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Guadalajara
2003
I had a 4-day weekend with no plans in May
2003, and I thought it might be cool to take my wife and daughter to
Guadalajara for a few days. I had been there a few years before on a
motorcycle and it's a magnificent city. After a quick call to
Aeromexico (a great airline), we were on our way!
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The downtown center of
Guadalajara is called the Historic District, or El Centro. It dates
to the 1500s. The town squares in El Centro are amazing and run for
several blocks. |
| There is always something going
on in the large public squares. This fellow serenaded the crowds and
was accompanied by three background dancers. |
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A colorful street vendor. |
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Some of the beadwork for sale
in Guadalajara's public squares. |
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Beatriz Hernandez is a historic
Mexican figure, and I was angling for a good photo of her without
realizing what was going on behind me... |
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Two Mexican clowns were
putting on a show for several hundred spectators. I was focused on
getting a good shot of Beatriz, while the clowns snuck up behind me.
The crowd had a good laugh when they saw how surprised I was when I looked
behind me. |
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My new best friend...
Great colors, don't you think? |
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The Degollado Teatro in
downtown Guadalajara's El Centro district. We didn't get a chance to
go inside this magnificent building, which I think is a good thing...now I
have an excuse to visit Guadalajara again. |
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Miguel Hidalgo, the father of
modern Mexico. |
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This is the Guadalajara
Cathedral. Actually, it is one of many, but this is the main
one. Construction started on it in the 1500s, and finished about a
century later. The yellow-tiled spires were rebuilt in the 1800s
after an earthquake. |
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Another shot of the church's
steeples, partially framed by the Rotunda de los Hombres. |
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One of the horse-drawn carts
for rides around the El Centro district. We had a very pleasant tour
in one of these on our last night in town. |
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I didn't see too much happening
with motorcycles in Guadalajara. Most of the street bikes were 125cc
two strokes and four strokes. If there's a helmet law, it's not
enforced.
Take a look at this one - it's
interesting. This is an old CB750 fitted with a Yamaha Road Star gas
tank and side covers. |
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Here's another shot of the Royal
Star/CB750. |
| Much to my surprise, the traffic
cops in Guadalajara are now using Harley-Davidson Sportsters. This
fellow graciously consented to having his picture taken. He turned
on his flashing strobe lights for me to add a bit of zip to the photo. |
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The traffic Sportster's tank
emblem. Jalisco is the state; Guadalajara is its capital. I
guess that makes this bike the equivalent of a CHP motor. |
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Here's another view of the
cathedral. |
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A few interior views of the
cathedral. The church is huge, rivaling any of the churches I've
seen in Europe. |
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There were a number of statues
inside the church; I photographed just a few of them. |
| Sue and I went for a walk one
morning before leaving for Lake Chapala when we spotted another
cathedral. There were cathedrals of this size every city block. |
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We took a guided tour into the
Mexican town of Tequila.
You can guess what they produced here.
Here's where it all starts, with the
cultivation of blue agave cactus. These plants take about 10 years
to mature. |
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Workers chop the leaves off of
the plants to get at the pinas (Spanish for pineapple), or the heart of
the plant. Each plant produces about 8 bottles of Tequila.
The tools these workers use are literally
razor sharp. After every few strokes the workers would stop and
sharpen the tools. Carlos, our guide, told us that occasionally
workers would accidentally amputate part of their own feet during this
operation.
The workers make about $24 a day, which is
good money in that area, but it is hard, hot, and dangerous work. |
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Pinas ready for loading onto the
truck. |
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These things are deceptively
heavy. I tried to move a small one and I could barely budge the
thing.
I would guess the Pinas weighed about 200
pounds. |
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Carlos, our guide, whom we found
through the Hotel De Mendoza (our hotel in Guadalajara).
Carlos did a great job for us. If you
would like to contact Carlos directly, here's an e-mail
link. |
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When the pinas are brought to
the factory, the first step in the Tequila production process is
baking. Here's what they look like after baking for several hours in
the oven. |
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Carlos broke off a piece of a
baked pina and let Erica and I taste it.
It was very sweet, with a faint Tequila
taste. |
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After baking, the pinas are
shredded and put through a press (the red machine in the
background). The press squeezes the juice from the shredded pina
pulp. |
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The juice then flows into large
vats, where it is left to ferment.
With no additional processing, the
fermented pina juice has about a 6% alcohol content.
This is how the Indians used to make
liquor, until the Spanish came on the scene in the 1600s. The
Spaniards introduced distillation, which increased the alcohol content to
40% to 50%. |
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Here are the distillers.
The operation at the La Cofradia factory is
very clean. |
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The distilled Tequila is then
bottled, as you see here. |
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After bottling, the bottles are
then loaded into crates and shipped all over the world. |
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The La Cofradia factory has a
tasting room, just as vineyards do, except you only need to taste one or
two samples to start feeling the effects.
Carlos is holding the premier grade
Tequila, which means it has been double distilled and uses 100% blue agave
juices. The top grades of Tequila sell for $400 per bottle. |
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Erica, after just one shot of
Tequila. |
| Our visit to the Tequila
factory was a lot of fun, and if you are ever in Jalisco (the Mexican
state in which Guadalajara is located), I highly recommend it. The
town of Tequila is about an hour from Guadalajara, and it is the only
place in the world in which Tequila is produced. |
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Tlaqueplaque (it's pronounced
"Tlocka Pocka") is a suburb of Guadalajara known for its
shopping. We spent a couple of hours there checking out the stores.
