Mesoamerica 2019 - Day Two, Guadalajara Centro Historico Immersion

After our hard first few hours in Guadalajara, we slept late. Our hotel is blessedly very dark and quiet, a great inducement to sleep. I slept for 8 full hours with only one bathroom break which is insane for me. The hotel here has breakfast from 7 AM to Noon! I told Wife we could go early for breakfast and come back around 11:30 and have lunch LOL. Despite it all we still got out and were on the streets to do our thing by 10 AM.

It was cool and the streets had much fewer people it being Sunday morning. We are staying in what is called the Centro Historico, basically the old town. Once again we are in an area with what we now recognize as the the Mesoamerica/Caribbean  architecture style along with the Spanish Baroque and Neoclassical style - a style we saw in New Orleans.

A few general comments about our stay so far. Take these with a grain of salt as we have only been here about 30 hours so far. There is a lot to like in Guadalajara. It is not too hard to get around in this district. People in general have been very friendly. We really stand out. We have not seen a whole bunch of other tourists, but there is none of the feeling that people are watching you that we've experienced in some other countries. Living in New Mexico with its heavy Hispanic influenced culture, things here in how they look, how people act, food, etc, doesn't seem terribly alien...different for sure but in some ways comfortable. There is just enough English speaking that we've been able to get most questions answered. And Spanish is easier in many ways to navigate that languages in other places we've been. There has been so far much less of the aggressive hitting up of tourists for money that we've encountered some places. Food and other purchases have been much less expensive. So our initial impressions are very positive.

We were picture taking fools today! So even with ruthless editing their are still skads of them (that's a technical term among travel bloggers for more than a whole bunch). So shall we move on? Of course we shall because this blog is a 'WE' of one (Mwahahahahahaha)

As is my style, rather than go in chronological order, I will give you a sense of this city as I was perceiving it.

Street Scenes

The main drag by our hotel, Avenida Juarez is closed on Sunday's for bicycle traffic

People in Guadalajara

Mother daughter at city sign

Dancing in the Plaza de la Liberacion

Using my new blogger business card to get lovely people

A different version of the 'biker' dude

Creole, Spanish Baroque, Neo-classical

Patios and Laundry?

But of course

Street Art

I am not sure if the fish is eating the pineapple or they are dancing

"Damn it! I am a serious work of art!"

"Get this damn pigeon off of me!"

Retail Display as Art Form

I have been amazed at how much attention goes into the display of retail items in terms of pattern and eye appeal. Don't think I've encountered it anywhere else we've been

Palacio de Gobierno y Orozco

Basically city hall but with two phenomenal murals by Jose Clemente Orozco

Music in the streets
There are all kinds of folks at least on the weekends playing music with a wide range of quality

The 'all other' category

As often happens, when we need food we can't find it

We were in sad state when we saw this bakery with a big line for these

There was a woman speaking English to her children

She was originally from Guadalajara but now lives in the US

Turns out it was a holiday, Day of the Holy Kings

And this special cake is eaten on that day

We saw this service going on

She directed us to a huge market 

Mercado San Juan de Dios

Where we found...

...Vinny

Who had lived in Woodbridge Virginia for 17 years working in the cabinetry business before returning home. He took very good care of us with these

They are actually crisp tacos filled with beans and potatoes, covered with tomato sauce, lettuce, and pork

Monumental Fountain

And last but not least
Signs of the World!!!!
I would not call this a city that is a gold mine of signage opportunities
But I do like the variety of 'Walk' signals from 'calm' to 'determined' to 'forceful'

Mesoamerica 2019 - Day One, Arriving in Guadalajara

Only five days into 2019 and the intrepid travel blogging team of de-I and Wife are back on the road! 2019 is going to have a bunch of different versions of our travel patterns. There are different ways we want to do things. There are some things we want to try that we've not done, etc. We're starting off with a trip to Mexico and Cuba.

This trip represents a number of changes plus things we've wanted to do. First it is only 17 days. But de_I/Wife standards that is like a long weekend. Second, we've not gotten around to going to Mexico even though it is right next door. Stupid. If you are into the travel thing, why not go someplace easy to get to and not that expensive? Thirdly we wanted to add something during the winter where we went someplace warmer.

This trip will consist of three places. We are starting in the second city of Mexico, Guadalajara. This was where Wife had her first job out of college teaching first grade a school for missionaries. Then we are going to Cuba where we have private car/driver tour for 6 days. Finally we go back to Mexico for four days in Mexico City.

