We are staying at the La Quinta Don Jose (http://www.quintadonjose.com/) here in Tlaquepaque and it is everything that the 200 plus reviews on tripadvisor say it is. We have one of the "villas", an apartment across the street and down half a block from the main hotel. Our little apartment is super clean and comfortable with a great shower, kitchenette, big TV with satellite, free Wi-Fi and continental breakfast included. The help speak English and Salvador the barkeep makes a dandy mojito. There is a placid fountain gurgling in the courtyard beside the pool and cages of canaries and parakeets singing their hearts out for the guests. Even though our apartment is on a city street corner, it is very quiet.
Yesterday we had a terrific lunch at the Adobe restaurant and were treated like old friends by Fernando, our host. The food was fast and delicious, and the service top notch.
Last night, after a bit of a siesta, we toddled back to the Parian, just a block away, to hear mariachis and take in the evening. On the way there we stopped in the plaza to enjoy the cool evening air and the families out with children. This is one of my favorite aspects of Mexican culture. The families come out as the day cools. Children play, sometimes with the latest silly toy, or as superheros or just running. Adults sit and chat, boys and girls check each other out, street vendors sell, and sing and make a puppet show.
Finally moving on to the Parian, we were greeted by waiters eagerly soliciting our business. As in other Mexican restaurant districts, there are man
y, nearly identical businesses competing for the tourist dollar. There isn't much to distinguish them from one another except the color of the tablecloths or a critical mass of other guests, suggesting this one might be better than that one. We chose a table near to a performing group of mariachis and ordered a couple of beers. Then we waited for some musician to ask us if we wanted them to play.
The Parian is a lovely place, surrounded on all sides with arched colonades, and with a gazebo in the center. There are jacaranda trees growing tall, and it must be really something when they are all in bloom. But here is a word to the wise: Either sit under the building's shelter or out where the branches are too small to support pigeons. I got pooped on at least 4 times, and Jon got hit at least once. Fortunately we were not eating, or it would have been impossible. As it was, the skirt I was planning to wear at least once more before sending it to the laundry was ruined for the evening.
A violinist from Mariachi los Aguilas approached us and asked us if we would like some music. Jon is our negotiator and I asked for the three songs I know. One of those is a "potpouree" called 'Viva Veracruz" and has 3 or 4 songs, depending on who's counting. So we got that plus 2 more songs for 500 pesos, which translates to almost 5o$ US. We always allow for this as part of our trip expenditure, so it was acceptable. We have learned that mariachis want about 10$ US per song, so this was actually a bargain, though it sounds like a lot of money. Our group had 3 violins, which- even at that- were hard to hear over the trumpets. But they played our three requests and I recorded them. They were uneasy about my recording until I told them it was for me, that I am a student of mariachi music and want to learn. We talked for a while with one of the violinists and I asked if I could play with them tonight. He said "of course!" and so I will take my violin there tonight and look for them.
Today we took the 647 bus to Centro Historico in Guadalajara and saw the catedral, the palacio gobierno and the Cabanas Centro Cultural, where the three presidents of North America met for a conference earlier this week. We saw murals of Orozco, fantastic colonial buildings and took in the sights and sounds of Mexico's second largest city. We also visited the enormous Mercado Libertad, where one can buy anything from a laptop to sugar cane juice, the latter of which we had and loved.
Everywhere there are coaches with a horse and driver who will take you on an hour long tour of the main points of interest in the district. We did this, just because it looked like something we should do as tourists, and because Jon thought I would like it, being a girl and all, and girls like stuff like that. It was a nice way to see the sights, slower than a car, and with open air, and faster and easier on the feet than walking.
We took a taxi back to Tlaquepaque for about 6$US, and on the way to have lunch stopped into a Cajero Automatico at the Bancomer on our corner. The ATMS always give money in big bills, and no one ever can change these big bills in the shops, so Jon thought we should get change from a teller. We waited our turn, and got 3000 pesos broken into 100 pesos bills, and as Jon was handing me the money to keep in my purse, he realized he didn't have his ATM card.
After Jon searched all his pockets I lobbied for going straight back to the hotel so I could call the bank and cancel the card before someone had a holiday with it. Meanwhile, Jon thought maybe we should tell someone in the bank, in case someone turned it it. A longshot, I thought.
We approached a man who sat at a desk highlighting lines of print on piles of documents he had in a stack of manila folders before him. He listened to Jon explain (In Spanish, yay Jon! ) what had happened and asked him for ID. Jon gave him his driver's license and the man took it to the teller, who then went to open the ATM from the back. It turns out that if you don't take your card out of one of these machines, after two minutes, the machine sucks your card in, and therefore it can be retrieved with no problem! We were absolutely dumbstruck by this and thanked our helper profusely. We laughed all the way to lunch!
