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April 8, 2019

Guachimontones – the Round Ruins

Today we visited Guachimontones, one of only circular ruins in the world.

You’ve most likely heard of Tulum and Chichen Itza, but Guachimontones is unique and surely the most interesting place you’ve never heard of! Located just an hour outside Guadalajara, this prehispanic archeological site made for a wonderful day trip.

We dug out our hiking floppy hats and slathered on sunscreen, because we knew it would be an active day spent outside on a mountain top in relentless sun. Even so, since we got an early start, the weather was surprisingly pleasant.

We paid just 590 pesos apiece ($30) (plus lunch and tips) to be picked up at our home in Tlaquepaque and driven more than an hour northwest of the city, far into the countryside to the village of Teuchitlan, to experience the ruins and learn some history during a free guided tour (both Spanish and English versions are available).

We ended up getting a private tour because the bus was full, an added bonus! Our driver, Hector, spoke English well but agreed to speak Spanish during the ride up to help us practice.

When we arrived, after driving through the village of Teuchitlan (where Hector said the main industry is sugar cane), we walked up to the Visitors Center and watched a short video in English that described Guachimontones. We learned that the site was constructed between 350 BC and 350 AD and served as the base for what is called the Teuchitlan tradition. The population reached about 40,000 people at its peak.

The people of the time, perceived through their own works

Beto shows us a social scene

We then set off with a guide named Ivan (and about 30 other people) to hike a quarter mile up a steep cobblestone road to the sacred grounds on the hilltop. There we found a series of temples built in concentric, stepped circular pyramids, each surrounded by a moat-like grass “patio,” which in turn was surrounded by about eight lower temple-like structures. The hill continued climbing, with more Guachimontones farther up.

Since we had chosen to take the Spanish tour instead of waiting an hour or two for the English one, we were a little at a loss to understand everything. Ivan said the central circular structure (the Guachi) is where the priests go, as well as people dressed in bird costumes, to appeal to the gods. , but we got to experience the music that they play during rituals (Bob was chosen as one of the musicians, with a drum that looked like a tambourine), learn a little bit of a dance, and climb to the top of an unexcavated “Guachi.”

There were also a number of ball fields where warriors competed with balls made out of animal skins, hitting them with their hips and shoulders Winners had the honor of having their skin cut open and pieces of precious black obsidian inserted inside, while losers could have their fingers or hands cut off. The “Messi” or “Ronaldo” (if you follow soccer) of the Teuchitlan world might have raised bumps of obsidian all up and down his arms! (We also learned that they wore little and woman tattooed their breasts, but that’s a story for another day.)

This ancient civilization thrived for about 700 years before being presumably wiped out by the Tequila volcano in about 350 A.D. The museum in the Visitors Center displayed incredible murals depicting life and events of the time, including the tragic volcano.

This picture from the Visitors center depicts the volcano

After the tour, which included some independent exploration, we headed with our driver Hector to the village by the lake below, where we dined in a lovely lakeside restaurant called Monte Carlo (the most expensive place we have eaten in Mexico, though lunch and drinks still came to only about $25).

Learn more about Guachimontones here.

March 22, 2019

Daily Life in Tlaquepaque

I know you think our life is so glamorous now because we live in Mexico, but actually, it’s just life, only with different people, language, transportation and especially food.

This is a Day in the Life in Tlaquepaque:

6: 45 AM: (Or earlier, if the cats are hungry.) Bob and Lisa get up. Shower. Make coffee. Eat breakfast. Do homework. Pack a snack (Lisa – tangerine, Bob – banana).

7:45 AM: Lexie gets up, showers, eats, and packs Goldfish or crackers.

8:45 AM: Walk 7 blocks to Guadalajara Language Center.

9-11 AM: Morning Spanish Class with Monica.

11-11:30 AM – Break. Eat snack. Bob goes walking and exploring; Lisa often talks with Aryk or chats with other students.

11:30 AM-1:30 PM – Afternoon class with Edith.

School’s Out!

1:30-2:30 PM – School’s out! Lunchtime. The three of us walk two blocks to Jardin Hidalgo, the plaza in the center of Tlaquepaque, to search for a lunch that is late for us but early for Mexicans, who eat lunch from 2-5 PM. We have favorite puestos, or food stands – the Elote Truck for Lisa and Lexie, where Lexie gets yellow corn on a cob on a stick with butter (25 pesos, $1.25) , and Lisa gets an elote/chayote (corn and a delicious type of squash) combo with cream, manchego cheese and salsa (20 pesos, $1). Bob goes off to get a lonche, a plain meat sandwich on extraordinarily delicious bread. Lisa and Bob enjoy raspadas, which are fruit in syrup with crushed ice, and we find a shady park bench to sit and enjoy our treats.

