Dec. 3, 1995
Hi everyone!
Me and the boys have just begun our South of the Border Tour for December 1995! This is our first tour outside of Europe and America and we're hoping to make the experience count, for both us and the fans.
What you'll be getting is a diary written by me, talking about anything interesting happening during the tour, whether it be sightseeing, media interviews, mistakes or surprises during shows, or even pranks behind the scenes.
You may be wondering why I haven't done this for the Transatlantic Tour last summer. Well, with so many places to visit, I really haven't found the time to write anything. This time, though, our touring schedule is much less constricting, much to the relief of many people. Namely Hermione, my mum, and Mrs. Weasley.
You could argue that the Narrator Who Shall Remain Nameless could give us more energy once we ran out of steam, but honestly, we were looking to fit in more relaxing time and more time for sightseeing.
Speaking of which, the tour actually began on Friday, December 1st, so this entry will only be about our visit to Monterrey in Mexico. That was the day of our first show, so we spent most of the day checking in to the hotel and taking a couple of hours to recuperate in the hotel pool before going to the venue to begin rehearsal. We performed a 7:00 show at the Auditorio Coca-Cola. The mention of Coca-Cola was enough to make Ron's mouth water. Ever since we introduced him to the drink, he's been mad about it, third only to Butterbeer and Pepsi. He ended up ordering several cases of it, which we had to store in an enchanted cooler that didn't require ice.
Fairly clever when you think about it.
Fred and George, on the other hand, had other ideas for the Coca-Cola. While we were on tour last summer, they discovered Pop Rocks and ordered a summer's supply of them to experiment with for the remainder of the tour. Now that they were out, they had to find some Mexican equivalent to them. Their best bet was a candy they found called Manoletas. While the rest of us weren't watching, they opened the cooler, filled each can with Manoletas and magically stalled them, so they wouldn't start fizzing yet. Afterwards, they added a special charm so that when the tab was removed, the other cans would react to the sound.
How? Well, we were in the middle of our first show and we had the whole cooler onstage in case any of us got thirsty. Ron took out the first can, snapped the lid off, and the cooler suddenly began to rumble. It rumbled so much that the cooler lid burst right off and mounds of fizz suddenly burst out of the cooler, showered the stage, and covered the whole audience.
Naturally, I think you could expect our mums and Hermione to present us with a look of disapproval, but fortunately for us, the audience seemed to enjoy it. By the time they were all covered, they were screaming like mad for us, especially all the girls in the audience.
After that incident, we made note to create t-shirts in both English and Spanish that read, I Got Soaked at the Seekers' Concert!
Anyways, once the weekend came, we had plenty of time for sightseeing.
First, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art that they've got here and a collection of the works of Louise Bourgeois was on display. To most of us, it seemed strange that a French Artist would be on display in a Mexican museum, but then again, we're tourists. What do we know?
Outside the museum was the Macroplaza, where we saw the Faro Del Commercio, or the Lighthouse of Commerce, which didn't look so much like a lighthouse as much as a monolith. I just assumed that Ron thought it was a monolith for the Chudley Cannons, since it was orange.
We also passed the Palace of the Governor and the Fountain of Neptune. I know for most people in the Wizarding World, it looked nothing like our own merpeople or marine horses. I personally kept expecting to see the merpeople of the black Lake go to war with the Lords of the Ocean. I know that sounds like a rather out-there experience, but have a look for yourself, if you can.
Anyways, we ended our stay in Monterrey with a trip to Parque Fundidora. It was a typical park, but it was a good way to get some fresh air in before we went off to our next tour destination.
While there, we noticed a theme park built there as well, called Parque Plaza Sesamo. It seemed clear to us that this was a theme park for the Mexican production of Sesame Street. We didn't go in, but here's a funny story; on our last tour, the Weasleys had discovered Sesame Street playing on one of our hotel bedroom televisions early in the morning. Ron, in particular, seemed to be amused by the Cookie Monster.
He said, "I like this guy's style! He eats almost as he as me!"
Charming for some, confusing for those who have no idea what I'm talking about.
Well, we're off to Guadalajara next.
Enjoy the Christmas hols and I'll keep them entries coming!
—Harry Potter