#LosTuxtlas for #independence day weekend

This weekend I went to Los Tuxtlas with my good friends Abril and Alejandro and their family, to celebrate Día De Independencía. Los tuxtlas is an area that contains Catemaco, San Andrés and Santiago and its about a 4 hour drive from Xalapa (4,5 if you stop in Cardel for delicious shrimp cocktail, wich you definitely should!:)

Jumpstarting with some Sol clamato - very weird! it tasted like sparkling tomato soup. but kinda delicious actually :)

We arrived early at night and went straight to their uncles house where the whole family and then some was gathered for a celebration!

And a celebration it was! And there was real charros there!! :) (mexican cowboys) so we saluted in tequila, talked about horses and looked at ther guns :P

The food was ammaaazing! We had pozole and taquitos. Thats something else than the Old el Paso in norway :P (NOT SAYING I DONT MISS IT!!)

Come on! I had to try the hat! :P heavy...

The national song and gunshooting :D

Come on! i had to try it on!! 

The parade honoring The Charros - The heroes

Then we went to Nanciyaga for a walk in the jungle where we got our face painted with mud for our outer beauty, we drank mineralwater for our health and got our aura cleansed by a shaman.

In nanciyaga - excited for the jungle 

In the middle is the oven they heat the stones for the temazcal (the sauna)

The temazcal

Getting our facial on with mineral masks - Mel Gibson comes here all the time :)

It was a really weird experience, i was a littlebit nervous at first, butt hen she asked me to step into a circle and i just relaxed in an instant! She put leaves on me and said many prayers. Then she started burping…. Like alot!! So she said my aura was really bad :P and thats the way the bad spirits goes out of me and out through her. 

Getting my aura cleansed by a shaman

So now Im all clean and fresh! :)

Beautiful huh?? you can stay in the huts to the left... yes please!

:)

I got a necklace from the shaman to bring with me all the time, and no one could touch it but me. Of course I had to climb this stupid goldman and break it :(

CUTE!!!

Here were eating snail cocktail on the side of the road. crunchy, but delicious! 

Eyipantla waterfall outside Catemaco.

Tlalocc, the lord of the rains, alledgedly ruled Los Tuxtlas in pre-hispanic times. And the Eyipantla waterfall was his home.

And wet it was! we got a nice refreshing shower! :)

We had a familydinner in the afternoon, and I got to try Chiles De Nogada. Peppers stuffed with beef with a creamsauce and pomegranate. Deeeelicious! And its in the colors of the flag in the spirit of independence day :)

Everyone in the area gathers at this field in San Andrès for Festival Los Globos where they send up paper hot-air balloons. it was beautiful!

Festival Los Globos

Of course. Not everyone made it very far, so u had to pay attention at all times so u didnt get hit :)

VIP section - you know it! ;)

Of course you can get pina coladas :D

Yesss!! happy!! Los Tuxtlas for the win! :D

So again, my recommendation is that EVERYONE MUST GO HERE! it was amazing! of course i had the privilege of an entire family making my stay amazing. But either way. This place is coooool!! :D

Ta Luego!