Monday, February 2, 2015
It was with heavy hearts that we left Los Arroyos Verdes.
We went and we said goodbye to Guadalupe, her son Pollo and Eduardo. We also got to say goodbye to Lulu the dog, but we didn't get to say goodbye to Negra, the wonderfully sweet dog that chose to go for walks with us. I would have felt too emotional anyway. Maybe we will be back next year.
Ken had one more visit with Dr. Victor. He got a note in Spanish from him for any future doctor appointments regarding his back.
We drove by way of San Francisco, Rincon and La Penita. We took the bypass going around Tepic. It was pouring rain when we left. The laterals were full of water and more like rivers. I forgot to mention that when we left Los Arroyos Verde the power was out because of the storm. Guadalupe even had candles burning in the office. As we traveled along and headed east toward Guadalajara the rain eased up. It was still overcast and not sunny. We saw beautiful scenery from hills to mountains and farmers fields. That included fields of blue agave in the area of Tequila, Jalisco.
Being February 2 in Mexico it was not Groundhog Day it was the working man's day off for Constitution Day (it is often now celebrated on a day following a weekend instead of the Feb. 5 date). The traffic was heavy on the roads. In a few spots the traffic came to a grinding halt and it was like a traffic jam. At one point we were stopped for over half an hour. Little traffic flowed the other way either. We realized that a huge truck carrying tomatoes had toppled it's load. There were tomatoes all over the side of the road. Looks like no one got hurt. Someone however would have lost a lot of money and had a good story to tell.
Driving in to a big city like Guadalajara we made sure our Telcel was working. We put money on our account. We wanted to use Google maps. We reserved a room in downtown Guadalajara at the Mendosa. Once we arrived safely in Centro we checked into our room. We were very hungry as we did not eat lunch. We decided to give the hotel restaurant a try. It was a rather memorable meal in a good way. Ken had fried chicken and I had grilled fish with garlic. Both were extremely delicious and the service was outstanding. We were glad to be back at the Mendosa again. This time we got a room with a balcony overlooking the pool (room 314). The service is good at this Hotel with bell boys to help with luggage and someone to assist with parking. There is room service from the restaurant if needed. The internet is somewhat good, not sure it is fast enough for a phone call.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
We both had wonderfully restful sleeps last night.
Even though the Hotel De Mendosa is in downtown Guadalajara the rooms remain quiet. It is quite a bit cooler in temperature in this part of Mexico compared to the coast. It was a conundrum knowing what to wear. Since we had such a good meal last night in the hotel restaurant we decided to partake in breakfast there also. We both had omelettes that were vegetarian. Odd thing when we got the omelettes we realized we had ordered light omelettes that did not have yolk in them. These so called light omelettes, however, came with fried panella cheese. After returning to change once because of the weather we were finally on our way out to explore Guadalajara.
We cut through Centro on our way east. We do not thoroughly investigate the beautiful buildings in the downtown because we will do that at another time. We just wanted to get out get some exercise and explore other parts of the city.
One thing I wanted to find was art stores in Guadalajara. Mexico cities are often set up in such a way that there will be many stores of the same type in one area. Dentists for example would be grouped together within a few block radius. Well I hit the jackpot with art stores and must've found almost half a dozen. Many of the ones I found had good quality products that I have seen in stores like Dick Blick NOB.
We didn't get too far before our stomachs started telling us that we should find someplace to eat. We found the Black Cat Café, although in Spanish it was called El Gato Negra Café. We saw other interesting cafés. One with a two headed, arty looking, painted cow along with other funky art pieces.
Our chosen lunch spot was comida corrida, a rather authentic Mexican restaurant. By then we were's pretty tired from walking so much. We asked for menus but the owner let us know that we could get a full meal with a drink for 55 pesos. We had choices for the main meal like chilli relleno and chicken with a mole verde sauce. The guayaba drink was delicious as was the rest of the meal.
After lunch we found a vintage clothing store. It was okay but we are so spoiled NOB with Value Villages, etc. that it didn't seem like anything special. An Aurora Bodega grocery store or supermercado was the next place we explored. After that we saw some wonderful street art in the form of murals on buildings. Much of the time after that we were so tired that we were just sort of dragging her feet. Our walk was after all 13 km in a much higher altitude than we are used to. After our walk today we spent the remainder of the day resting.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
We went for an enjoyable walk in the sun to a nice area of fine coffee shops.
We had a wonderful Mexican breakfast with coffee served out of a Clay canister. The coffee had a sort of cinnamon like taste and was very satisfying. Our breakfast was served outside under an umbrella. I had huevos Mexicanos and Ken had chilaquiles with fried eggs. We were in an arty district that we had been in yesterday.
Once we decided to get up and back out we walked south at first. We came upon what appeared to be an monastery and it was like right in the middle of the downtown. It was now called Jardin De San Francisco De Asis. Obviously some of the buildings had been taken down but definitely the big church remained.
We changed the way we were going to again be traveling in a westerly direction. One unusual thing we saw was a typewriter repair shop that appeared to be full of, yes, typewriters. Perhaps clients decided not to come and pick them up after the computers became popular.
