NOVEMBER, 2004
December 5 - 11, 2004
After a four hour bus ride (on the stinkiest bus thus far - something must have been up with the bathroom!) we arrived in Guadalajuara around 9pm, and took a taxi to our host family's house in the Residencial Victoria neighborhood (about 20 minutes from the bus station and only a ten minute walk to Plaza del Sol (a huge shopping mall resembling Century City Mall or thereabouts)).
Our host family, Senor and Senora Moller (Fernando and Lydia), and their son Carlos, welcomed us into their very nice and comfortable home. We had our own bedroom and bathroom, which were spotless, a big comfy bed, and home cooked breakfast and dinner every day. And, Sra. Moller was an excellent cook. Each meal, we sampled some different, delicious Mexican dish, including molletes, tamales, mole, vegeteable soup and zuchini soup, enchiladas, to name just a few of the yummy things we ate. We spent our meals chatting with Lydia and Fernando, practicing our terrible Spanish. The two of them were really patient and helpful. By the end of the week, we had certainly improved, and could carry on much more detailed conversations.
We set off for Spanish Language School at 7:30 am on Monday morning armed with bookbags, notebooks, pens and pencils, as well as Senor Moller, who walked us to the bus stop and then took us on the local bus to El Centro, where our school was located. He did not leave us until we were safely in the hands of the school administrators. It was great - we totally felt like little kids on the first day of school!
The school, IMAC, was excellent. For starters, they had great facilities, including a really nice two story building, a computer lab with free internet access, a cafeteria, and really helpful people working at the front desk. Our teacher, Eva Fernandez, was fabulous, and the director of the language program placed the two of us at the perfect level. We learned a ton, met some really nice people, and spent every afternoon touring the various sites in the historic El Centro, as well as one really "posh" neighborhood about a forty five minute walk from the school. It is worth mentioning here that there were armed guards, armed with machine guns and Ranger Rick like hats and uniforms, hanging outside and guarding the fancier stores. These same guards could be found outside of every bank in Guadalajara as well. It was pretty crazy to walk past these guys on your way to the ATM machine.
In addition to the amred guards, Guadalajuara, like every city, town, and village in Mexico thus far, has a number of magnificent churches and cathedrals. Because Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city, and the capital of the State of Jalisco, it has even more than its fair share. The Catedral, in the heart of Guadalajara's El Centro is truly remarkable. Not only is it huge and gorgeous, but there are (as in many of the churches in Mexico) several clear glass coffins containing actual people who have been designated martyrs by the Catholic Church. People put little notes and/or prayers in the coffins and/or spend time praying beside them. Also, the Catedral, and again, like most churches in Mexico, even the very small ones, had some pretty amazing and old art work on the walls. In the states, most of these pieces would likely be in museums to preserve them, but in Mexico, the churches serve this function with respect to some of the religious art work we have seen.
Guadalajara also has several markets, including a smaller one, Mercado Libertad, that we went to one day (at which we had a cheap and delicious lunch), and a huge one, Mercado San Juan de Dios, right next to Templo San Juan de Dios. This place is huge - the largest in Latin America, and one of the largest in the world. We spent an entire afternoon wandering around this latter market, and still did not see everything. Mike bought some awesome unique t-shirts for bargain basement prices here, including one with a picture of Professor Jirafales (Mexico's equivalent of Mr. Rogers) on the front of it. It is a great t-shirt and the two women we bought it from thought we were very funny that we wanted this t-shirt. If we had been returning home after Guadalajuara, we certainly would have bought some of the awesome pots, pans and kitchen supplies for sale for really affordable prices, as well as a tree stump cutting board!
Just around the corner from this market and the temple is Plaza de los Mariachis. Tons of Mariachis hang out in this plaza waiting for work, and in the evenings, play excellent music. On the opposite side of the market and temple is the Instituto Cultural Cabanas, which apparently houses an amazing collection of Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) paintings and murals. Unfortunately, this building was closed for renovation until December 18 so we did not get to see these. But, we did get into the Palacio de Gubierno, which had two phenomenal murals by Orozco done in the late 1930s, including one over the main staircase which is 400 meters (approximately 1200 feet) depicting, among other things, Miguel Hidalgo, father of Mexican independence, holding a flaming torch, as well as one on the vaulting of the Legislature'sChambers. Our pictures do not do these remarkable murals justice, nor do they likely do the Palace itself justice. This building, like many of the others in Guadalajara (and throughout Mexico for that matter), is over 300 years old. Its baroque facade is beautiful.
We spent most of our days in class from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm and ate a late lunch at the markets or from vendors. One day we had Ahogadas, which apparently are unique to Guadalajuara, and which are delicious! They are like tortas, just with different bread, and are made with pork and really yummy chile sauces. Not knowning any better, we ordered ours to go, and got it in a plastic bag, with all the sauces thrown inside of it, and two tacos to boot. While it certainly did not take away from the flavor at all, it made things much messier. We will eat them at the restaurant the next time we eat them, if we ever get the pleasure of doing so again.
After lunch, we would wander around town, sit in the various plazas near the school doing a few hours of homework (yes we are nerds, even on vacation), browsing through local stores, and hanging out in local cafes or bars. We also spent a little bit of time searching for the anti-malarial pill, Larium, for our journeys in high malaria risk areas. As there has not been a case of malaria in Mexico in a number of years, supposedly Larium cannot be bought north of Mexico City ( we could not find it anywhere). As it is apparently hard to come by in Southern Mexico also, we ended up just ordering it through Rite Aid and asking Kalley and Michael to bring it to us in Costa Rica in a few weeks.
Each evening, we took the bus home for dinner with the Mollers around 8:30 p.m., and then did some more homework and hit the hay. We even managed to squeeze in a few runs, and even saw Wicker Park at the local cinema our last night in town. Unfortunately, we did not manage to fit in a few things we had planned to do in the area, including some of the beautiful pueblos right outside of Guadalajara, which are supposed to be very charming and interesting. Zapopan is one of these, and is of particular import to Guadalajarans because apparently, every October 12 (Mike's birthday), there is a huge pilgrimage from Guadalajara to Zapopan. Every year, on this day, millions of people gather together in Guadalajara to walk through the night (from about 9pm until 11am the next morning) carrying the Virgin Zapopan (as important to Catholics of Guadalajara as the Virgin Mary or Virgin Guadalupe is to other Mexican Catholics) back to her home town and resting place after her tour throughout the state of Jalisco. The Mollers apparently made this pilgrimage a few years back.
We also did not do the train ride on the Tequila Express to the town of Tequila (just outside of Guadalajara). There we could have taken a tour of the agave cactus fields (although we did get to see these on the bus ride from Guadalajara to Guanajuato), see how tequila is made, as well as sample some of the end product; maybe next time!
Regardless, our favorite part of our stay in Guadalajara, however, was probably Saturday morning, the morning we were going to leave Guadalajara and head to Guanajuato. We slept in for the first time all week (until about 10:30 am), and then we had a delicious brunch with Fernando and Lydia Moller, as well as some excellent conversation (they reminded us a lot of Mike's Grandma and Grandpa). When we finally got in the taxi to head to the bus station, we were genuinely sorry to leave them and their cozy house, and we are pretty sure were sorry to see us leave too! Hopefully they will stop and see us in Los Angeles when they go to visit relatives in Ventura, California and we can take them to La Cabana!
