USA - Canada - Mexico 2016 - Day 58

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Wednesday, 2 November 2016 - Guadalajara, Mexico

Travelled into Guadalajara in the hotel taxi this morning to take a walk around the old town. The population of Guadalajara and the surrounding suburbs is around 9 million, that means heavy traffic. Records from 1542 show the population as 126 people. No room for cowards in the traffic here, if you want to move, you just have to stick the nose of your car in to get the spot. A lot of small motorcycles flitting through the traffic and you can see why, they make progress when nothing else moves. That brings some strange sights but nothing stranger than walking down the street and seeing these small motorcycles for sale in appliance or furniture stores.

There are many very old buildings in the old centre of town especially the churches and the cathedral on which construction commenced in 1558. Another of the churches is the Templo de Aranzazu where the wedding will be held on Saturday.

Then it was off to the Liberty Markets, the oldest markets in Guadalajara for the ladies to do some shopping. These markets are huge.

After the markets it was off to lunch to catch up with family and future extended family then an excursion to a different section of town to find a recommended location to see a live Mariachi Band. Guadalajara is considered the birthplace of Mariachi music. Where we were was one of the centres for the celebration of the Day of the Dead and numbers started to grow as the afternoon progressed and I guess the police were expecting trouble as the numbers in the area started to grow as well.

The two trips about town were made with non-english speaking drivers. After listening to the band we decided to head back to the motel so I rang the hotel taxi to let him know where we were. Then the confusion started. A fast talking Australian talking to a Mexican with a reasonable english vocabulary and street names that I found quite unpronounceable. Never mind the fact that he thought we were somewhere near where he dropped us off and there were cross streets there by the same name. Eventually, after a number of phone calls, we eventually handed the phone to a policeman, who couldn't speak english, and got him to explain to the driver where we were. With traffic almost at a standstill, it took a long time for him to find us but we eventually made it back. Quite an experience.

Tomorrow we are taking a tour of some tequilerias to see the process, and sample the product I suppose. It's an all day trip so tomorrow's story may be (a) nonsense, (b) very short, (c) non-existent. We'll see how we go.