The rain finally got us… a stormy night in Tepoztlán

Continuing on… (I hope this isn’t too choppy for anyone to follow. I left off Friday afternoon, sitting on the terrace, writing a blog post and enjoying the views.) Just writing as I have time. 🙂

We had three groups of people joining us- #1) Ivan’s cousin, husband and their two little boys (ages 4 and 6) #2) Ivan’s parents + youngest brother and #3) Ivan’s godparents and their 3 older kids.

The “plan” was for everyone to arrive by 5 pm or so, but that exactly didn’t end up working out. (We had made dinner reservations for the whole group of us at 6:30. Unfortunately, Ivan’s parents and brother got held up in bad traffic through Mexico City and ended up missing dinner!! 😦 )

After showers and getting ready, the four of us and group #1 (the ones who arrived first) decided to head into town and just hang out for a while until closer to dinner time, while we waited for the others to arrive.

It was still more than an hour until dinner time, so we told the boys the could get a small “nieve”, which is basically ice cream. They are known for their really good nieves here.

Then we, along with his cousin and family, walked over to the zocalo, or main square. Things were getting very lively, as it was Friday night and lots of tourists were arriving. It was a beautiful evening (for the moment…) and they had a live band playing. We all bought a drink to sip on and just sat on a bench and hung out for a while.

Ivan took this really nice picture of me with the boys!

Ivan was getting frustrated because his mom was texting that they were still sitting in traffic way back in Mexico City, and it was getting closer and closer to our dinner reservation time. We couldn’t push it back, either, because things close up rather early in Tepoztlán.

The other group said they were almost to the hotel, but it suddenly looked like it was VERY likely that it was going to rain. Those of us that were in the zocalo decided to start heading for the restaurant- it was a good 15 minute walk away.

Well, we didn’t quite time that right… it started to pour after only a couple minutes. Ugh!!! We walked as far as we could while the rain was light, but eventually we had to duck into a covered basketball court area to wait it out a bit.

Except the rain didn’t really look like it was going to pass. Boo. Finally it lightened enough to make a break for it, and we scooted down the street to the restaurant.

If you recall, though, the reason we chose this restaurant was for the rooftop terrace and amazing views!!! I was sad- clearly we were not going to be able to eat outside.

Fortunately, they did have a lower level patio that still had views, but was covered. The rest of our group traipsed through the rain as well to join up with us. It was a bit windy and the rain was steady… later it was even thundering and lightning which made me a little nervous, since we were basically outside! No one else seemed too bothered by it, though- except it definitely got chilly out there.

The food was good and everyone was happy to see each other and talk, etc.

We got several molcajetes (big dishes of meat and veggies to share) and this slab of arrachera meat with Serrano peppers. I had a couple tasty piña coladas.

The rain seemed to only get stronger though… and the walk back to the hotel was really far!! On the way to the restaurant earlier, the little cobblestone streets were already kind of flooding/ turning into a river. So I wasn’t really loving the idea of walking back.

Ivan’s parents ended up making it into town right around the time we were finishing up, so Ivan had them drive down and pick up some people. They do not have a large car though, so mostly just the little kids and women fit. Except me…. I ended up taking one for the team and offering the last remaining spot up to his cousin. So, I joined the men and walked all the way back in the pouring rain. Yay. Haha. At least someone lent me an umbrella.

I was wearing leather sandals, too, which was not my most genius wardrobe choice with rain in the forecast. (Happy to report, they got soaked, but seemed to survive okay.)

Back at the hotel (finally!!), we all dried off and headed up to the rooftop terrace to hang out. It was still raining, but we were under the covered roof and able to stay mostly dry.

Ivan’s family knows how to party. They came prepared with beer, whiskey, soda, sparkling water for mixing, etc. I am a terrible lightweight and was basically done after my two piña coladas. Lol. I think I had a soda. Ha.

Everyone was up there until well after midnight! I think I finally went down to the room around 1 am. This is totally normal for a Mexican gathering. They just hang out and talk and drink and tell stories and play music until the wee hours. Hence why Ivan finds my family gatherings to be a little on the dull side. 🤣 Even the little kids stay up and play the whole time!! The 4 and 6 year olds were still going strong at midnight. 😳

In short, the rain I had been worrying finally made an appearance, but I can’t say it ruined our evening. We were lucky to have beautiful weather all day for our hike/afternoon, and the dinner ended up working out for the most part, despite the rain. A few hiccups, but not a total wash by any means. 🙂 Would I have preferred a gorgeous sunny dinner on the rooftop? Yes, of course.

But I think we all still had a really nice time. Let’s just say it added a little mystery to the evening, and made the night that much more memorable. 🙂