The funny thing about this is that earlier I had been remarking that Mexico is so easy for us now, especially since Jon is getting so good at Spanish, that maybe we need to push our comfort zone into other parts of Latin America. We used to give ourselves courage for new things by saying that what doesn't kill us will make a good story. Well we got ourselves a good story today!
Yesterday we had a terrific lunch at the Adobe restaurant and were treated like old friends by Fernando, our host. The food was fast and delicious, and the service top notch.
Last night, after a bit of a siesta, we toddled back to the Parian, just a block away, to hear mariachis and take in the evening. On the way there we stopped in the plaza to enjoy the cool evening air and the families out with children. This is one of my favorite aspects of Mexican culture. The families come out as the day cools. Children play, sometimes with the latest silly toy, or as superheros or just running. Adults sit and chat, boys and girls check each other out, street vendors sell, and sing and make a puppet show.
Finally moving on to the Parian, we were greeted by waiters eagerly soliciting our business. As in other Mexican restaurant districts, there are man
y, nearly identical businesses competing for the tourist dollar. There isn't much to distinguish them from one another except the color of the tablecloths or a critical mass of other guests, suggesting this one might be better than that one. We chose a table near to a performing group of mariachis and ordered a couple of beers. Then we waited for some musician to ask us if we wanted them to play.The Parian is a lovely place, surrounded on all sides with arched colonades, and with a gazebo in the center. There are jacaranda trees growing tall, and it must be really something when they are all in bloom. But here is a word to the wise: Either sit under the building's shelter or out where the branches are too small to support pigeons. I got pooped on at least 4 times, and Jon got hit at least once. Fortunately we were not eating, or it would have been impossible. As it was, the skirt I was planning to wear at least once more before sending it to the laundry was ruined for the evening.
A violinist from Mariachi los Aguilas approached us and asked us if we would like some music. Jon is our negotiator and I asked for the three songs I know. One of those is a "potpouree" called 'Viva Veracruz" and has 3 or 4 songs, depending on who's counting. So we got that plus 2 more songs for 500 pesos, which translates to almost 5o$ US. We always allow for this as part of our trip expenditure, so it was acceptable. We have learned that mariachis want about 10$ US per song, so this was actually a bargain, though it sounds like a lot of money. Our group had 3 violins, which- even at that- were hard to hear over the trumpets. But they played our three requests and I recorded them. They were uneasy about my recording until I told them it was for me, that I am a student of mariachi music and want to learn. We talked for a while with one of the violinists and I asked if I could play with them tonight. He said "of course!" and so I will take my violin there tonight and look for them.
Today we took the 647 bus to Centro Historico in Guadalajara and saw the catedral, the palacio gobierno and the Cabanas Centro Cultural, where the three presidents of North America met for a conference earlier this week. We saw murals of Orozco, fantastic colonial buildings and took in the sights and sounds of Mexico's second largest city. We also visited the enormous Mercado Libertad, where one can buy anything from a laptop to sugar cane juice, the latter of which we had and loved.
Everywhere there are coaches with a horse and driver who will take you on an hour long tour of the main points of interest in the district. We did this, just because it looked like something we should do as tourists, and because Jon thought I would like it, being a girl and all, and girls like stuff like that. It was a nice way to see the sights, slower than a car, and with open air, and faster and easier on the feet than walking.
We took a taxi back to Tlaquepaque for about 6$US, and on the way to have lunch stopped into a Cajero Automatico at the Bancomer on our corner. The ATMS always give money in big bills, and no one ever can change these big bills in the shops, so Jon thought we should get change from a teller. We waited our turn, and got 3000 pesos broken into 100 pesos bills, and as Jon was handing me the money to keep in my purse, he realized he didn't have his ATM card.
After Jon searched all his pockets I lobbied for going straight back to the hotel so I could call the bank and cancel the card before someone had a holiday with it. Meanwhile, Jon thought maybe we should tell someone in the bank, in case someone turned it it. A longshot, I thought.
We approached a man who sat at a desk highlighting lines of print on piles of documents he had in a stack of manila folders before him. He listened to Jon explain (In Spanish, yay Jon! ) what had happened and asked him for ID. Jon gave him his driver's license and the man took it to the teller, who then went to open the ATM from the back. It turns out that if you don't take your card out of one of these machines, after two minutes, the machine sucks your card in, and therefore it can be retrieved with no problem! We were absolutely dumbstruck by this and thanked our helper profusely. We laughed all the way to lunch!
The funny thing about this is that earlier I had been remarking that Mexico is so easy for us now, especially since Jon is getting so good at Spanish, that maybe we need to push our comfort zone into other parts of Latin America. We used to give ourselves courage for new things by saying that what doesn't kill us will make a good story. Well we got ourselves a good story today!
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