I'm a student again. Ok, not officially until Monday. While in Guanajuato, I decided to take some Spanish classes. But enough about Guanjuato, this blog entry is is about Guadalajara.
As I mentioned in my previous posting, Guadalajara seemed more appealing to me than Puerto Vallarta even before I got off the bus. This feeling only increased as the day went on.I took a taxi from the bus station to my hotel in the town center. I think they specifically assigned a driver that could speak English--I fuddled through the whole "getting a cab" process. Not my finest moment of speaking Spanish. On the ride to the hotel, I struck up a conversation with the driver. It started with things along the lines of "How well do you speak English?" and went on to stuff about family and the like. I found out that he is 23, got married when he was 18 (which he chalks up to the stupidity of youth), is divorced, and has a 4 year old son. He lived in Atlanta briefly. He offered to help me with my Spanish on the ride to the hotel. I asked a few questions, more to make conversation than to get an education.
When we got to my hotel and I went to pay him, he reminded me that I already gave him 5 pesos at the bus station toll booth. Yes, Virginia, honest taxi drivers do exist.My check-in at the hotel was made easier by the fact that the lady at the desk spoke English. I opted to get a room with a shared bathroom (190 pesos vs. 290 with a bathroom.) The hotel was situated right in the historic town center.
After checking in, I dumped my stuff, chatted with a Japanese girl who had also just checked in, and then walked around town. It was early evening. The weather was a little too chilly for a short sleeve shirt and I would later put on my jacket. I was told that the colder weather just started a couple of days before I arrived.
I felt so much more comfortable in Guadalajara. It is a real city with 4 million people. When I walked down the street, I felt invisible. I like that. The streets and plazas were full of people. It is a very lively town.
The biggest landmarks in central Guadalajara are the twin-towered cathedral (which seems to be the symbol of the city) and the theater (Teatro Degollado). Both are beautiful old buildings.
The historic district contains a collection of plazas connected with pedestrian walkways, all quite nice, surrounded by historic building and containing several statues of historic figures. Almost all of my time in Guadalajara was spent in this part of town.
I did not eat out at many restaurants, opting instead for pizza-by-the-slice, or stuff from the grocery store.After being in Guadalajara a couple of days, I started meeting people. Mauricio is a 25-year-old whose family owns a construction company in Colorado. He just moved back here from Colorado last month and works at the Guadalajara office of the family business. We chatted over coffee in one of the outdoor cafes in the plaza in front of the Cathedral and then walked around a bit. When we parted, he asked if I wanted to go to a popular Mariachi place the next night (Friday.) I said "Sure" and we agreed to finalize plans online the next day. When chatting online with him the next day, I asked if he still wanted to go to the Mariachi place, and if so when and where we should meet. No response. Ever. That was the last I heard from him. I guess he picked up a few behaviors from his time in the US. Too bad it had to be one of the ones that never fails to piss me off.
The next day I met Alfonso. This was a bit more interesting because Alfonso spoke very little English and I spoke very little Spanish. I got a lot of use out of my Spanish-English dictionary during our conversations. Alfonso is a 37-year-old psychiatrist specializing in child psychiatry. He occasionally teaches classes to teachers from a classroom attached to his house.Alfonso and I ended up having dinner in Zona Rosa--a rather posh neighborhood that is a 20 minute walk from my hotel. For dinner, he suggested that I try a somewhat-spicy chicken stew, whose name I cannot remember, which was quite good.
After dinner, we watched the parade that happened to be passing by the restaurant. October is a month of festivals in Guadalajara.
It was Saturday, so we decided to go have a drink. We walked a couple of blocks to his house to get his car. His house is huge, but practically empty. He has 5 bedrooms upstairs, only one of which is fully furnished, most of the others are completely empty. His kitchen is big, but 3/4 of it is completely empty. His office is on the ground floor, along with his kitchen, an empty dining room, and a small living room.
His yard is giant by city standards. In it is the classroom where he teaches classes.After getting the house tour, we headed to California's--a bar near my hotel. I was shocked to discover that one could actually park a car without having to search forever for a spot AND could park near one's destination.
California's was much more Mexican in flavor than the bar I went to in Puerto Vallarta. I may well have been the only white guy there. It was packed, and it was not a small bar. It was a pretty basic, homey kind of place--not at all trendy. It definitely seemed like the kind of place that people went to meet their friends for a beer. Several TVs were showing Mexican music videos. Alfonso ran into several of his friends there. I chatted briefly with one of them who spoke reasonable English. I left after about an hour and a couple of beers. (Yes, beer. When in Rome...)
The next day, I felt totally lazy and lounged around in bed until late afternoon. I had planned to go to the festival, but just felt too lazy. Instead, I studied Spanish and listened to NPR podcasts. This was surprisingly satisfying.
I went to use the net and post my first blog entry. Alfonso was online and we chatted and decided to hang out later, even though I was pretty tired.
The next day I woke up and decided to leave town. Originally, I was going to go straight to Mexico City from Guadalajara, but people kept suggesting that I go to Guanjuato first. I grabbed a taxi to the bus station (the driver actually used the meter, much to my surprise), bought a bus ticket to Guanajuato, and 15 minutes later I was on the road to Guanajuato.
Details for travelers to Guadalajara
The hotel in which I stayed was the Posada San Pedro on Calle Madero. It was within easy walking distance of the Cathedral (maybe 5-10 minutes), around the corner from several bars of a certain flavor, and about 3 blocks from a supermarket.
I asked for a quiet room and ended up with a second-floor room overlooking the busy street. Noise-wise, this was actually better than the ground floor rooms around the lobby. That is because every time someone goes in or out of the building they have to get buzzed through the security door. Usually, there is no one at the desk, so the person entering or leaving has to ring a bell, which you can clearly hear in the rooms around the lobby.I actually did not mind the traffic noise in my room. At night, it was pretty minimal, and the room had a fan that provided a great source of white noise. I liked the place, although the getting buzzed in and out was kind of tedious.
For 190 pesos (about US$17.50), I got a fairly large room with a shared bath, a small balcony overlooking the street, and tons of furniture. The doors to the room and the bathroom are the kind that split down the middle. Unless you open both sides, you have to step through sideways. Another 100 pesos would have gotten me a private bathroom.
The hotel has a rooftop terrace that does not seem to be used much. It is surrounded by rooms. (These are probably the most quiet rooms.) My room had a cozy sitting area right outside.All-in-all, I would recomment the place for someone looking for budget digs in the historic district.
As far as eating, I cannot recommend much because I ate in very few restaurants. There is a chain called Sanborns which is either inside or near a Sanborns department store. I only ate inside two restaurants in Guadalajara. By coincidence, both were Sanborns and both on the same day. (The second one was chosen because of its location as a place to meet--not by me.) The food is fine. The one near the cathedral looks like a Denny's. The one inside the Zona Rosa Sanborns department store is nicer, but the same food.
There are plenty of quick food options along the plazas--pizza, tacos, ice cream, etc.
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