Pineapple Raspadas

Elote truck at night

Elote/Chayote with crema and queso

There’s also a taco place we love underneath the big enclosed marketplace, where Lexie enjoys tacos blanditos (plain beef taco made with two flour tortillas) and Lisa orders molitas (spicy beef abd melted cheese on a fried corn tortilla, with salsa, lime, and onions).

Molitas

Tacos blanditos

Or we go to Quarto Kilo, a delicious hamburger chain with freshly BBQed burgers and spicy fries.

After Lunch

3:30-Bedtime: After lunch, we might peruse art galleries, do work in a coffee shop, go for a hike with the school director, go to the gym for a workout, write a blog, practice our instruments, go for a run, take a walking tour of Tlaquepaque, clean the apartment, take cats to the vet, drop off or pick up laundry from the local laundromat, go to the Mercado to buy fresh meat, seafood, bread and produce, stop into a bakery for breakfast treats, visit a mini-supermarket for sundries, walk to Wal-Mart or Soriana for groceries, or just head home and watch movies.

Getting claws trimmed

Salsa classes

GDL International Film Festival

Quiet Weekdays

School takes a lot out of us, so our weekdays are pretty quiet. In the evening we’ll eat out once or twice a week, or just pick up a pizza and bring it home. We might take a Salsa dance class (50 pesos), go into Guadalajara ($88 pesos on Uber) to walk around the Centro Historico or see a movie at the Cinemex, or hang out at home playing Pinochle or watching a couple of episodes of Gravity Falls on Netflix.

Gravity Falls

Transportation

Our truck sits idle in the driveway, as we walk everywhere in town and otherwise take Uber, which is dirt cheap in Mexico. Public buses are also close, so we don’t feel the need to drive.

Culture

We have had a chance to enjoy a variety of culture: Hospicio Cabanas (museum), Lucha Libre (wrestling), bullfighting, Atlas futbol, the Guadalajara International Film Festival, the Jalisco Symphony Orchestra, and lots of free mariachi music and Ballet Folclorico. We enjoyed the huge Guadalajara birthday celebration and the Herradura Tequila Train.

Getting culture in the city!

Cycling Sundays

On Sundays, Lisa and Bob hop on our road bikes and we ride 10-15 miles on the Via RecreActiva, which is basically major roads in Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara that are closed to traffic from 8 AM-2 PM so people can exercise. I call it obstacle cycling because of all the dogs, kids on big wheels, skateboarders and clueless novices we have to dodge around. Still, for hard-core cyclists like Bob and Lisa, it’s better than nothing.

Finding an inclusive church with English services within a reasonable distance has proved impossible, so my Sunday sermons are found online at Lisa’s pastor brother Peter Hamm’s YouTube page.

We’re planning to do a lot more exploring starting next week, when school is done, though Lexie will be continuing to study during the second session, and Bob and Lisa plan to keep studying every day. But otherwise, there are galleries to visit and sights to see!

February 26, 2019

Bullfighting in Mexico

In the interest of experiencing as much of Mexican culture as we can, Bob and I attended a bullfight recently at Plaza de Toros “Nuevo Progresso” in Guadalajara.

We had to experience it once. We left after one bullfight.

It started out fun

It started out fun. Upon arrival, outside the stadium, we encountered a carnival of food, drinks and booths selling cowboy hats, candy, hand fans, bullfighter-branded seat cushions, and nieve garrafa (ice cream made in a canister). The building itself resembled a small Roman coliseum, and was decorated with image upon image of famous matadors. There was matador art and metal bull sculptures, balloons and cotton candy and, of course, tequila and cervesas. I saw a young girl in a bright red, traditional ruffled costume. Women wore high heels and white embroidered tops. Men dressed nattily. We were underdressed in our chinos and jeans.

The sport’s Spanish origins were evident in a tent outside,
where paella and wine were served by waiters
in an elegant setting before the bullfight started.

Photos of famous matadors were mounted outside on the stadium walls

Once we got inside, we took our places on the concrete seats with an excellent view of the round stadium. The show began promptly at 4:30 PM with matadors in gaudy, glittery costumes parading around the ring to the blaring bullfighting music that I recognized from the opera “Carmen.” It was festive and colorful.

The big introduction

Prepping the ring like the infield of a baseball game

Introducing the bull

But that’s where the fun ended

This is how the “competition” went down: Five or six matadors essentially ganged up on the poor bull, making a mockery of the majestic animal while the crowd cheered. First they taunted him to get him confused and angry, waving bright pink capes to lure him toward them and then scampering behind barricades.

