My big fat Chihuhuense welcome

The one thing I love about Latin America is that literally everywhere you go you make new friends. In the plane from Bogotá to New York on my way to London I had planned to catch up on my blog, and I ended up not writing a single word because the two Colombian strangers I was sandwiched between did not stop talking to me from the moment I sat down to the time the plane landed five hours later. Yes five hours. Not to mention the steward who kept approaching us every five minutes to join the conversation.

My flight from Monterrey to Chihuahua was no exception to the rule. I spent the whole flight talking to my neighbour about how much I love Chihuahua and how amazing my friend Flor who I am visiting is. When we landed I found Flor, who had dressed up and looked incredibly beautiful (it was her birthday and we were going straight to her party) and had come to welcome me with a wonderful bouquet of flowers. I ran into her arms and we must have looked like the happiest Serbian-Mexican couple in Chihuahua. I’m pretty sure we would be the only Serbian-Mexican couple in Chihuahua, especially a same sex one but I can’t know for certain and I don’t want to risk lying to my readers. I introduced Flor to my new friend and he turned out to be her cousin, an impressive coincidence considering there are about 1 million people living in Chihuahua.

Flor took me home to her family celebration where her closest family members and a few friends had gathered and her parents had created a feast. The highlight of the evening was a “discada” made by her dad, a Chihuhuense speciality. It’s basically an assortment of meats chopped into pieces and fried on a big barbeque disk seen below (hence why it’s called a discada). It is absolutely delicious and served with tacos of course. And as if that wasn’t enough there was also “frijoles charros” made by Flor’s mum which is a soup like beans dish very similar to the beans we make in Serbia. Yummy.

Meeting the rest of Flor’s family was a lot of fun because they are all as loud, crazy and wonderful as Flor. When I first visited Chihuhua four years ago I fell in love with Flor’s parents and siblings and got officially adopted by them and allowed to call them my Mexican family. I became the Serbian sister Flor never had (and clearly always dreamed of). Chihuahuenses are famous in México for being loud and slightly more direct. Imagine, loud by Mexican standards- it doesn’t get much louder than that. So I fit in perfectly and in fact was the quiet one of the party believe it or not 🙂

In true northern Mexican style, beer was drunk, traditional Mexican music was played, and karaoke was sung. It was a wonderful evening. Despite the fact that you are living your dream, it does get sad sometimes when you are so far from your family and loved ones. I am super super grateful to all the people who I have met on this trip and have helped me out or even like Flor’s family accepted in their homes and treated me as their own family. There really are a lot of people who went out of their way to help me when they really didn’t have to and even those who don’t have the means, will share what little they have. It’s very humbling and I really don’t know what I would have done without them. I am eternally grateful to them and hope I can repay their kindness somehow in my own way.