I thought I was going to hate Guadalajara the first evening we were there. Our hotel was on the edge of the Centro Histórico, but we couldn’t quite get our bearings and we wandered through streets of storefront after storefront overflowing with a lot of crap, it seemed to me. For every interesting shop offering every kind of dried chile pepper you could possibly imagine, there were a dozen filled to the ceiling with birthday decorations, or toys, or cheap knickknacks. It was overwhelming and I was tired.
We had a hard time finding the street signs to match up on our map (as Maddy likes to recount, “Why are all the streets called “Cruce en Verde” – oh, that’s “Cross on green!”). Finally we found the Plaza Guadalajara, but it was practically empty, only one or two of its many café tables occupied. I was famished, so we went upstairs into the only restaurant we could see on the plaza, and it provided a perfect respite. We sat by an open window drinking margaritas and eating some decent food as the sun went down and the lights came up on the buildings, including the beautiful Catedral Metropolitana and the Palacio Municipal.
[Palacio Municipal on the Plaza Guadalajara, Mar. 28]
We wandered for awhile after dinner, but unknown cities can feel creepy at night. I got more than the usual stares and unwanted attention, being tall and blonde, and people approaching us selling stuff were more aggressive than I’d previously encountered. I was thinking how grateful I was we’d only have one full day in the city itself (we’d be taking buses out to Lake Chapala and to Tonalá on successive days).
The next morning, of course, everything looked different. As when many years ago I’d traveled across the U.S. and the murky landscape just beyond our dark campsite that was surely full of lions and tigers and bears, not to mention psycho fellow campers, would turn out in the morning to be a meadow full of chirping birdies and wildflowers. In this case, the lovely Plaza Liberación, the prettiest of the plazas in the Centro Histórico, was full of chirping birdies and blooming jacaranda trees. Little kids were laughing and running around the fountains. And though there weren’t a lot people around, since many had left the city for the two-week Easter holidays, I saw a couple of fair-haired tourists that made me think I wouldn’t feel so much like a walking zoo specimen and money dispenser.
[Plaza Liberación, looking towards the Catedral, Mar. 29]
We stopped at one of the tourist booths in the Plaza Tapatía for a map and talked for a long time with a friendly, enthusiastic tour guide who spoke a mile a minute, some of which I understood. Then we made our way down to the end of the plaza where the Instituto Cultural Cabañas (photo on left) is located, with its famous Orozco murals. Inside, we caught a tour just starting with a guide named Ruben, who it turns out wrote the guidebook sold in the museum store. He was fabulous, told great stories, was very informative, and Maddy and I found him pretty easy to understand – in part because he often spoke to include the three young boys in the group. Here’s where I was most glad that I’d studied up on Mexican history, because Orozco’s murals depict his version, for instance showing Spanish Conquistador Cortez as a robot without a heart and a horse with a steel car engine in its side (the Spanish brought horses to the continent and clad them in armor, as they were themselves, making both men and horses appear monstrous to the Indians). The building itself has a fascinating history as an orphanage, and in 1997 it was designated a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site.
[Orozco mural on the ceiling of the Instituto Cultural Cabañas]
After the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, we checked out the cool modern sculptures out front, then walked over to the Mercado San Juan de Dios and ate lunch at one of the many food stalls. We went to the Museo Regional, but unfortunately there was an unscheduled closing of the upstairs part – the main galleries – so we didn’t get to see much. We visited the giant Catedral Metropolitana, which is quite beautiful inside with its clean creamy walls and brown and gold trim crisscrossing its vaulted ceiling.
Then we went on a long adventure looking for a bookstore, getting various confusing directions and misdirections. But when you’re traveling in a foreign culture, everything is interesting. Such as stopping in one of the little storefront pharmacies to buy bandaids from one of the white-coated clerks standing behind the display cases. Such as sitting at the long counter of a coffee shop sipping coffees and being entertained by the waitresses who were goofing around, cooing at someone’s baby, and ribbing the good-natured papa about who the real father was. We eventually found a good-sized bookstore, though not the book I was looking for (a field guide to identify Mexican flora and fauna), and on the way back to the hotel we also found an Internet café and an organic panaderia (bakery), one of the many panaderias right near the hotel.
That was pretty much our full day in Guadalajara. We came back and swam in the hotel pool and/or showered, then went out for dinner at La Tequila, which was another interesting adventure in itself! It would have been nice to see more of the buildings and museums, and to explore the area around the University of Guadalajara, but we ran out of time.
[My favorite fountain: Fuente Inmolación a Quetzalcóatl in the Plaza Tapatía]
[Courtyard inside the Instituto Cultural Cabañas]
[Orozco's "Hombre de Fuego," painted in 1939; photo by Maddy Gersh]
Hi my name is arturo and I'm from Guadalajara (GDL) and I feel glad thar u like my city, is like a little peace of me, maybe I don't know all GDL but I feel proud about it and I hope U come back 1 day to learn more and maybe get away the wrong imagen that many people has about my city, Well I found this page and I like If U wanna know more about GDL like the bullet in the clock of "palacio municipal" or "la casa de los perros" (The dog's house), The malls "la minerva", la "Basilica de zapopan" and more, U can ask and I can help U thanks 4 read it bye
Posted by: ARTURO ALVAREZ | Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 01:53 PM