day 5: guadalajara - of churches and museums in centro historico, and the visit to tonala

12 Feb 2006 (Sunday)

We stumbled out of the bus bleary-eyed as it rolled into the Central de Neuvo bus terminal at Guadalajara 7 hours after we'd got on.

From there, we took a taxi to Hotel El Aposente, a hotel tt we had picked right out of Lonely Planet just after we'd got onto the bus, just because it had been described as having a fountain.

Well. We got our fountain.



Anyway we checked into the hotel a little after 4am. It was a little traumatic coz the hotel had been all dark and the door locked and we'd rung the bell a couple of times to no avail.

It turned out the concierge had been asleep or something.

Nonetheless, we got our room.

And what a nice room it was.



Ben in middle of said room.

I liked this hotel. And room. I got *one* whole bed to myself. Muahaha. Ben and Alvin had to share the other bed, of course. So I obviously got the better deal.

And this hotel was amazing. It was small and quaint and historical, built into this old shophouse-type building tt retained so much of its charm. Of course, it was a little dark, and seeing a cockroach for the first time in almost a year got squeaks from me tt Ben won't stop ribbing me about, plus I ended up flooding the bathroom coz I didn't know tt the drain had been covered...

But it was very pretty.

When we woke up in the morning for breakfast, we got a better look at our courtyard/cafe where we would have our breakfasts, coffees and nightly chats (and beers).



Pretty? Okay. Now think early 19th century.





And my yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs mexicano. YUM.

From here, we went to church. It was Sunday, after all. And there was absolutely NO REASON to miss church. Just where we were, there were 13 churches within walking distance. The nearest church was just around the corner (very literally). In fact, you could hear bells chime every single hour signalling a new mass each time!

So I attended my first ever mass in Espanol, conducted by a priest so ancient tt he couldn't really walk. But tt said, the mass was only 35 min long. Wahaha.

And from church, we walked over to the Centro Historico of Guadalajara to check it out.



This is the kind of architecture tt adorns the Centro Historico.



And this is a statue of Miguel Hidalgo in the plaza, the Mexican hero who led Mexico to independence. Pigeon optional, of course.



This is the twin-towered cathedral tt is the key attraction to Centro Historico.



Closer up?



And this is the Court of Justice.



How can we lawwwww students not take a photo here? ;)

From the plaza, it was down the street...



To the Regional Museum of Guadalajara. They were having some exhibition on paleonthology at this time.

So we just had to look at some elephants (the pre-historic kind).



Bones I mean.



Sabre-toothed tiger!



Ooh. And pre-historic waving man. :) So cute.



Other cute pre-historic objects.



And on the second floor...



And... Look what I found, ma!



We even had terracotta warriors from China here. In Guadalajara Mexico!



Ooh. And my new head-dress.



Heh heh heh.

And from the museum...

It was on to alfresco dining at another plaza.



Ben and Alvin.

Obviously, we ordered cappucino again.



Yet another cup of cappucino.



Ben smoking. What's new?



And the food's come! Alvin with this beef dish...



That comes with tortilla skins.



Ben with same said dish.

Much to my chargin, I got propositioned by this guy at the table behind us. He wrote down some kinda poem in Espanol on this napkin and got the waitress to pass it to me.



Said guy and friend trying to talk to me.



And what said guy wrote on napkin. Translators anyone???

It was a great source of entertainment for my two fellow travelling-companions, tt's all I can say. Sigh.

Boy was I ever relieved to get out of there.

Ben wanted to go to Tonala, which was the handicrafts headquarters of Guadalajara (and Mexico, for tt matter). On the way, he bought himself a (second) pair of sunglasses for 50 pesos.



First pair of sunglasses: 200 pesos.
Second pair of sunglasses: 50 pesos.
Not taking off the price tag before wearing sunglasses: Priceless (for photographer tt is).

So from the city, it was onto a cab...



Towards tonala.

And I got an unglam photo of Alvin while I was at it. Apparently I was sleeping DAMN unglamly on the way back too, but fortunately they didn't take any photos of me while I was sleeping. Heng ah.



Tonala was a shoppers' paradise. If you love pretty things and handicrafts. All sorts of handmade woodwork, candles, masks, boxes, carvings and statues, ceramic art; you named it they had it. And it was oh so cheap. I got a set of 3 candles with an angel on a moon for 45 pesos. I think it would sell in Singapore for at least $30. And Ben got a wooden box and a brick mask for very cheap. I think the mask only cost 30 pesos, but it would probably sell for $50 in Singapore at least. The only problem tt we had was in the language: I had to say "cuanto cuestas" so much, but I could never understand the answer tt the shop owners gave me.

We walked for hours just chionging through, because it really was a massive market.

We stopped at this cafe for a drink, a small bite, and in Ben's case, another smoke...



...Before rushing back off again to complete the Tonala Mercado circuit.

Then it was back to the hotel on a taxi with a fucking chauvinistic driver who really pissed me off because he refused to listen to my directions and would only listen to Ben, just because I was a female. Ben and Alvin were both very amused coz I was cursing the damn cab driver and the whole fucking patriachial society as we were walking back to our room.

Dinner was at this place called Restaurant La Chata, which was featured in Lonely Planet. We took a while to walk there coz I'd mixed up directions, but we did get there in the end.

And trust me, the food was worth it.



So were the coffees, for tt matter.



Me and my frappacino.



Ben's second cup.

Oh. And the dessert.



Chongos Zamoranos. A how shall we say?... very memorable dessert.

After dinner, we bought 10 bottles of Corona, got ourselves effectively lost (and me very tense), walked for a hell of a long time...

And then when we finally got back to the hotel, got ourselves effectively drunk.



Taa-daa! The Coronas!

Well, not really. But me with 2 bottles of Corona and cards...



And Ben with a little more than a bottle of Corona and said cards...



Unglam lah. Unglam lah. We know.

But hey, at least we all slept pretty damn well tt night. Wahaha.