A Restful Final Day in Mexico City with Friends Both Old and New

Sunday, August 20, 2017:

Sunday would be our last full day in Mexico City so we spent it seeing new and old friends one more time while dining in style as is the norm on this trip.

Raúl Rivera

President of ONEFA

Raúl is the former Head Coach of the UNAM Pumas who is now the top dog of the ONEFA (Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Fútbol Americano) conference.

ONEFA is the major, mostly public, university American football league in Mexico. Most of the private universities belong to the CONADEIP (Comisíon Nacional Deportiva Estudiantil de Instituciones Privadas) league.

Raúl was also Jesús Sánchez's coach when he played for the Pumas.

We started the day joining Raúl and his family for a special Mexico City treat, a Sunday morning barbacoa at a locals only spot that was, as usual for our Europe Warriors, incredible.

Los 3 Reyes Barbacoa y Carnitas

was tucked away in a quiet

Mexico City neighborhood

The long line meant that it was

going to be a good spot

Entry to a sumptuous meal

A tortilla making machine

Place a slab of masa atop those two rollers and voilà, tortillas come out of the back end and are then heated to perfection by the ladies at the grill.

Vegetable slicing and dicing station

She was obviously a well trained professional.

The complete operation was amazing as this family run business ran smoothly from start to finish.

They start to prepare the day's meal at 6:00 p.m. the previous night when they heat up six separate deep volcanic stone ovens and place all of a large adult butchered sheep along with banana leaves and spices in each one overnight to slowly roast to perfection.

In the morning when they open, they serve everything from the first oven until all of its meat is gone before going to oven number two, then oven three and so forth.

At whatever time all of the meat in oven number six is gone, they close for the day.

When we ordered, they were just about to open the second oven.

Los 3 Reyes even had a band 

Here, take a listen

Our entourage was seated at

a long table full of salsas, cilantro,

onions and limes for our meal

They were all key ingredients to the delicious soft tacos we would devour this morning.

Raúl was content to serve us our

soft tacos made from different

cuts of the delicious meat

 One view of our group . . .

. . . and another

Some extremely sated people

With Mike Wood, Alberto Pardo

and the kids who joined us and

their parents for the barbacoa

Cafe de Olla and Desserts

I'M IN ON BOTH COUNTS!

Cafe de Olla

The cinnamon levels were perfect! 

The Cafe de Olla was made

in this humble side kitchen

Our barbacoa was beyond belief!

A huge GRACIAS to Raúl for inviting us to this secret dining gem in the heart of the nation's capital.

AMAZING.

With Raúl Rivera Jr.

Raúl is a fun youngster who is full of life and a bit of a card sharp to boot.

We played a game with his collection of NFL cards on the way back to the hotel and I think that he may have hustled me.

Badly.

Meanwhile back at the hotel, it was time for a few photos.

Raúl Rivera and Jesús Sánchez

With Mike Wood, Raúl Rivera,

Jesús Sánchez and Ricardo Martín

 Ricardo, Raúl and Jesús

The delightful Rivera Family

Maria Fernanda, Karen, Raúl

and Raúl Jr.

Mike and I with Maria Fernanda,

Raul Jr. and Karen

In the afternoon, I was in for another rare treat, a reunion with our old Italian Football League foe and teammate QB Arturo Sánchez and his significant other Yazmin.

Our first meeting in 2008

During that 2008 season, Arturo was the QB for the Palermo Sharks and I was the Defensive Coordinator for the Catania Elephants.

Our clubs played twice that season in the IFL's Serie A and while the Elephants won both contests, Arturo's passing and scrambling skills drove us all crazy.

He was a force on offense.

In 2009, when I was now the Head Coach of the Catania eleven and our Elephants ran into all sorts of QB problems too numerous to mention, we turned to Arturo who was back in Mexico City with a full time job for help.

He dropped everything and flew out to Sicily and, as hoped, his sterling play as our new signal caller saved our season.

I will be forever indebted to Arturo for what he did for the Elephants in 2009, he is simply a quality young man and an excellent QB.

From the "It's a Small World" category, when Raúl Rivera was the highly successful Head Coach of the UNAM Pumas, Arturo served as his QB coach for a season.

Today Arturo is an executive with Under Armour in Mexico City while still playing QB in Mexico's two year old Liga de Fútbol Americano Professional in the Spring. 

The three of us headed to the

Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City

Both famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and noted Communist Leon Trotsky lived in the Coyoacán barrio at one time.

Coyoacán means "Place of Coyotes"

in the Náhuatl language

Here are two mossy green coyotes to bring home that point.

Arturo and Yazmin

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon

Coyoacán was THE place to be seen

Lots of restaurants and shops

Did someone say restaurants? 

Arturo and Yazmin's well mannered chihuahua joined us for some delicious ceviche tostadas and beers at this outdoor table at La Cerveceria.

 Heading to Plaza Hidalgo

Parroquia de San Juan Bautista

Lots of organ grinders

on Plaza Hidalgo

No monkeys though.

Strolling on a Sunday

Selfie!

Kids love petting chihuahuas

Especially this cutie

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

1753-1811 

Hidalgo was a Catholic priest and Mexican revolutionary leader who is known as the Father of Mexican Independence.

This plaza is named

in Hidalgo's honor

Cool old building just off 

Plaza Hidalgo

 An expert churro maker

Here she has split open a churro for Arturo and is now slathering Nutella onto it.

Yum.

For me, she is injecting

delicious carjeta into its center

Yum Yum.

Yazmin paid this man

a small sum and the show

was on in Coyoacán

Here's the show

Basically, a little trained canary comes out of its cage and picks two little sealed packets at random from a box.

One packet predicts my future in general while the other one tells me of the love life's future.

I'm 70 years old, I still have a future in general?

I still have a love life future?

VIVA MEXICO!

But of course we had to visit

this Artesan Market

All items were, of course,

 Made in Mexico

Mexican mole ingredients

  

Union Shop

 I loved this artist's

face and demeanor

Even this ice cream store was artsy

I continued on my carjeta flavored afternoon with a small cup of the Mexican caramel ice cream. 

Hare Krishnas on Plaza Hidalgo

were a surprise

Saying "Adios" to Coyacán

and some cherished amigos

A huge GRACIAS to Arturo and Yazmin for a nice afternoon. It is always a joy to see these two.

I had yet another wonderful day in Mexico City with both new friends and old, all due to the great times that I have been able to experience because of life in EuroBall.

LIFE IS INCREDIBLE!

At 9:30 p.m., the few remaining Europe Warriors met for one last meal together in the Radisson Paraiso's restaurant.

On Monday most of us were finally heading home after 17 wonderful days in Mexico at all different times of the day.

I can not say thank you enough to Jesús Sánchez and Bart Iaccarino for organizing this awesome Europe Warriors project in just five short months and for inviting me along to coach some great young men from eleven different countries.

Hopefully we will meet again somewhere on the globe for a Europe Warriors II experience.

GO WARRIORS GO!