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Published: March 23rd 2009
Hello there everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote - not feeling quite so angry about everything anymore!!
SO!! after several weeks of saying to each other that we need to go away for a weekend, and stay away overnight we finally decided that it we would go and stay in Chapala, a small town about an hour south of Guadalajara on the shore of a massive lake!
We had planned to leave the Hogar at about 10 o clock on Saturday morning so we would have the whole day to spend there and not have to come back too late on Sunday. Mexican time overruled us however and we didnt actually leave the Hogar until at least 11. We thought we'd just be getting the buses by ourselves but we were offered a lift in the truck from the Mayor so - since it made things easier and a bit cheaper for us we said yes!!! Since it was a Saturday there were only the few children who live permanantly at the Hogar here, and since they barely ever get to go out they hopped in the truck too, so off went all 12 or so
of us, sitting in the back to drive to the bus 'station'!!! Yes I KNOW i shouldnt really be sitting in the back of a truck, no seatbelt, no roof....but we were feeling adventurous and it lasted for a whole ten minutes!!!!
The bus 'station' is basically just a bit of street next to the highway which goes to Chapala where loads of buses stop off. It is however a lot more organised that it looks, with a man selling bus tickets and telling you which one you need to get on and roughly how long it'll be to wait. So we bought our tickets (M$39 = 2pounds) and waited for a bus...buuuuut it was already full. So we went for a little wander around, accross the bridge from which we could get a pretty good view of how big Guadalajara is!
The next bus that came along was actually full too but we werent going to waste any more time sitting around a polluted road in Guadalajara so we got on it anyway. Alix stood up all the way there but I got bored and just sat myself down in the aisle of the bus - nice and
clean I'm sure but nevermind!!!
When we got to Chapala we went straight off in search of a hotel to stay in. We had found a place that had a good review on the internet and was supposed to be pretty cheap but we hadnt been able to call in advance because we hadnt known the code for Chapala. We found the hotel in a side street really close to the local market and a two minute walk from th lake, walked in and within 5 minutes had paid (M$250 = 12.5 pounds) for a double room. The hotel was the cutest place ever with a roof terrace with amazing views over the town and out to the lake, and also ...dun dun duuuuun 24 hour hot water and a shower with good pressure!!! YEY!!!! Alix and I were in heaven!!!
After spending a little time looking around the crafts market on the lake edge, we decided to head off to Ajijic - a village along the shore from Chapala which was supposed to be very pretty. Hopped on a bus and got off...somewhere and we wandered around for a good two hours!! SUNBURN!! first time in the
Our Hotel
Me outside our hotel, hiding from the sun with my hood up and new sunglasses on!whole six weeks that we've been in mexico though so I think we did pretty well!!! Ajijic was indeed very pretty however it did rather feel like we were walking through some fancy Miami suburb because the place was PACKED with retired Americans and Canadians!! We even found an estate agent with pictures of villas in the windows, all descriptions in English and prices in American Dollars. There was one villa - 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, I dont know how many hot-tubs AND a pool house...on the market for 1.3 million dollars!!! When we finally found some real locals it was a bit of a relief to feel like we'd finally returned to Mexico!!! We got the bus back to Chapala again and headed back to the hotel to cool off a bit and chill out on the roof terrace. The plan wasnt to stay there for long but then we made some friends!!
While we were on the roof another woman came up - she didnt look Mexican so we asked her where she was from...the UK...oh right, where abouts?...Wales....oh really?! where in Wales?....SWANSEA!! We came all the way to random small town in central Mexico to meet
a woman from Swansea!!! Hilarious!!
We ended up spending the next 2 hours or so sitting on the roof, watching the town as the sun set and the lights went on, chatting to this couple about what we've been doing, and what they'd been doing etc etc! They had a pretty amazing story really...they quit their jobs in the UK last summer, flew over to Canada in September and have cycled all the way down to here!!! When we asked them where they planned to get to the simple answer was 'when the money runs out!'!!! I want to do something like that someday!! They dont really have any plans, just a vague route plan! It was really great to be able to share our experiences with them, and they were really lovely. She was really understanding about the kids behaviour, she's a maths teacher and has worked in inner city Liverpool so she's had it all! They even gave us some of their after sun 'cream' which they'd bought in some Mexican shop - basically just looked like tar and smelled awful but seemed to do the job pretty well!!
So we passed the time like that until
about 8pm when Alix and I realised we were quite hungry and Sue and Martin felt like going out to find some beer or tequila, so we went our separate ways. Alix and I found a really nice restaurant place, with a live singer and pretty cheap pretty much just accross the road from the hotel so Alix got to enjoy her first beer in six weeks!!! The food was good and we were just generally feeling really happy to finally be away from the hogar, and spend an evening NOT yelling at children to sit down or hurry up with sweeping the floor etc etc etc!!!
Headed back to the hotel again after dinner - by now about 10pm and settled into our room, to discover that we had LOADS of tv channels and that Tokyo Drift was on! Yey! sooo of course we spent the evening watching that, eating crisps, drinking beer (Alix) and apple juice (me) and just generally chilling out and enjoying the idea of not having to wake up childred in the morning!
Unfortunately when morning came, having planned to wake up around 10, there was a little dog outside the window somewhere that
spent about half an hour going YAP YAP YAP!! ARG!!! we were not impressed! Nor was Alix impressed about the church bells ringing every hour all through the night!!
When we were eventually ready to get going we opened our door to find a book on the floor outside. Inside the book was a note from Sue, wishing us luck and saying the book was for us. She had written the note on the back of a ticket to a water park just outside Guadalajara that we hadnt known about but she said we should go to, so now we know what its called and everything!!! We were both feeling rather overwhelmed about their kindness, but there was no way for us to thank them because they'd already left earlier in the morning!! SO if you ever read this Sue and Martin...thank you!!!
After going for some yummy (and cheap) lunch in a really nice local cafe, we decided to go on a little boat trip on the lake. The town is pretty touristy and there's loads of people with little boats who take people on wee tours of the lake. The price is per person so I
Chapala
View from the roof was expecting to have to wait until they'd filled up the boat as much as possible before we would go but no...off we went with just the two of us! The lake is really beautiful, and it was definitely refreshing to feel a cool breeze at 2:30 on a hot afternoon!!
After our boat trip, we didnt feel there was much more to do, except climb up to the cross on the hill but it was a HOT day, so we decided to head back to Gudalajara, feeling very happy about having had an extremely pleasant, child free, weekend!!!!
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Megan
non-member comment
Nice weekend
Hello! Sounds like a well-needed and lovely little trip. I was Reading your entry while eating chocolate mousse in bed at 2300 listening to Lewis screaming! He has a cold and just woke up all bungee up - had calpol and bed covered in carvol now!! Orla here tonight and Iain in Shanghi so expecting to be woken at some ungodly hour in the morning! Lots of live, Megan xxxxx