It was a dance, as the matador drew the bull closer

Once they got the bull good and mad, the main matador, a peacock of a man in sparkly gold with a sword and red cape, arrived, posing and preening to roars of the crowd. He then performed a number of moves to trick the bull and make himself look important, pausing to soak in the crowd’s approval. The people all around us cheered every time the bull was tricked. (We were rooting for the bull.)

Next, a rider on a horse in heavily padded protection trotted around the periphery of the ring, raised a long, decorated spear and stabbed the bull in the shoulder, then yelped triumphantly as the crowd screamed, “Ole!” Soon the matadors were also stabbing the bull with smaller decorated sticks, and as the blood streamed down the back of the bull, the crowd again shouted, “Ole!” (I am providing no pictures of this.)

In the end, the chief matador had the “privilege” of slaughtering the bull with a brutal stab of a shiny long sword, and after the cheering was over, the dead bull was dragged away behind two horses.

It was truly repugnant

Bob knew I would have trouble dealing with the blood in this sport, but even he was utterly disgusted. Long before the first fight was over, he told me he was ready to leave. The stadium was only about ten percent full, so obviously Mexicans aren’t that enamored of bullfighting anymore either.

The entire scene
(Note all the empty seats)

Some Facebook friends have criticized us for attending the bullfight, saying “nice people” wouldn’t condone a blood sport this way and that we were legitimizing it by our presence in the arena. This is my response: If you want to experience a culture and truly understand its people, you need to be open to witnessing their traditions without applying your own preconceived notions. Bullfighting has been going on in Mexico for almost 800 years, and 500 years in Spain before that. Going one time to bear witness is hardly supporting the sport, which would have occurred whether we were there or not. That bull was still going to end up on their dinner table later in the evening.

And walking out after one fight is NOT legitimizing it; quite the opposite. We came, we saw, we left. Then we shared our observations with others to provoke dialogue. If we had cheered for the matador and stayed for the whole thing, bought souvenirs and come back excited to see it again, THAT would supporting the sport.

Bullfighting and football

We asked our Spanish teacher about bullfighting. She said it is the sport of Mexico’s “elite,” and we realized it had, indeed, been a flashy sunglasses and designer shoe crowd in the stadium. Which begs the question: Why does a society’s blue bloods go in for a bloody sport like this? Then again, why do Americans tolerate football and cheer when we know the sport rattles the brains of most of its participants, shortens their lives and batters their bodies? How are we any different, really?

And while we’re on the subject, who are we to say bullfighting is worse than American football? Some would say supporting football is OK because players make the choice to play, knowing the potential consequences, whereas bulls have no choice — they’re bred to be slaughtered in public and humiliating fashion. I don’t know what the answer is. Just putting that out there for thought and discussion.

One thing I do know: This is an experience we will definitely not repeat.

The Selfie of the Day was very somber.
We took the shot and walked out.

February 25, 2019

Rain and Futbol

We’ve been in Tlaquepaque for five weeks now, and haven’t seen a drop of rain – until last night, after we decided to attend our first outdoor sporting event in Mexico.

The three of us decided to go to a Mexican futbol – Americans know it as soccer – game. Guadalajara hosts two teams that play in the top Mexican league, Liga MX. I initially wanted to go and see the better team, the Chivas, but it turns out that their stadium is pretty far away from our apartment, not near public transportation and difficult to get an Uber from after the game. So we decided to go see Atlas play. They play in an older stadium, Estadio Jalisco, and currently sit next to last in the league.

Buying Tickets

We started looking online for tickets and the site we went to told us that there were less than 4% of seats available for last night’s game, with the cheapest tickets being in the $40-$60 USD range. I found that hard to believe, so we asked the owner of the language school, and he told us that unless the game was against the Chivas, we could get cheaper tickets at the stadium.

We decided to get to the stadium an hour early so we could get our tickets and hopefully avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, after waiting nearly 15 minutes for our Uber driver, we arrived later than we wanted and crowds were forming. We managed to find the ticket kiosk, got into a line, and buy tickets for really good seats for just $12 each. When we got inside the stadium, we discovered that there wasn’t assigned seating, and that our tickets were good for a fairly large section of the stadium. So we found three seats and settled in to watch the game, which was set to begin at 9 PM. I’m not sure why there is a 9 PM start, but that seems to be the standard start time. A little late for me, but I can make a special occasion out of it.

It was only then we realized a second difference from US events – smoking was allowed in the stadium, which was pretty unpleasant for Lexie and Lisa. Lisa was prepared with ear plugs for Lexie as the noise was pretty loud before the game. The game started, with thousands of empty seats, so we learned never to trust that online ticket site again. The noise also subsided a bit as people and the PA system focused on the game.

