Shootings & Vomit in Mexico City

On top of my head, this is one of the only times I have ever been close to a shooting in Latin America.

Granted, when I lived in an area of Mexico City known as Pedregal de Santo Domingo, it wasn’t uncommon for me to hear gunshots at night.

But it never felt as “real” or “close to me as what happened below.

One night, a Mexican friend of mine named Angie wanted to meet up with me.

This was during my first year in Mexico City and was probably around Christmas time so maybe December or so.

Anyway, I was living close to Metro Insurgentes of Roma Norte in Mexico City.

Which, for most foreigners, is a part of the city that feels safe.

There’s plenty of police everywhere compared to other neighborhoods….

Lots of cameras.

Granted, I don’t think it’s perfect as you do see a shit ton more homeless folks in that area.

Which, as a rule of thumb, I generally find that the areas of Mexico City that are the worse when it comes to aggressive homeless people are the touristy areas.

Anyway, Angie shows up outside my apartment building and I walk outside when she texts me saying she is here.

Once outside, we get walking towards a common restaurant in Mexico City known as Casa de Toño.

You can find this restaurant all over Mexico City and they are honestly my favorite restaurant here.

Great prices for good food (their flautas de pollo are the best)…

And the customer service is great.

For my meal, I had some milk type drink called agua de horchata.

It looks like this in this video here.

And what does Casa de Toño look like?

Here’s a video showing the inside of what these places look like usually.

Anyway, once we finish eating, we head out to some bars right afterwards.

At this point, we were technically in Barrio Rosa, which is the gay neighborhood of the city.

But there’s plenty of bars in this area for non gay folks as well.

In one street, you’ll see a lot more gay bars.

In the street next over, you have more of a mixed crowd of people and all that.

We go into one of the bars in the area that is full with a shit ton of people standing up and drinking.

Funny enough, I remember the song they were playing that night because I liked it and asked Angie what it was called.

Here it is below.

Donde Estan Las Atrevidas| Miku| Levan Polka

And this song also actually.

Ella Quiere Hmm Haa Hmm - DJ YAYO (Argentina) Ft. Leka El Poeta & Master Boy

So as Angie and I are sitting down on a few chairs having a few drinks…

I get through my third beer in maybe 30 minutes more or less.

Angie could always keep up as she is one of the few chicks I’ve met who can drink like a normal person.

But as I get to my third beer, I start to feel weird….

I don’t particularly feel sick or ill in my stomach…

No fever.

But there is this weird feeling in the back of my throat that makes it feel like something is going to come out.

“That’s weird” I thought.

“Am I really such a pussy little bitch that I can’t drink 3 beers without throwing up?” I ask myself.

Normally, I can drink just fine!

Not tonight it seems.

So I excuse myself and get through the heavy crowd at the pace I could given how many people there were…

Inside the bathroom, I’m standing in front of this metal urinal thing.

And thinking to myself “OK, I’m not really going to throw up am I?”

Then it just comes out.

At that point, I go to the actual toilet away from everyone in the bathroom so I can throw up some more.

And, like I said, I didn’t feel sick at all.

But my body just felt the need to eject shit, I guess.

Anyway, after a few minutes waiting to see if I was going to throw up anymore, I walk back outside to Angie.

“Todo bien?” she asked.

“I vomited” I said in Spanish.

“hmmm…that’s weird” she said.

So we get back to drinking.

And literally just after another beer or two that we had left in the bucket…

I felt the need to vomit again!

“What the fuck?!”

At this point, I’m calling it a night.

I tell Angie that I feel like puking again.

But, for some reason, I felt like walking towards the door to vomit outside since it was much closer and without a crowd to push through.

That’s when I see the doors are closed and there is a big ass security guard in front of it.

Well, OK, big by Mexican standards – a 5’9 type looking dude.

And he tells us that we can’t go outside because “there’s been a shooting.”

Angie, seemingly unconcerned about the shooting, tells the dude that I have to vomit.

Meanwhile, I’m looking for the next best place to vomit, because I know I won’t be able to make it through the huge ass crowd to the bathroom.

To the side of us, I see a small ass closet waiting for my protein contribution.

So I stumble over to it and let out a good one onto the floor.

With vomit dripping from my mouth, I walk back to the group.

Look the security guy straight in the eyes.

He looks visibly concerned.

And most likely contemplating “Is my 15 dollar a day job worth getting vomited on?!”

Meanwhile, that’s my non-verbal stance “Let me out to vomit or I’ll vomit on you, cocksucker!”

And, in hindsight, I’m glad he let me out.

Had I vomited on the security guard, I imagine I would’ve gotten my ass beat that night.

Though I was determined.

“But there’s a shooting out!!!”

“Me Vales Madres”

Either way, seeing the look in my eyes….

And taking in the threat of being puked on after witnessing me let out an involuntary protein spill in the closet…

The security guard opens the door and I rush out.

According to Angie, the guy pushed me out but I didn’t feel his hands on me.

But supposedly he did.

I didn’t feel that but I probably didn’t have my attention on that either since I was rushing out to vomit again.

And vomit I did.

He closed the door right after letting me out and Angie was still inside for another 15 seconds.

Most likely demanding that he let her out also.

To which he did.

At any rate, Angie never wanted to go back there again.

And here I am outside in Barrio Rosa of CDMX vomiting all over the ground.

To which then I began sitting on the sidewalk outside catching my breath and waiting to see if I’m going to puke some more.

While we were outside in this spot, I saw a SHIT TON of police outside.

Literally all across the street armed to the teeth.

From one end to the other where you’d be on Reforma Avenue.

And we were literally the only non-police officers outside on this part of the street.

Anyway, Angie seems kinda concerned for some odd reason.

“Uhh…maybe we should go?”

“You know, shooting and all that?”

“Espera, espera” I wave her off…

As I wait a few more minutes on the ground waiting to see if I was going to puke some more.

For some reason, the risk of getting caught in a shooting didn’t bother me as much as wanting to not puke anymore.

Anyway, I eventually get up and off we go.

It took me about a minute of walking towards the end of the street before I realized “wait, there WAS a shooting here…Danger!”

To which I got Angie to jog with me out of the area to get out of there in case more shots are fired.

Though, in hindsight, I guess we weren’t really in danger.

I’m guessing the cops must’ve shot the guy or he ran off already by the time we were outside.

Thankfully anyway.

So we jog for a tiny bit up to Metro Insurgentes where we figured it is safe enough to stop jogging.

Angie decides she will head home on the metro.

Once back at my place, I’m hungry again.

Maybe it was from vomiting everything.

On Whatsapp, Angie told me “don’t eat anything, you’ll puke again!”

“Eh, fuck it” I thought.

So I walk outside and get these street tacos that were pretty good.

Some guy who made them seemingly all hours of the night.

Sometimes as late as 3 or 4 AM!

So that was that.

Later on, Angie told me that she thought having the milk drinks at Casa de Toño and then some beer was what did me in.

Because normally I need to drink an entire bottle of vodka before I puke.

But, according to this article here, drinking milk and beer can make you vomit supposedly.

Huh, who knew.

Anyway, that’s the story.

As I said, in hindsight, I guess we weren’t into much danger.

Must not have been if the vomiting seemed more concerning than the situation outside.

Well, if you have any comments, drop them below.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt