Fireworks and a 4 piece band.

This morning I was woken at 4:55 AM to go down with Amalia and the family and participate in some kind of party thing that began at 5AM. Very strange indeed. There was a band that consisted of 2 drums a sax and a trumpet, and a number of fireworks - the kind that don't explode all pretty, but are just noisy. A man passed around what I thought was coffee, but which turned out to have an additional, alcoholic, ingredient - at 5 in the morning! It started off somewhat mellow, or I suppose, as mellow as a party with alcoholic coffee and fireworks can be. But soon we were parading through the apartment complex, stopping at the courtyard of every building to make as much noise as possible. People had bottles of aguardiente and whiskey and were handing out shots like it was their job. I refused.

There was a group of boys, all friends of Sebastian the host brother, who had never gone to sleep. They were just drinking through the night, and figured, why not continue through the morning! They were all quite stumbley and slurry. When they spoke, it was a few decibels too loud for normal conversation. Everyone was dancing and throwing back shots. At 5 AM. I asked why they have this event every year. They said, to party, to pass it well, to make everyone rise with the sun. Doesn't seem all that meaningful. Very strange. But I did get a rather tasty tamale out of it all. Mmm mmm good.