The First Half

The game was as exciting as any US football game, with lots of running back and forth across the field. Vendors walked through the stands hawking cervesas (beer), donuts, palmitas (popcorn) and an assortment of Mexican snacks, and half the crowd wore bright red and black Atlas jerseys.

In the first half, Atlas didn’t convert on several good scoring opportunities, but the goalie made some impressive saves. As the half came to an end, Lisa noticed that a light rain had started. Rain? We hadn’t even seen rain before in Guadalajara. We were sitting under an upper deck, so we stayed dry, but we saw drops plop onto the heads of people sitting a couple rows in front of us.

The Second Half

The second half was still scoreless, and we kept rooting for Atlas to hold on and tie the game, although the Tigres had a couple of scoring opportunities. Regulation time ended with the game still tied, but a late, very questionable (at least in my mind), call resulted in a penalty kick for the Tigres, which they converted to a goal 3 minutes into the 4 minutes of injury time. Final score: 1-0. It was a disappointing loss for our new team.

Uber Adventures

It was still lightly raining when we left the stadium. We tried to beat the crowd and inevitable traffic jam by walking a few blocks before calling Uber. Our driver was just four minutes away, but after keeping us waiting 20 minutes, and giving us a thumbs up that he was still coming, he unceremoniously cancelled on us, leaving us wet on a street corner in what was now a big traffic jam.. (Anyone know how to give a bad rating to shithead Uber drivers who ditch you and leave you standing in the effing rain?) We walked a few blocks farther down to a main road where we waited for another driver, along with two other groups doing the same thing.

We got back to the apartment a bit before midnight, a little soggy, but having had an enjoyable evening. We’ll definitely do it again. Go, Atlas!

(Lisa’s note: Rooting for the Atlas is like rooting for the Mets. Most people root for the popular, winning Chivas, Guadalajara’s version of the Yankees. But we prefer the underdog!)

February 16, 2019

Settling into Tlaquepaque

Sorry for the long absence from blogging. We have been in Tlaquepaque for a month, and it’s about time we shared a little bit about our life here! We have been busy attending Guadalajara Language Center five days a week to learn Spanish, plus getting to know this magical village and neighboring Guadalajara and getting into the rhythm of life here.

Let’s start by talking about where we are living!

The cats were extremely relieved when we pulled into the driveway of our orange concrete house in Tlaquepaque, delayed a week and a half by border issues and then the gas shortage, and they were finally able to leave their traveling cages and settle in. There was no hiding upon arrival this time; somehow they knew they were finally home.

Tlaquepaque

Tlaquepaque (pronounced “tlah-kay-PAH-kay”) is a bustling, working-class village on the edge of Guadalajara, the second-largest city in Mexico. It has a population of 600,000 people is known for its ceramics and its artisans. The center is a lovely pedestrian area of shops, restaurants, food vendors, and galleries branching out from a central square, Plaza de Hidalgo. Branching out from the center, homes get smaller and smaller, and roads and sidewalks are narrow and cracked. Most of our neighbors are lower-middle class Mexicans, making their living doing laundry, vending water door to door, operating tiny corner stores, painting sacred statues, fabricating wood-and-leather chairs, or opening pop-up restaurants to sell pozole or tacos dorado.

The Mexican people are friendly and quick to smile. Their culture prides itself on always finding the bright side, despite adversity. Their homes are small but their smiles are big.

Our Mexican Home

Our house on Calle Jalisco is very simple, a two-story orange concrete house in a “coto” (small gated community) with a carport and a small patch of grass out front. We rented it directly from the school, two floors with four bedrooms a half mile the school and downtown Tlaquepaque, for $840 a month. It’s not fancy or luxurious; it’s very basic, and quite Mexican. It didn’t even have an oven, since most Mexicans just the stovetop, so our landlord Wouter allowed us to purchase a toaster oven so we could bake. It has patchy Wifi and a large flat-screen TV with Netflix. It needs a paint job badly, but it’s home.

The Upstairs

The master bedroom has a surprisingly comfortable king-sized bed and a little utility patio that lets light in — plus the sounds of roosters crowing, dogs barking and the nearby cathedral bells chiming every 15 minutes all night. (And for some reason it tolls 21 times each time.) All the noise kept me awake at first, but eventually I stopped hearing it, which reminded me of the 17th floor apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Bob and I lived in the mid-1990s — at first we could hear the sounds of car horns and people yelling for a mile around, but eventually we didn’t notice them at all.

I was awakened one night by the sound of chaos in a nearby henhouse. I’m not sure if it was an animal thief or a human, since I heard no sound from the perpetrator. But the sound of raucous, terrified squawks that diminished one by one until he last one croaked its final appeal haunted me for days.

