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Hello Again,
In closing my last message, I mentioned the parallel universe of Babylon 5 (B5) and the location of the world’s largest kiss. I clearly owe you some sort of explanation.
Leaving Cesar’s hometown, our small group of Americans left for Mexico City. Lara and Cesar’s wedding godparents gave us a ride in their 12 passenger van to the town of St. Martine where we could catch a bus to Mexico City. Once we made this 2.5 hour journey to the city, we took a taxi cab to the hotel. I mention all this travel only because of our interesting cab experience. Since I don’t have a true appreciation for football, I didn’t mind risking the chance of missing the biggest sports event of the year by traveling outside of the country on Superbowl Sunday. Nonetheless, I will never forget how I saw the last 30 seconds of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ big victory on a 6 inch television screen mounted to the dash of a Cab in Mexico City.
Maggie and I spent the remainder of Sunday Night and all day Monday in the city. With limited time, Cesar focused on two main attractions: the Zocalo and Garibaldi Square. According to our friends at Wikipedia.org, in Mexico “a zócalo is the main plaza or square, set in the heart of the town.” The original Zocalo sits at the heart of Mexico City with a huge cathedral, hundreds of vendors selling trinkets off blankets on the ground, and scattered street performers. It’s a place of great commerce, entertainment, and history. We spent a few hours at the Zocalo basking in the sun, getting cleansed by the medicine men, shopping a little, and watching the street performers.
The second of our two stops came later that night about 7 blocks from our hotel at Garibaldi Square. If you ever find yourself in search of a Mariachi Band in Mexico City, you simply come here and pick one out. People come to this square to pick out a band that serenades your party so you can either dance or stand by listening with admiration. The bands charge little to nothing for their services and put on a great show. I noticed the smiles on each of the band member’s faces and thought “these people are enjoying themselves as much as we are enjoying ourselves.” Garibaldi Square also makes a great place to get drunk as the local beverage of choice is some crazy concoction calling for beer, lime juice, hot sauce, chili powder, and one very large cup.
Before I close the books on my discussion of Mexico City, I have to relate my stories back to my original statement amount B5 and the world’s largest kiss. Anyone close to the subject of Babylon 5 (which I’m guessing is approximately 0 people on this email chain) would already see the parallel. The Babylon 5 Space Station fictionally resides in space during the years 2258-2278 with the major storyline revolving around the first five years. The station acted like a floating city where aliens and humans could work out their problems peacefully. Now that you have the background of Babylon 5, I can give you the parallels. The major central market on Babylon 5 has a name and you guessed it: The Zocalo. On top of that, one of the central characters is Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (like Garibaldi Square). I left Mexico with no doubt in my mind that Babylon 5 writer Joseph Michael Straczynski spent at least a little time using Mexico City as a central point for the characterization of his television series.
As far as the World’s Largest Kiss goes, I read in the Charlotte Observer this past Sunday that the Zocolo housed the world’s largest crowd of kissers this past Valentine’s Day with nearly 40,000 people gathering in the square and kissing at the same moment. Guinness World Records has verified that this event marked the World’s Largest Group Kiss!
Stay Tuned because I still have my first wine tour and Valentines Day left to relay in Volume III of this week’s Monday Monday.
Have Fun Today,
Ryan
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