One of our favorite places to visit in any large Mexican city is its City Hall or Palacio Municipal. Usually there are some fine art works displayed, interesting exhibits, and they ALWAYS have a public restroom. They are also easy to find, usually on one facing side of the main plaza, along with the Palacio Gobierno de Estado-if a state capital, and the main cathedral for the city. Guadalajara has a wonderful City Hall, with at least two powerful Orozco murals (one of which, shown here, of Miguel Hidalgo, is in the main stairwell) and an exhibit of some historical import. It also has a great restroom, and after the bouncy bus ride in from Tlaquepaque yesterday we headed straight for it. It was Sunday, but the doors stood open to the grand courtyard inside. At each door was posted a pair of guards. They asked to see the contents of our bags, and did a peak into my purse and Jon's little backpack. No metal detectors, and only the most welcoming of aspect, we were told "pasale". Just inside the large wooden doors was a table and a bottle of hand sanitizer and a box of paper towels. A big poster behind the table outlined the need to wash hands frequently. We ignored all of this and walked on in. We had also been here last week and ignored it then as well. We usually carry Handi-Wipes with us, and do wash our hands frequently when traveling.
After using the facilities, we ventured out to the street again to take in lunch at La Gorda, a chain that comes highly recommended. We were not disappointed. The food is simple, but delicious. Very authentic- and not for the novice. I am not a big fan of chicharrones, but the plate we ordered included them so I gave them a try. They were covered in sauce and very tender, and I did eat a bit of it. One piece on each of our plates had bristles of hair sticking out, so we didn't eat those, but felt like wimps not doing so.
Fortified, we found the Museo Regional, which we hadn't seen on our last trip to town. (Museums in Mexico tend to have some of the best restrooms as well. These things are important to know, especially if you have just come from breakfast where the server was quick with the coffee pot!) It's a nice little museum with historical photographs of the years 1910-1915 or so- revolutionary years. There is also an anthropological section, with some fine examples of ceramic and clay work from the western parts of Mexico. There is even a small exhibit of paleantology, with a mammoth skeleton dominating the main room.
After the museum we walked around some more, bought some earrings for me, and then needed a restroom again, so headed back to City Hall. We went through a different entrance this time, and not only did they want to look in our bags, but they wanted to be sure we understood we should wash our hands before entering. This was not the first time we had encountered this.
Tlaquepaque has some really fine restaurants, and we have enjoyed some of them more than once. The atmosphere at El Patio is convivial and the food is great. We loved the queso fundido there, with squash blossoms and black mushrooms. The Adobe has tables right on the pedestrian street, so a diner is subject to some involvement with passing beggars, but the food-especially the arrechera beef-is excellent, as is the service. The Casa Fuerte has probably the most tranquil and beautiful ambiance, and some of the dishes on the menu are wonderful- like the squash blossom soup and the queso fundido, while some are just so-so.
At each restaurant last week we found waiters wearing surgical masks. On the Tequila Train and during our meal there, the waiters wore surgical masks. In the bathrooms are signs reminding people how to wash hands properly, and restaurant hostesses sometimes present us with a squirt of hand sanitizer and a paper towel before seating us. As I washed my hands in one restroom somewhere, a lady poked me in the side and pointed to the soap, reminding me that I should use it. (For the record: I WAS going to use it, just was looking around to see where it was!) The H1-N1 virus has taken a toll on tourism, we are told, and it makes sense to take precautions, especially around food service. However, all of these attempts to show the world it is safe to come to Mexico can be nothing more than token gestures, especially on the train, where we sat in a closed vehicle for several hours, with dozens of other people, none of whom wore masks.
I am reminded just now too of our entrance to the airport. As we emerged from the jetway a large flatscreen TV registered our body temperatures. We were normal, but wondered what mayhem would ensue if we had registered a fever!
Masked waiters became the norm quickly, and we learned to ignore it. But THEN! Saturday we sat down in Casa Fuerte for lunch, and our waiter's face was uncovered! We asked about it, and were told that they are required to wear the masks Tuesday-Friday, and Saturday, Sunday and Monday not required to! The waiter spun his finger by his head in the universal gesture of "crazy". We could only agree.
Poor Mexico! If it's not drug cartels scaring the bejeezus out of everybody, it's this silly flu. It is not flu season, and the masks would really only work if everyone wore them all the time. Some people are going to die of this. It's hard to blame the government for trying to do SOMETHING. But one can only shake one's head at the emptiness of the gesture.
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