The Next Chapter: Guadalajara

My stomach illness receded and we were finally able to leave Chacala, although we didn’t really want to. We lugged our two backpacks, guitar, and box o’ books to the center of the village where we caught a taxi to Las Varas (a slightly larger town about 5 minutes away from Chacala). As mentioned in my previously blog, the taxi driver went above and beyond the call of duty. We arrived in Guadalajara from Las Varas after an uneventful 4-hour bus ride. We watched the Adam Sandler movie “Click” (with subtitles, not dubbed thank goodness), watched the scenery, and generally relaxed in the cushy comfortable seats of the first-class bus. The movie, by the way, was very amusing, and yet again inexplicably, as seems with all of Adam Sandler’s movies, it got bad reviews from the critics. Anyways, I digress, where was I? Oh ok, so I was still feeling a little woozy from my Chacala bug (which Melanie passed to me with a kiss – not a bad way to get sick I guess), but overall my intestines were doing ok and luckily (for everyone on board, not just me) I only needed to use the 200-degree bus bathroom/ sauna once. Why do they keep the passenger sections freezing and the bathrooms like sweat rooms? All I know is that the aromatherapy in that sauna wasn’t very relaxing.

We arrived in Guadalajara, flagged a cab, and after a long ride (it’s an extremely large city (6-7 mil people)) we arrived in the historic center of the city at our hotel. I think Melanie gives a description of the hotel bathroom in her blog (bohova-mel.blogspot.com). Check it out!

The city was teeming with people of all ages, shapes and sizes. Like I said this is an extremely large city, however, as seems to be a continuing theme for me in Mexico, I was the only blonde. Nevertheless, in cities everyone walks around with blinders on, so no one paid much attention to me. We mostly walked around the city taking pictures for the next few days. There were some amazing sights to take in such as the Orozco murals, the cathedral, the bird market in the city center, live music in the town center, and many antique hotels and buildings.

The main Orozco murals were by far the most impressive spectacle and are a must see for anyone that ever visits this part of Mexico. They are truly awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, masterful works of art (see Mel’s blog for an example).

The cathedral was grand and elaborate with statues, gold and extravagant stained glass. On display was a real corpse of a 7-year-old virgin martyr preserved in a glass case with a plaster face covering (why do they have to specify a 7 year old as a virgin? Ok, I have a lot of questions about this one… very creepy).

One of the other interesting sights was the food market in the basement of a multi-floored shopping center. This place was definitely the most putrid experience so far in the journey, and although we wanted to take a picture, it felt way too awkward with the vendors all giving us the “stink-eye” (pun intended). It was gross enough seeing the many rows of fresh cut fruits, breads and pastries that were open to all the feasting flies and other hungry little bugs, but when we got to the meat aisle it was stomach jarring – huge slabs of beef, whole skinless pigs, cut up chickens all hanging out into the aisles – no glass cases here. There seemed to be no end in sight – open season for the hoards of bugs and flies to eat their entrées, lay their eggs, and then proceed one row over for a nice pastry and some fruit for dessert. We had a good laugh thinking of all the veggies/vegans from California being trapped in that basement (some people aren’t laughing right now).

The bird market in the center of the city had some really funky looking genetically engineered pigeons – never seen anything like them. There were lots of other little bird markets (some in the same complex as the meat market) with 15-20 birds stuffed into one little cage. Poor little things! We wanted to free them all. The music was orchestral style classical music, free every weekend night, the town center filled with people sitting on benches (some of them making out exuberantly) surrounding the elaborate rotunda stage. It was not quite as entertaining as when we were in Merida, Yucatan, Mx, a few years ago, where there was free live salsa music on weekend nights, and all the grandmas and grandpas were up bumpin’ and grindin’, and there were many many more people sitting around cuddling and kissing.

On our next to last day we took a day tour by bus to Tequila, Mx for a tequila tasting tour. On the way we stopped at little town to learn about and see the Basilica de Zapopan, where people flock to pay homage and pray to the vírgen de la expectación, which is a tiny statue inside the cathedral. It is also the home of many Franciscan monks. The Basilica was spectacular although we did not get a chance to go inside. It was Sunday with mass every hour, people packed in like little holy sardines. I’m sure the inside was a sight to behold. We were then quickly whisked away to get drunk off tequila to counter-act all that religion. Our first “getting drunk” stop was at a little shack on the side of the road called “Tres Mujeres”. It was, by far, the best tequila on the tour (better than Don Julio – was thinking of you Dave and Craig) and as you can see they offered 100% natural mujeres as well, although Melanie wouldn’t let me order any. We took a few shots and then it was off to the Jose Cuervo factory where we took a backstage tour of the production process. Very interesting, but the tequila sucked. The margaritas weren’t bad though. Melanie got really drunk – just look at her, bottle in one hand, margarita in the other! We were then rounded up like drunken little cows to a desolate corner of the town where our tour guide proceeded to rob us at machete-point. We were then loaded up onto a different bus and brought back to the city.

We had a wonderful time in Guadalajara and, by the way, our tour guide did not actually mug us. Our hotel was cute, we had a nice café and a Dunkin Donuts right next door, and there were two terrific restaurants within eyesight. It was very romantic and had many things to see and do, and even though it is a big city, the best stuff is compacted into the historic town center. The only time we had to take a vehicle was on the tequila tour. Well, that’s it for now. I’m currently sitting in my bed in a city called Irapuato, where my sister-in-law’s family lives. We’ve had a great time here as well, but I’ll write about that in my next blog.

Hasta Proximo!

Chris