Lexie claimed a sunny bedroom with a queen-sized bed, and there’s a third room upstairs with two single beds that we use to store our home gym equipment. (We call it Aryk’s Room because that’s where they will live when they come home for spring break.) The second-floor landing is a large room of its own, with a zippered-fabric closet (two of the upstairs bedrooms have no closets), a loveseat and a little computer table. It’s a great space for me to do yoga (I get a new yoga session from Container Collective Yoga in my inbox every Monday, so I stay connected to Colorado whenever I practice.)

The Downstairs

Downstairs there is a fourth bedroom with a double bed, which we use as a music room and for bike storage. (We also call it Mal’s Room because it’s where Aryk’s partner Mal will stay when it comes to visit over Spring Break.) The white-tiled main living area has an open floor plan, with a weathered couch, a loveseat and a large chair providing plenty of living room seating. The kitchen is efficient and pretty, though we have yet to figure out how to get hot water out of the spigot, and we take our lives into our hands every time we light the over-enthusiastic gas range. There are three seats at the counter and a little table with four chairs.

All in all, though, it’s a cheap, comfortable base from which to embark on our first adventures in Mexico! It’s more basic that we are used to, but everyone else at the language school is staying in a hostel or with a Mexican family, and we like having our own place. It was large enough to host a Super Bowl Party! We will remain happily ensconced here through the end of April, though we do plan a beach vacation during Aryk’s break.

February 11, 2019

We Made it to Tlaquepaque!

We finally made it to Tlaquepaque!

Our 6-day trip from Pennsylvania to this village just south of Guadalajara where we planned to spend our first four months in Mexico ended up taking 14 days, but we finally arrived on Jen. 19 – exactly four months after we left Colorado.

On the Friday of our week in Leon, Lisa and I decided to bite the bullet and try to get gas so we could continue on to Tlaquepaque. (If you recall, we were only in Leon because we couldn’t get enough gas to get to our final destination, Tlaquepaque.) We were determined to wait all day if necessary. A few days earlier, we had been told that the Leon government website listed stations that would be receiving gasoline that night or the following morning. We looked at it and saw only 20 stations (for a city of 1.5M people) getting gas. Our observations supported this, as we would see lines at only 1 of 10 or 12 gas stations we passed as we Ubered around town. And the lines were long.

And even though we kept hearing the situation was going to get better, it didn’t. So we enjoyed Leon and ignored the gas situation for a few days. Why stress over it?

But on Friday, Lisa read in the Mexico News Daily that a pipeline was opening to Leon on Saturday, and the number of stations pumping was supposed to increase to 35%. Lisa wanted to get to Tlaquepaque, so we decided to give it a shot.

The Early Bird Gets the Gas

So we got up before 6, gathered books, tables, drinks and snacks to entertain us during an anticipated long wait. and drove to the nearest gas station. There wasn’t a line, but that was because they weren’t pumping. We continued down the road and saw a line several blocks long for another station. As we drove by, we saw that they were pumping gas. We tried to make a u-turn to get to that station on a side road, but we were unsuccessful, being forced to take a long way onto a highway and wasting 10 precious miles worth of gas in the process.

When we doubled back we spotted another gas station that was also pumping, with a shorter line, so we got in line. Lisa and I discussed that we really needed at least 600 pesos worth of gas to get to Tlaquepaque, but stations were limiting sales to 500 pesos per car. We agreed that 700 pesos would provide a bit of a margin of error if we got lost. Finally, we discussed what we needed to say to the attendant, in Spanish, to attempt to get that 700 pesos worth of gas.

The early morning line for gas

The line moved quickly and we were soon at the pump. Lisa hopped out and told him that we were trying to get to Tlaquepaque, where our house was, and 500 pesos wouldn’t be enough to make it. Could he help? He told us that all he was allowed to give us was 500 pesos. But nonetheless, he pumped 600 pesos, looking furtively in both directions to make sure no one noticed. Then, in an act of compassion, he reset the pump and pumped us full with another 550 pesos of gas! We were ecstatic! And, of course, we tipped him generously.

Made it to the pump in just 15 minutes

Success — a full tank!

A Full Tank, But Locked Out

In our wildest dreams, we had never even considered that this would be the outcome. We had our Leon Airbnb rented for another day, but on the short drive home, we decided that we would pack and head to Tlaquepaque as soon as we could get packed up. later that day. We did have one small glitch: We only hade one set of keys for the apartment, which were inside with Lexie, and she was sound asleep. It could be hours before she rose. Her phone ringer was off so we could not reach her. outside the complex gate for half an hour or so, Lisa got the idea to contact the woman who rented to us, and our host quickly brought us a second set of keys that allowed us to get in, get Lexie up and start packing. Instead of waiting in a gas line, we ended up waiting an hour and a half to get back into our apartment!

