When planning this Mexico City Frida Freak Tour, our host Hershey asked us to make a prioritized list of things we wanted to do and see. So we did. It included all of the obvious Frida and Diego sites as well as plenty of food tasting and city walking. We thought our planning was complete, but then we were wandering the streets of Mexico City and saw this:
That’s a Tour bus (Turibus) plastered with luchadores in all their glory. Hershey had never been to a match and so we added it to our prioritized list for the week and soon found our place on the open-air rooftop of a turibus on our way to Arena Coliseo. (Side note: Turibus is really fun to say and we threw it into our conversation liberally for the rest of the week. Try it: Too-dee-boos. See?)
Soon after we set sail, we were greeted by an honest-to-goodness luchador. Meet Stuka Jr.!!! (Thunderous applause ensues.)
He explained his journey to luchador success and answered questions from the crowd who were obviously much more versed in luchador life than we were. That didn’t stop us from diving in for a photo opp.
More fun atop the turibus. I’d explain who each of us are in the photos below, but once a luchador dons their mask, their everyday lives and identities are a mystery.
So what’s a luchador match like? We were actually a tad disappointed that the event was at Arena Coliseo rather than the humongous arena where matches usually are, but it turns out this was the original locale for bouts so it had that old-school feel to it and was awesome. If you’ve ever seen the movie Nacho Libre, you know what I’m talking about (and you know why this post is titled as it is.) If you haven’t seen Nacho Libre and are a fan of Jack Black, you should add it to your watchlist. Classic. (Watching it with my kids definitely heightens the fun. Calvin can do a superb Nacho impression.)
A few scenes from the match.
Check out the red patent leather boots in the photo below. I want them. Those leggings aren’t bad either.
Pandering to the crowd and/or gloating after a big move.
You have the right to do that gloating after you complete this epic bounce-off-the-rope maneuver.
Or maybe you prefer the familiar pile-on stunt.
The crowd’s reaction says it all. We did a lot of this:
Here’s one more video featuring some serious double-team action. We never did figure out who wins each match or why there were sometimes two and sometimes more luchadores in the ring, but we sure had fun!
Last, a couple of small souvenirs for Calvin and Drew, the truest Nacho Libre fans I know. That’s Blue Demon on the left and Rey Misterio on the right.
