Listening to about 40 cousins and uncles sing “la vida no vale nada,” the opening line of José Alfredo Jimenez’s “Camino de Guanajuato,” while on a ranch in the middle of the beautiful state of Guanajuato can be about as cliché as a sports team playing Queen’s “We Are the Champions” after an important victory.

But it’s not. In fact, it’s incredibly beautiful and warm and touching and all that good stuff. It was the perfect way to end a day which I spent most of feeling grumpy, tired and a bit annoyed.

I didn’t really care much to go up to la Montaña del Cristo Rey. I know it’s a famous monument, but the trip up and down the mountain is long. Plus, once you get there, it’s even crazier. The whole way up in the back of the truck with all kinds of sun shining in, all I saw was dry hills, a road made of stone, and kids covered in dirt trying to run with the trucks to get some monedas. Some of the kids would run down the mountain with the trucks for several yards and would only stop when the people in the car showed some pity and threw un peso or something.

El Cristo de la Montaña and las Momias are tourist traps… and that’s all we got to do today. We barely ate, we were dehydrated (no doubt from all that drinking last night and sugary drinks), we didn’t get much sleep and too much sun. It’s a wonder we didn’t all snap.

I can’t complain too much though. Papá Chepe and Mamá Toni wanted to see el Cristo de la Montaña and they wanted to see las momias. Dude, I’ve seen las momias and they’re not that exciting. At least when I came with Diana, Paola, and her boyfriend (el Chucho) in August 2004, no one was around. That wasn’t the case this time. It’s right after the holidays. There are all kinds of people in town visiting family from all over the place. And everyone seemed to be going to see las momias and el Cristo.

I’m glad I came before and saw other stuff, because it doesn’t seem like we’ll be going back to Guanajuato on this trip. I’ve realized I don’t like taking vacations with tons of people. It’s too hard to please everyone.

The good thing about being with lots of people — and there is one — is what happened tonight at el Rancho los Laureles where four of my tíos live. We had enchiladas, took a little tour of the area where they have los puercos and then all sang. The tíos made my dad play tío Melchor’s guitar, and we started off with Feliz Navidad. At that time, it was maybe two dozen people, and mainly men out in the area where they have the tractors and all the trucks. Dad got the idea to go sing to my tía abuela Epifania, llevarle serenata. So, we all went back to the room outside of my sickly tía’s house. That’s when the group grew. We sang a few out there, one of which was “Dos Arbolitos,” a song my Grandpa and tío Lucio (his brother) really liked.

The party moved back out to the tractor area. Tequila, sidral de manzana, and cacahuates accompanied us. And we sang lots more songs. Tío Melchor and dad passed the guitar back and forth as they sang some corridos (El del Camaro Rojo and another about why Mexicans go north, but still keep the Mexicanness) and more rancheras (Tú, solo tú, Hay unos ojos, La sauza y la palma).

The family over in el Rancho really know how to entertain. For some reason, you think you’re going to be bored and the lack of things like wi-fi will make it unbearable, but not at all. It’s wonderful, really.