Finally On The Road

We were on the road for our 2½ trip by 11 AM. About 1½ hours into our trip, closer to Guadalajara, I thought that it might be a good idea to fill up again. However, from that point on, almost all gas stations didn’t have gas and the one or two open ones we saw had huge lines. So when we arrived at our rented house in Tlaquepaque, we parked the truck with 5/8 of a tank and decided to use walking, public transportation or Uber until the situation is stabilized here.

But, we’re here and getting settled in. We’ve essentially been traveling for four months since we left Colorado, so it feels so good to be settled for a while!

Our new home!

February 10, 2019

Mecca in Mexico

In mid-January, when we drove to Guadalajara from Leon, we passed mile after mile of people walking along the road. We must have passed eight miles of people walking, many with backpacks or bedrolls, adults and children, before we branched off the road and headed toward Tlaquepaque.

We speculated that this was a caravan of migrants headed toward the US border. Yet, we didn’t see anything in the press about anything the size of what we saw. We did, however, see some tweets and more tweets from the government of the state of Guanajuato about “pilgrims,” with estimates of 70,000 to 100,000 pilgrims. But we saw nothing in the US news.

When I asked about this on an expat forum, I discovered that these were actually religious pilgrims headed to the town of San Juan de los Lagos in the Mexican state of Jalisco to view a revered image of the Virgin Mary called Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos. This Madonna is said to be responsible for tens of thousands of miracles dating back to 1623. (Read more here, and note some of the powerful comments from people who have visited the image.)

The image itself is made of sugar cane paste and stands about 38 centimeters high. It is believed to have been brought from Michoacán, Mexico, in the early 16th century and refurbished 400 years ago.

Somewhere between 7 and 9 million people yearly visit San Juan de los Lagos to see the image of the Virgin. The most heavily visited time, though, is Candelmas, when approximately 2 million people visit. Candelmas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus, falls on Feb. 2, the 40th day of the Christmas Epiphany season. In San Juan de los Lagos, they celebrate with a festival extending from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2 that includes fireworks, music and amusement rides.

This was the destination of the pilgrimage that we saw. Organized groups walk or bike for hundreds of miles. Most come to repay the image for a miracle they have received. There is a popular belief that people who fail to repay the Virgin risk being turned into stone.

So, even though there is another, much smaller, caravan of Central American migrants currently headed to the US (learn about it here and here), the miles of sojourners that we saw were religious pilgrims headed to San Juan los Lagos to keep from getting turned into stone.

Here’s the caravan we saw:

January 27, 2019

Leon Zoo

Entering the Leon Zoo was like walking into a ghost town. I associate zoos with noise and scents and crowds of people, but we seemed to be the only people there as we bought our tickets and headed in.

Our first stop was the safari, and we knew we were in for a spectacular visit. Climbing into a rickety open-air vehicle, we set off on what turned out to be a series of close and personal encounters with the animals. We were driven into crowds of Watusi and zebras, raced with antelopes, the car serving as the only barrier between us.

We walked around the rest of the zoo on foot, and it was the most unique zoo experience that I can remember. Though it was unnerving at first to have so much space to ourselves, the peace and quiet created a kind of intimacy between us and the animals that I’ve never experienced before.

On safari

We could almost touch the Watusi

The monkeys were one of the highlights. They swung around their cages using their hands, feet, and tails, movements so smooth they looked effortless. One hung out the side, arms stretched through the gaps of the fence to pluck leaves from the bushes outside for a midday snack.

He’s reaching out

It was strange to see elk in a zoo, as they’re such a common sight in Colorado, but we nonetheless watched them mull about. A lynx meowed at me, as if to make to for my lack of cuddles from Ellie that morning. Even big cats trot around, lick their paws, and make cute noises.

See her cute little tongue?

It was simply a wonderful trip all-around, and I definitely suggest you pop by if you’re ever in Leon.

January 22, 2019

Discovering Leon, Mexico

Whoever heard of Leon? Hardly anyone outside of Mexico, I’d wager.

But when we were thwarted from reaching our destination, Tlaquepaque, by a government crackdown on fuel thieves that dried up all the gas stations, we decided to detour to the closest city on our route, Leon, and explore for a few days instead of worrying about gas. So we booked a tiny, pet-friendly two-bedroom apartment ($213 for a week) and set about researching Leon.

We knew nothing about this city, but Bob consulted Mr. Google and quickly Bob discovered that Leon is the fourth largest city in Mexico! The hotel we stayed in our first night while we grappled with how to deal with the gas problem, Hotel Soleil Business Class, was in a great location on a major thoroughfare directly across from a park and sports center, and right on the bus line.