Here's Sue and Eri in the town square. |
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These were colorful lamps for
sale by one of the street vendors. |
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This is an interesting mural in
one of the government buildings. |
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And here's a facing mural. |
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This rooster acted like he owned
the town. Maybe he did. He seemed pretty comfortable strutting
around in the boot store, and did his "cocka-doodle-do" thing
every few minutes just to let everyone know who was in charge.
This rooster was loud. We heard him a
block away and just kind of wandered toward the noise until we found
him. There was no one else in the store.
This rooster was obviously the King of
TlaquePaque. |
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The restaurants in
Guadalajara are way above average in all areas except price...they were
much less expensive than restaurants in the United States or other Mexican
tourist areas.
This is the dining scene in
Santo Coyote, one of the fanciest restaurants in Guadalajara.
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Barbequed goat, slow roasting
on a spit in the Santo Coyote kitchen.
Barbacoa Birria is quite a
delicacy in Guadalajara. |
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Erica enjoying tortilla soup in
La Posada, an opulent and inexpensive restaurant in Ajijic, near Lake
Chapala. This restaurant's grounds were beautiful, and the food was
even better. |
| Lake Chapala is about an hour's
drive from downtown Guadalajara. It combines interesting shopping, a
lake that is in danger of disappearing, and a graceful retirement
community for many Norte Americanos and Canadians.
This is the cathedral in
Lake Chapala, along with a picture of Sunday morning services inside the
church.
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| The meat market in Chapala.
The stores there were actually quite clean. |
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Rotisserie-style chicken is also
popular. We saw rabbits being roasted on one rotisserie. |
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An outdoor street restaurant
in Chapala. |
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Barbacoa birria for sale in
Chapala. |
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A Mexican salad. The greens that look like sliced
peppers are actually sliced cactus leaves. |
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Salsa! Fresh made, great colors!
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Pretty flowers on display. |
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Fresh fruit for sale in one of the Chapala markets.
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Barbacoa Birria!
Or, as we gringos would say, barbequed goat! |
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Cactus fruit. These grow on the Saguaro cactus. They
make for colorful photography. You eat the fruit as you are peeling
the skin.
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Shades for sale. |
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Squash flowers. These are edible. I didn't try
any, but they sure look good.
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Chapala attracts its share of tourists, and where there are
tourists, there are refrigerator magnets... |
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And more tourist trinkets. Anyone need a frog?
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Lake Chapala's pier. The lake
is receding, and there is some concern that this 50 mile by 12 mile lake
may actually dry up. The Mexican government is taking steps to
prevent that from happening. |
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Fried fish. These little guys make great photo
subjects, but I don't think my stomach would let me try them...
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One of several churches in
Chapala.
No one knows how the name Chapala originated. The people
who say they know claim it has nothing to do with the town's chapels. |
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A colorful entrance to one of Chapala's hotels. |
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Chapala is a neat little tourist
and retirement town with a bunch of artsy stores. This metal deer
was actually for sale in one of the stores. |
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More ornamental statuary for
sale in Chapala... |
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One of the mannequins in a
clothing store. I played a bit with the Sony's exposure
control. This shot was made at 1 EV below the recommended
exposure. I think it looks better than the one I took at the
recommended value. |
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An interesting and colorful
doorway to one of the Chapala stores. |
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One store had a bunch of
paintings with this theme. Whatever floats your boat, I guess... |
| A mask. This made for an
exceptionally interesting photo. |
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And another mask. The Sony
CD400 is an interesting camera and it does a great job. |
| An interesting single-cylinder
125cc Honda. |
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The Honda did not have a very
sexy name. The Honda Cargo. I just can't see guys lining up to
buy a bike with a name like the "Cargo." |
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The Mercado Libertad is a
huge indoor market with individual stores.
Here's a guy selling Brahma
bull souvenirs. |
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Color abounds. This dress
made a good photo subject. |
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Ostrich-skinned cowboy
boots. They were far less expensive than they would have been
in the United States, and the quality appeared to be quite good. |
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Another mask, with multiple
colors. |
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Yo-yo heaven. More colors.
This was a great area for exercising the Sony CD400. |
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Tops. Colors.
More fun. |
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Another souvenir shop.
Note the fake iguana on the right. |
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The man in the moon, for sale
in Guadalajara. |
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On the last night of our visit,
I asked the concierge to recommend a place where the Mexicans eat (I
didn't want to go to a restaurant frequented by out-of-towners). The
concierge said okay, and wrote the address for La Gorda on a piece of
paper and told me to give it to the taxi driver.
When we first pulled up, I thought the
place was styled to look like a Taco Bell, but then I realized that it was
the other way around...
This is the first place I've ever been
where absolutely no one spoke English. We had to order by looking at
the food and pointing. |
| This is just a random shot of
another place frequented by the locals on a busy Guadalajara street. |
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The girls loved their dinners,
as you can see....
And we were where the only gringo and
gringas in the place. |
| A parting shot of the Degollado
Teatro, this time in the evening. The Sony CD400 Mavica sure does a
great job, and we sure had a great time in Guadalajara! |
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