Around this time we decided to start checking out little cafés to see what we could find that would be interesting for lunch. Once we finally did settle on a restaurant we kinda of regretted it. The service was good but the food came and it was not even hot along with the rice being burnt. So much for a great lunch at Guadalajara! From now on I'm going to try to check out the bathrooms before we decide to sit down. If I had done that I would not have eaten at that restaurant.
We found ourselves back in an area we had been at way back to the beginning of November where there was a huge church then onto Avenue of the Americas. We walked past old houses, big beautiful old houses.
We continue to walk west until we actually came to the western entrance to the actual city of Guadalajara. By the end of the walk yesterday we had walked 17.68 km. We were really tired. As we were continuing on our westerly direction we came upon a smallish mall that was built around a circle - Centro Magno. It had three floors and it it had stores like those you would see in Canada. However many of the products were made in Mexico. There was a somewhat of an imitation Apple store called a Mac store. There was a geek section of technological kinds of things that you could buy. There was an actually wonderful beauty salon there too.
We came to a gateway looks like something you'd see in Paris it was called the Arcos Guadalajara. It was by the Minerva Glorieta. The painter Jose Clemente Orozco, one of the leaders of the Mexican mural renaissance that began in 1920, lived near the area. He had a park named after him. When he passed away he left his home to be turned into a art gallery. On the day we were there the gallery was unfortunately closed.
At this point we decided we better turn back and head for the hotel. At one point we were going to take the bus or even a taxi but we still had energy. We decided let's just walk back and that's exactly what we did.
I just want to mention a little bit about the weather in Guadalajara. In the morning when we first got out it was a bit chilly and you needed a jacket. By about noon it had warmed up and you could probably get away without a sweater. As the afternoon went along it was almost hot. Once the sun went down it was again quite chilly.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
We had to pack up all the things that we had brought into the hotel room so we could take them out to the van. It was very late in the morning before we were ready to go and decided we might as will get something to eat for lunch before we left Guadalajara. We walked to the Mercado Liberadad. We are such creatures of habit. We went to the same old little restaurant that we always do when were in that Mercado. One of my favorite things to see in that area are the horses pulling carriages. The carriages look like they come straight out of Cinderella. For some reason the owners put these fluffy looking things on the horses heads, they look like dust busters. Poor horses, made to look silly.
It was relatively easy to drive out of Guadalajara as we use Google Maps. If you make a mistake Google Maps reroutes for you, getting you back where you should go.
As we drove down the highway the sun lulled me into a restless sleep. Between the sleep, change in altitude and the great distances we walked the past few days I was whooped today. Good thing all I had to do was sit in the car and take the odd picture.
We drove passed signs for roads that turn into Ocotlan, La Barca and Morelia to name a few. We were on the toll road 15D. We drove into the state of Michoacan. The landscape changed to having pine trees along the road. Just as it was turning dark we came to Atlacomulco, northwest of Mexico City. We stayed at the Cantalagua Inn, eating supper in the hotel restaurant shortly after our arrival. Most outstanding feature of the evening - cold inside and out.
The room had an electric heater built into the wall. We put it on immediately after getting into the room. We also turned on all the lights, etc, anything to heat up the cold room. After all we had to get into that bed and sleep. We both went to bed in clothes, becoming too hot in the night.
Friday, February 6, 2015
We woke up in the cold, too. It was 2° C outside and it did not feel much better on the inside.
We got ready to get out and about in record time. Our bland breakfast was eaten in the Hotel restaurant. We did everything in a hurry so we could get out into the van where potentially it would be warmer from the sun.
Back on the highway we realized we were now on the Arconorte, the bypass highway north of Mexico City. We were on our way to Vera Cruz. We took the short cut on highway 136 through Aizaco. That way we did not have to go down into Puebla. We like Puebla just thought it would be too cold. We also bypassed Jalapa.
The Arconorte is a relatively new highway with only a few towns near it. There are lots of farms. We saw herds of cows, horses, goats and sheep. Ken saw a shepherd texting while tending his flock out in a field. Got to love that juxtaposition of the old and the new that Mexico has to offer.
Vera Cruz, having only been here for one week in the past, we did not remember what it was like entering the city. One thing we did remember were the trucks full of sugar cane. We remembered the old buildings you could see as you crossed the bridge getting close to centro. Awe the excitement of coming into a city where you have an idea of what to expect and you know you like it.
Even though we just arrived we had fun that evening. We had drinks at the Gran Hotel. I had a chelada - about an inch of lime juice in your glass, ice and then beer. This is a drink not found on the west coast. We were outside on a terrace and a parade just happened by. Quite spectacular music wise and visually. Plus the main square had many different musical troupes set up ready to play the traditional musica of Vera Cruz called Son Jarocho. We saw instruments included marimbas, bass cellos (?), harps, violins, small accordions, small mandolins. Not sure of all the names exactly but very different from what you see in other places.
We ate at the famed The Gran Cafe de la Parroquia. We only ate food and did not drink coffee because of the time of day but will tell more about that little display tomorrow. I had a dish called Veracruzana, quite apropos don't you think? My dish was two perfectly fried eggs on white rice (yeah I know, ugh white rice, but it was actually delicious), with black beans (the beans of choice on the east coast) and fried bananas. Was it ever delicious. Ken's dish was Frijoles Refritos a la Veracruzana con Plantanos which is refried black beans, cheese on top with fried bananas.
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