Last weekend I went with Jessica and her uncle (Patricio) and his nephew (Ivan) to León to see the Rally (a race with cars that are street legal but sponsored). Her brother was supposed to go too and bring 4-wheelers and a motorcycle but he never showed. When we got there we went to a restaurant to eat and the food was delicious. And then we met up with 2 of Patricio's friends - Alejandro and I can't remember the other name right now. He fondly calls Alex his "pinche compadre."
When we got to the race track it was a lot different than I expected. I thought it was going to be like a NASCAR track or something. Though I've never been to one of those either, I had an idea of what they would be like from TV. It turned out to be a really small track with 2 courses. They drove on dirt roads and so when they went around corners, clouds of dust would follow lazily. It was awesome. There was also a water hazard and a ramp located in different parts of the track. The best thing was that we were really close to the action and could walk around to different parts. You can see from the series of photos I took how the water hazard took out a car's fender. Pretty cool huh?
Each race lasted about a minute and so the whole rally was over in maybe 40 minutes. Afterwards, there was a long line to get out of the parking lot. Patricio wanted a souvenir and since we were just waiting in the parking lot, he got out and cut down a poster. He was so happy (as you can see in the photo). And then the people that owned the poster saw him and told him to give it back haha.
Patricio also brought his helmet just in case he got the chance to ride a motorcycle and Jessica and I had some fun trying it on.
When we finally got out we went to one of the plaza's there and then we went to eat. For the next 3 or 4 hours we drove into the mountains to find a place to camp because the next day there would be another race there. The mountain roads weaved back and forth a lot and there were no rail guards (unless you count the fluorescent orange mesh strung between wooden stakes). Patricio secretly wants to be a race car driver but he isn't too good at keeping that secret. Jessica and I had entered Six Flags without knowing.
We finally arrived and set up camp around 1:00 AM and had some fun with sparklers and then we had dinfast (in between dinner and breakfast). It was quite chilly up there; I think it was because of the wind. We finally went to bed around 4:00 and I woke up around 8:00 walking like Frankenstein's monster on account of the cold. I probably looked like him too from the lack of sleep haha.
This race was nice too. Each car came in 1-2 minute intervals speeding down the mountain pass and where we were, they drifted around a tight curve and hopped a cow bridge. I was literally 5-10 feet away from them. I don't know who won any of the races... well it didn't really matter much to me. I was having too much fun taking photos and watching them speed by. Wish I could do that =D.
In between cars if anyone would cross the track, the crowd would whistle and yell "Burro! (Donkey)" at them. This happened quite frequently and you would think that they would get tired of doing it, but they never did. Before we left, we had some food and Alex rode his motorcycle.
Getting out of the mountains took equally as long and then getting back to Guadalajara only took about 2.5 hours because Patricio was driving (it usually takes 3.5 - 4 hours). When I got to my house, my housemates were all at India's house for Ely's goodbye party. I don't really know why she was having it then since she wasn't leaving until the next weekend, but why not right? I slept like a baby that night and had to work the next day.
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