Getting to Guadalajara today was really very smooth. We prearranged and Uber pick-up that was right on time. From the moment the Uber picked us up until we were eating our breakfast burritos at the airport was a total of 35 minutes. That's going to the airport, checking our luggage, getting through security and buying breakfast. Amazing. Then the flights were on-time and even with a close connection we were not in any trouble. We were upgraded on the flight from Houston to Guadalajara. We had gotten our immigration forms online and our bags came off first from the plane so we whizzed through customs as well. A $20 cab ride and we were at the hotel and in our room by 3:35 in the afternoon.

We are staying in the Centro Historico and decided to find the Tourist Office to get some maps and stuff. It was supposed to be a mile away. We were immediately immersed into walking in this city. Of course it is Saturday and there are lots of people about shopping and just being out. Did I mention to say it was around 80 degrees here? We were in shirt sleeves after the winter weather we've had in Albuquerque. We spent a lot of time but never could find the tourist office. This is not a city that seems to be focused on tourism.

So we headed back toward the hotel and started to wander

This whole downtown area was just packed with people for street after street

Kind of reminded me of Japan in a way

 

Each country/culture has its own way of navigation

Here in Guadalajara it seems no one is particularly wedded to walking on one side of the sidewalk or the other. Crossing streets, people would wait for the light or until the street was free of traffic. Walking through the crowds was like crossing a Vietnamese street..you needed a bit of zen/just go with the flow mentality.

We were tired and realized we were hungry

We saw what looked like Donner Kebab but was in fact Tacos al Pastor

A little bit of non-language fumbling around but we managed to order a couple of tacos and a quesadilla. My picture did not turn out.

Fortified we went back out and now were in the mood to get into photos

There were so many food vendors out and their displays were so colorful

They cut corn off the cob here and give you a ton of toppings to eat with it

I have no idea what these snack foods are or why they have sauces put on top

But they had at least one happy customer

We hadn't done any prep work before we left the hotel but by luck we ran into the cathedral, a major site in town

At the sewing supply store

We passed the wedding shop district

There is much wall art which we will search out more of in the future

At our hotel

We ended up getting Torta's a type of sandwich for dinner. 

It has been a busy day

Off We Go!

I alluded in my last post that our travel life was going to change. So here we are only five days into the new year and Wife and I are bailing on snowy New Mexico fro 17 days of travel to warmer Mexico and warmer still Cuba!

We leave tomorrow morning. By mid afternoon we will be in Guadalajara Mexico. We are spending three days there and then it will be off the Cuba. We have a car and driver and will spend 6 days going around the island. Then it is back to Mexico for 4 days in Mexico City. Altogether we will be gone for 17 days, pretty short by our standards of the last four years. But that was part of our goals, too have some kind of break during the winter.

Stay tuned for the photographic onslaught.

Happy New Year 2019

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if I am in a dream. I can remember as I went into my 50's and 60's how all my peers would laugh and say that the 'Golden Years' were all a joke. You just deteriorated, got miserable and because of improved medicine you didn't die but just lingered on being miserable for a longer period of time. And I know that is indeed true for an awful lot of people.

But as I've related to before on this blog, despite the physical deterioration, the overall quality of life and enjoyment for Wife and I has seemed to expand and improve. We know we worked hard and a lot of it is our attitude, but some of it is just luck or God's grace as one's disposition would have it.

I mean 2018 was pretty awesome. We continued to travel. We continue to do the things we love. Our family is close to us even if physically far away. And 2019 promises to be an even more interesting year. We have a full slate of travel planned. Wife turns 70 and as said if anyone does a surprise party for her she will personally do surgery without anesthesia on them. (Actually Wife would never say anything like that. But I do think it captures her spirit about surprise parties). So no surprise party. Got it? Just well publicized party with no mystery whatsoever. Continuing to work at a controlled level continues to stimulate and bring satisfaction.

And in February, I will be testing a new project involving donating time and expertise in a developing country for the purposes of job creation that I have been working on for over two years when I travel to Accra, Ghana. More about that when we get closer.

So despite being in our 70's and our many decades of marriage (both Wife and I have been saying over and over to each other "45 years! That's a freaking lot of years. Can you believe we've been married for 45 freaking years!) life seems to continue to expand and enrich.

And let me leave you with this vision of beautiful, sunny New Mexico to lighten your spirits for the coming year.