I found a great little description at Trip101.com:

León is known as the“shoe capital of the world” and shopping for leather goods is one of the main attractions here. León has a long history as a center of the leather industry, offering shoes, boots, belts, jackets, and other leather accessories not only in Mexico, but around the world. It has first-class services and hotels making it one of the most important cities in Mexico along with León’s entertainment, restaurants, leisure activities, arts, and recreation. It is also considered one of the most environmentally friendly cities in Mexico and has a high number of cyclists, in part because of integrating a network of bike lanes into the public transportation system. In March 2012 it received an award as “City Water Champion,” due to great progress it has made in the areas of sanitation, wastewater reuse, and energy cogeneration from biogas.

While much of León is industrial, it is also a great little authentic Mexican city. There is a nice, large pedestrian area in the center, which comes to life at night with street sellers, music, and Mexican families just enjoying their city. Also, León is a great place to escape if you’re a budget traveler, unless you’re in the market for a lot of leather.

We discovered Leon has several notable cathedrals, an Arch of Triumph, a grand boulevard (think Champs Elysees, only smaller scale), and a charming historic center.

Arch of Triumph

So after settling ourselves and our cats into our new apartment and taking care of food shopping, we got up the second morning and called an Uber to take us to the Arco Triunfal de la Calzada de los Heroes (the Triumphal Arch of the Causeway of Heroes).

The lion on top represents the pride and symbol of the strength of the Leonian people. The leafy grand boulevard runs 500 meters and has bronze statues of eight heroes. We agreed it would be a fabulous place to run.

The Nativity Show

We then walked up the causeway toward the old city and, across the street from the Templo Expiatorio Diocesano del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Expiatory Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), we stumbled upon the Muestra Nacimiento, or Nativity Show, a temporary display of Nativity scenes from around the world. Admission was free and it was closing the next day, so we went inside, where we were greeted by a smiling nun. This display was a feast! There were small, large and humongous dioramas from Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, and all over Mexico. We loved it! Here are a few highlights:

Wooden carved nativity from Oberammergau, germany

Mexican style

The lighted sky bedazzled

Martyr’s Square and the Plaza

After visiting another amazing cathedral next to Pope Benedict Square, and wandering around the old streets in Centro Historico, we enjoyed take-out tacos and agua tamarinda (orange water; OMG, what a discovery, and the entire meal cost $2) in a shady plaza next to Martyr’s Square, the central plaza in the old city. We enjoyed awesome ice cream and wandered on to our next discovery of the day: Mercado Aldama.

Mercado Aldama

I daresay no other gringo has ever wandered into Mercado Aldama, a massive indoor marketplace in a huge industrial building just beyond the old city. And they are missing out! Everything was for sale in this bustling, authentically Mexican, three-story marketplace, from shoes to clothing to sombreros to every kind of food you could imagine (and some you wouldn’t want to imagine), traditional Mexican clothing, arts and crafts, housewares, utensils, fruits, meats (including intestines, hooves and other animal body parts I found quite unappealing but Mexicans apparently love) and much, much more! I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Mmm, delicious

Please don’t eat me! he says

Baby Jesus come in a variety of sizes,
with long eyelashes as standard equipment

A kids’ booth

Countless super-cheap restaurants featured authentic cuisine

Frida Kahlo shows up on everything

Love Bridge

On the way home, we stopped at the Puente del Amor and secured a lock of love on the bridge. Watch for a future blog about the locks of love we have put in a number of cities and countries!

January 21, 2019

Crossing the Mexican Border

(A look back at the border crossing experience, or Why We Were Stuck in Laredo for Two Days)

I was a little concerned about crossing the Mexican border. I knew there were several things that needed to be done in order to successfully enter Mexico, and I wasn’t exactly sure how, or where, to do them. I was particularly worried that we didn’t have the documentation we would need for our relatively new car. Finally, I was concerned about how long the lines at the border, because we had nearly a 7-hour drive to our first stop, and we had been cautioned not to drive in Mexico after dark.

I had read that most Americans heading to the Guadalajara area from the eastern US used one of the Laredo, Texas, border crossings. Many used the somewhat out-of-the-way Colombia Bridge crossing, which doesn’t have as much traffic as some of the others. It is not a 24-hour crossing, so our plan was to get there when it opened at 8AM.

The First Attempt

We arrived at the border at 8:15 AM, paid $3.50 USD to cross the bridge and we were in Mexico – almost. I had found very little information on the layout of the border crossing, but I knew we needed to visit Immigration and the Banerjcito (the import office) so we could temporarily import our car, which is a requirement if you want to take your car past the “free zone” the first 20 km or so inside Mexico. Therefore, I was ecstatic when I immediately saw the Banerjcito and an empty parking lot.

