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Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Feast, fest, and be merry! What's up for New Year's? My family here generally celebrates low-key, at home, with a bit of champagne. Not sure I'd want to brave the Zocalo crowds...

gordogringo · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 159 Location: Tijuana

I will be working on the US side of the border for New Years. Is a very quiet night in Tijuana.Most people have left for the holidays to other parts of Mexico.The US club tourists will be staying stateside as New Years is a famous time for police kidnappings and shakedowns are more the rule than exception.Many travel sites advise people to not go to Tijuana till after the 15th of January when the worst shakedowns should be over. Other than some gunfire and a few fireworks will be one of the quietest nights of the year in Tijuana.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

gordogringo · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 159 Location: Tijuana

Nothing to glorify really.The sleaze is what brings people to Tijuana.That and the factories.And the sleaze people have good money to pay for English lessons,hence my business. With the exception of Mexico City you are right.It is not the norm for Mexico. The gunfire I am refering to is the custom of shooting thier rifles in the air at midnight. Many wealthy Tijuanans have guns.My neighbor has seven nice rifles displayed in a gun rack in his bedroom.Yes they are technically illegal but the local cops are not interested in tangling with Tijuana's wealthy society folks. They all have visas and would leave in an instant if they were required to play by all the rules.And I am sure all around the city there will be shots ringing out by tequila filled shooters. The city of Tijuana does issue gun permits on a extremely limited basis( usually to political types.)

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

thelmadatter · Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:34 pm Post subject: Zoc

Where were the crowds you were talking about Guy? The Zocalo wasnt filled at all. All in all, quite mellow.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Weird...there was also an event on a closed-off Reforma between Alameda and the Angel. Apparently few people showed up there too.

mapache · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Villahermosa

Tijuana doesn't sound like Tabasco or Chiapas either.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Gordogringo, gunfire into the air at midnight is not a newsflash nor is it about the "wealthy" from TJ. It is a common practice of the uneducated (those packing guns), most prevalent in the outlying ranchos.

MELEE · Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:

My husband's family all gets together on New Year's spending Christmas with the other sides of their families. We have a special dinner, this year it was pollo en eschebe because brother-in-law who lives Villahermsa loves it and says they don't make it right in Tabasco, but in other years it could be Babacoa de Chivo, Tamales, Pozole or Mole. Someone just proposes the dish each year. There is dancing and pi�atas for the kids. Then we all go to Mass, and come back in time for the toast. Each person states their wish for the new year. That takes a while as there are like 20 adults plus 30 or so kids present. Finally cuetes are lanched to carry the wishes to heaven. All this in the cold, as no one has a house that can hold so many people. Luckily it warmed up a few days before New Year's Eve.