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Published: January 19th 2006
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The Good Life
Me and Suzy livin it up on the Tequila Express Que Onda? Mexico is still going great and this next segment is about my recent trip to Guadalajara. The city of Guadalajara is huge> there are some 7 million folks there with malls, cars, clubs, fast food, pimps, bums, and stoplights> just like any big U.S. city. Guadalajara is home to Tequila and Mariachi music. We traveled by bus, which is the easiest way to travel here in México. The bus tickets only ran $23 each and the ride itself was only 4 hours from Guanajuanto. In addition to the ride being cheap, it included a small sack lunch and they showed movies (Man on Fire and Spiderman 2) Once in the city of Guadalajara, I instantly felt at home, well with the exception that we were like the only black people and everyone spoke Spanish, but shit was still ‘ite. My wife enjoyed the fact that we were staying at a hotel with unlimited hot water and carpet, neither of which we have at our place in Guanajuanto.
Our first night was pretty chill. We just took in the city lights and did what any true tourist does> made a b-line for the closest liquor store and got the
la rudos
Big time wrestling in Guadalajara party started. The next morning we hit Plaza Mayor, which turned out to be a sea of shops> 85% of which were shoe stores. I found it strange that one chain of shoe stores (Flexi for example) would have 6 of the same store in a two-block radius, but with 7 million pairs of feet in the city I can’t blame ‘em. Shoes here run small, so to my sand’s Nate (who wears size 15) would be ass out here. I only wear 11 and I only found one store that had my size.
After the Al Bundy TwlightZone of the plaza we hit Centro Magno another mall. Now this was like the malls at home. The biggest difference is the sales here are good and shitty. You have to be a really collar popper to be fly here. We went into the Lacoste store and why were polo’s that cost $45 in the U.S. $75 here. The ultimate mickey was pulled when Suzanne and I went into the jewelry store. They had watches from Monte Blanc, Movado, Cartier and many others. So we start looking around, just really window-shopping until I asked to see this Baume & Mercier
Dancing the Mex way
dancers at the tequilla express tour watch, that was super nice. The jeweler proceeds to tell that the price $910, so I ask “ en pesos?” to which he replies “Si”. So now I’m trippin because I know that is a $1500 watch back home and he’s saying it’s $91, so I got like three of them on the table, one Hugo Boss, one by Baume & Mercier, and another by Movado. I let me my wife pick out some diamond earrings and everything is looking sweet right? WRONG! We get a final tally and all of a sudden he is like giving us prices in U.S. dollars, which then make our total like $6k. Man I had pull the old “we’ll be back” routine. In their eyes I went from Baller to Busta with a few keystrokes of the calculator.
Later on that night we went to a wrestling match> La Lucha Libre. Now I haven’t been to a wrestling match since the Junkyard Dog and Coco B. Ware were highflying and bodyslammin’ Nikkita Kolloff and Iron Mike Sharp. But this was so much more fun. The wrestlers here wear these cool masks (of which I bought three) and they are all very acrobatic. The crowd was shouting insults at the bad guys (Rudos) and screamed excitedly for the good guys (Técnicos). The match was in the Plaza de Toros (bull fighting arena) and I must say it was live. The funny thing was that once I put my mask on (which I paid $8 for > and so far the best $8 I’ve spent) other spectators and the security personnel kept telling me that I needed to get out there and wrestle given my larger that the average Mexican male build.
We capped the night off by going to Casa Barachi> a mariachi bar and restaurant. We got the VIP treatment and got seats near the stage. The music was cool, but I couldn’t help of thinking of the movie Three Amigos when looking at the band. We got a real treat because the star of Mexico’s version of American Idol, Jolette, was in the house, so the place went crazy. The wack part of that was since we were close to the stage people were all crowed next to us to get pictures of the singer. Now I’m not homophobic, but there were like 6 guys around me in super tight pants within 5 inches of my chair, so I instantly felt as if I were at the Blue Oyster (for those that have seen Police Academy movies) and not at respectable establishment. But overall the spot was cool and the music made for a good experience.
Sunday was the highlight of the trip. We went on the Tequila Express. This is a train ride to the Jimador Factory. What makes it cool is that its ALL YOU CAN DRINK>Tequila, Beer (Estrella- which is the local brew of Guadalajara) and soda (if you like that kind of stuff). We started the trip being serenaded by mariachi and sampling some of México’s finest Tequila. The ride ran through the countryside and the thousands of acres of agave fields. The trip included a tour of the plant, Tequila, a short movie about the history of Jimador, More Tequila, Lunch with brew and Tequila, entertainment followed by dancing and even more Tequila>Needless to say that I was feeling good. During the dance contest Suzy and I had to represent and walked away the peoples champ. We were awarded a free bottle of tequila for our efforts or just for being the livest passengers in our section of the train, I couldn’t really tell. During all the hype and awards some lady grabbed my butt, but I really didn’t trip, she probably doesn’t get to see that many brothers.
When it was all said and done the trip was cool. I don’t really see going back anytime soon, but I would advise anyone near Guadalajara to at least block off time for the Tequila Express. It was cool getting back to big city for all the options that it offers, but I missed the laid back vibe of Guanajaunto, also the fact that I spent like more there in three days than I have in my whole stay in Guanajuanto> Orale!!!
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Dkelsmith
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What's up Greg
Looks like you are having a great time in Mexico, Nupe. When are you guys coming back?