at a few parties - was there with her kids, and our collective gang of kids played by the Parroquia while we talked and enjoyed the music. Lately, it seems like I have had few opportunities to have real Spanish conversation, so I was a little nervous to talk to her at first, but I got over it and we had a nice chat while enjoying the music.

The Tuna bands were fun. They had a traditional attire, some with tights and pouffy velour. The bands were all men, except for two with all women. The male bands seemed to have a stronger sound, although the sound system at the Jardin left a little to be desired. But it was fun to experience nonetheless.


All women Tuna band