Day Thirty-One - Mexico City, D.F. (July 27, 2010)

My third day in Mexico City was an unhappy one. Montezuma’s revenge got to me and I was sick all day. While I stayed in the hotel to rest, the rest of the group visited the Museum of Anthropology (which they all raved about) and went to the Comexus office for a discussion on Mexican identity. By the time they got back, around 6pm, I was feeling a little bit better, and decided to join them on an optional trip to a Lucha Libre performance.

Lucha Libre is the Mexican equivalent to wrestling in the United States. Basically, the men and women dress up in skin-tight outfits and usually wear colorfully designed masks on their heads. Jacques warned us before it started that the participants are not really fighting (it’s fake) and rarely does anyone get hurt. The performance took place in a large theater with a wrestling ring in the middle. This particular Lucha Libre show takes place on Tuesdays and Fridays and is televised (the camera passed by us once, so I guess we were on Mexican TV!). It was pretty fun to watch and we laughed a lot at the pretend kicks and punches, so the two hours went by pretty quickly. I didn’t understand the rules too well, but I know that there were five groups of wrestlers who came out and the rounds were broken up into “caidas”. We couldn’t take pictures with cameras, but here’s a picture that Jacques took with his cell phone: