Dec. 10, 1995

¡Hola compadres!

This whole week was our tour of Latin America, which officially concludes on Monday in Buenos Aires.

The first couple of days, we were still in Mexico. We don't always have as much time for sightseeing because we have two shows every day and we have to go rehearse as soon as we're checked into the hotel. But the flight to Guadalajara was relatively short; What takes Muggles an hour and a half to fly there from Monterrey only took us 45 minutes, thanks to the special modifications my dad and godfather made to our plane. We landed there on Sunday night and went straight to bed so we could get up early to squeeze in some sightseeing.

We spent most of the morning at the San Juan de Dios indoor markets. We were told this was the largest indoor flea market in Latin America. There were three floors, the second of which Ron spent most of his time on; this was the food market. The main floor was souvenirs; toys, clothing, artwork, and other things. Our mums begged us to try on cowboy boots, but our first response was running away. We came to a toy stall where we saw some mini souvenir guitars in different colors. Fred, George, and I each took one in our respective guitar colors; mine in red, Fred's in magenta, George's in orange. As for Ron, he picked a tambourine hanging from the stall.

All four of us plan on playing our souvenir instruments, while I plan on displaying it in my bedroom with all the other souvenirs I pick up while touring.

That includes an alebrije I picked up from a craft stand. For those who don't know, that's a little paper-mache sculpture of a brightly-colored fantastic beast. Mine resembled a red jaguar, so I thought I'd enchant it to come to life and guard my bedroom.

Fred and George each took one resembling a monkey in magenta, and took one in red to send to Bill Weasley in Egypt. Ron, on the other hand, preferred the ones shaped like parrots. More specifically, he chose an orange one with green wings, mostly because he likes orange more than George actually does. Also, it sat on a perch, so he could hang it from the ceiling. All three of them plan on enchanting their alebrijes as well.

The next day, we arrived in Mexico City and we were given the usual welcome for whatever city we go to; we drive into town or land at the airport to find hundreds of screaming girls waiting for us and running after our limousine as aurors try to hold them back. We also noticed they were holding back reporters from another car driving right in front of us. When we arrived at the Foro Sol Arena, we found out why;

Waiting for us there was none other than the President of Magical Mexico himself, Fernando Hidalgo. He was there with his four daughters to celebrate his eldest daughter, Clarisa's quinceañera. Her birthday wish was to meet me and I guess her parents saw me as a respectable young man. This didn't go without the envy of a certain Ms. Granger, but lucky for her, it didn't change a thing between us. Besides, her other sisters wanted to meet the rest of the band, as well; Twins Inéz and Juanita, age 13, literally went head over heels at the sight of Fred and George, while Maya, age 11, wouldn't even let go of Ron's feet. Eventually, she had to let go so Hidalgo's aurors could escort us backstage.

By the time the show was over, all the kids leaving the venue saw our limousine and tried again to barrage it. They chased us all the way to the airport and I'm sure as soon as we left and they were done crying for us, they were probably wondering how they were going to get home.

After sleeping for a few hours, we landed in Caracas around midnight, where we were greeted by another barrage of fans and even a few reporters. I wasn't sure what was more surprising, that it was the fans or the reporters that were up this late.

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we collapsed on the bed save as much strength as we could from playing three days worth of shows. After waking up early and taking a short dip in the pool, we went to visit the beautiful Botanical Gardens, with all their palm trees, cacti, and even water lilies.

On days when we don't have as much time to sightsee, we try to visit places where we can get some fresh air before getting ready for shows.

On Thursday, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro where we were busy for pretty much the whole day. We had here shows, so we had no time for sightseeing and we spent the whole day rehearsing and filling interviews in. It was the same thing when we were in Mexico City.

Our policy is that every show is an hour and a quarter long and our last show of the day was always at 7:00 P.M. This allows us to finish at a decent hour so we can get back to the hotel, go straight to bed and wake up at an early enough hour the next morning.

We spent most of the day at the Metropolitan Hall, so we couldn't look longingly at the beach out the hotel window.

Friday was the day we landed in Santiago, Chile. This was a place where we could do some sightseeing after the show because we've stayed there into Saturday.

We spent most of the day near San Cristóbal Hill, where we had a view of the whole city and the rest of the day to spend in Bellavista, the bohemian city of the young people of Chile. Tonight, there was an evening craft sale for things made of this beautiful blue stone, called lapis lazuli. Our mums ended up buying a whole cupboard's worth of plates and bowls made from it, while I decided to surprise a certain Ms. Granger with a necklace made from this stone. It made sense, seeing that blue was her favorite color.

We had dinner in town and for the both of us, it was fish tacos with chips; both kinds.

Well, tomorrow morning, we're off to Buenos Aires, where we'll have some time to sightsee before our shows on Monday.

Enjoy the hols and stay tuned for updates!

—Harry Potter