Empty parking lot

We took our paperwork and went directly to the window inside. I knew they needed the car registration and/or car title. What I was concerned about, though, was that we only had a temporary vehicle registration paper from Vermont.

Getting rejected at the window

Here’s why: Our car was totaled in August and we had to get a new (used) vehicle less than a month before leaving Colorado. Our Colorado paperwork had not yet been processed by the time we left in September. In fact, the processing was so slow that we had to get the car dealership to send it to Lisa’s brother in Virginia, where we parked our car during our European trip, and it took so long that we needed an extension. We needed that paperwork so we could either fly back to Colorado to process it at DMV, or ask someone to perform the unenviable task of going to DMV for us.

Our second option was to register the car in Vermont, where we own a couple of vacation rental properties and where we were staying for a month.

We decided to go the Vermont route for convenience sake, in early December. Unfortunately, only after they took my Colorado title did I find out that it would take them 4-6 weeks to process the paperwork and issue our car registration document. We had over 5 weeks, so I thought we were still in good shape. When it didn’t arrive, I was concerned but was still hopeful that Mexico would accept our temporary registration.

They didn’t!

Rejected at the Border: Now What?

We turned around, crossed the bridge back into the US and cleared US customs. We had been in Mexico, but not really. We left thinking we were at the mercy of the Vermont DMV, something you don’t want to be. We decided to take a chance and call, and learned that our registration had been sent to our Colorado mailing address, but the address they used didn’t include our box number, so it was returned, where it was just sitting in our file. It would have to be resent. Could it be emailed? We don’t do that, said the man in the DMV office. FedExed? We don’t do that, droned the man in the DMV office.

So what could we do for the next week while we waited for the registration to be snail mailed to our Colorado address, processed by our traveling mailbox, and then mailed to us? And where would it be mailed to, anyway? We had checked out of our hotel and our truck doesn’t have a mailbox.

Regrouping at McDonald’s

We went back to Laredo and regrouped at a McDonald’s, sitting in a corner booth with coffee and a computer. connected to the free Wifi. Looking out the window, we noticed a UPS Store across the parking lot. We dashed over, had a chat with the counter worker, and found out we could use their address to accept a Fed Ex. Newly energized, we returned to McD’s. While Lisa went online looking for a pet-friendly place to stay for a couple nights, I pulled out a cellphone and called Vermont DMV again, this time determined to talk with a supervisor.

Working in McD’s on lodging and getting that registration

However, a kind woman named Diane Hedding answered and immediately offered to help us. All we needed to do was to send her a prepaid shipping label and she would personally take our registration to the mail center and Fed-Ex it to us. She gave us her personal email address, and then sent us a note when she dropped off the package. We found a Laredo Airbnb for the next couple nights and waited for our package to arrive.

The Second Attempt

At 10:30 AM on Saturday, Jan. 11, we had our registration in hand!

Registration!

We moved out of the apartment, packed up cats and luggage, and headed to the border. After paying another $3.50 to cross the Colombia Bridge, we confidently walked up to the Banjercito window. Just one person was in front of us, and the woman at the counter remembered us! This time they told us we needed to go to Immigration first, as they needed our immigration form to process the import.

Bob filling out the paperwork

Lisa filling forms

Lexie, too

We went over to Immigration, again no line, filled out the forms, showed them our Mexican Temporary Resident visas in our passports, and were processed. The immigration form was the same one was had always gotten when flying into Mexico, but there were several boxes that needed to be properly checked. This was done and we were now on a 30-day clock to get into Mexico, get to an in-country immigration office and finish up our Temporary Resident visa requirements.

Back to the Banjercito, still no line, they processed our paperwork, took a $400 deposit, (which will be returned when we take the car out of the country), gave us a sticker for our car and allowed us to proceed.

Getting Through Customs

Next up was Customs. We knew, with our luck, we would get selected for a complete car search. And, true to form we were selected. They didn’t want to see the International Health Certificates we had for the cats, but they did question me several times regarding firearms, alcohol and cigarettes. Next, they looked at what we had in the car and decided to X-ray it, which was probably better than taking everything out. This required humans and cats to get out of the car. I drove the car over to the X-ray area, where I was escorted behind a barrier and a movable X-ray device transited the length of our car, scanning it thoroughly.

I drove back to where Lisa, Lexie and the cats were waiting, and in a couple of minutes, they told us we were good to go. After strapping the cats back in and getting our bearings, we crossed the border! Then we were officially off and driving in Mexico toward Tlaquepaque. It had taken us one and a half hours at the border crossing. That process would have taken much, much longer during busy season, so I felt extremely lucky that we were finally on our way!

WELCOME TO MEXICO!