Blogs from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, North America

Guadalajara, and more specifically Tequila, had been recommended by several people as a great place to visit. Tequila being the town that is, as well as the home of the drink. I've always fancied a world tour of birthplaces of alcoholic beverages, so what better opportunity to visit the home of Tequila? So after an uneventful drive to Guadalajara...well nearly uneventful....we arrived back at the airport to return the rental car ahead of schedule and were able to take in downtown Guadalajara and the historic centre in the afternoon. Maybe we've been spoiled by the charms of smaller centres but Guadalajara was a little underwhelming. The main attraction is the Cathedral, which is very impressive indeed, and on each side boasts a handsome plaza. We walked into the downtown area and viewed the Cathedral, the plazas, ... read more

Suzanne here... So on to Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state. The bus journey there was fine, and we then caught a local bus from the bus station heading into town, or so we thought. After about 30 minutes I started to wonder. In fact, I started to wonder if we were even in Guadalajara. We´d presumed we were as everyone had got off the bus, but I´d not actually seen any signs confirming it... None of the road names matched up with our map. How bloody stupid were we going to feel if we were in completely the wrong town? Luckily the road names matched up at last and we reached the city centre. Turned out the bus station was 9km from the centre and well off our map. We wasted time looking around for ... read more

Rio Caliente Spa, Primavera, Mexico Jalisco Province I’m home from a week in Mexico. I heard that my favorite spa was closing July 18, so, of course, I immediately went online and reserved a week and made plane reservations. I tried to talk some friends and relatives into joining me, but no one was free or willing to travel then. “I’m sorry, Susie, my ankle still isn’t healed enough for me to walk to the dining room.” “I’m sorry, Susie, I just came back from India.” “I’m sorry, Susan, I was at Rio Caliente already this year.” “I’m sorry, Susie, I’m afraid to go to Mexico.” I finally realized I was on my own. I did face some opposition from my family about the dangers in Mexico; but Guadalajara isn’t a border town; besides I fly ... read more

Sorry pics will have to be uploaded once i get back to the city... i cant seem to put any up at the hostels Day 1- The city is full of old colonial buildings and a whole lot of churches. I apent the day walking around the various landmark buildings and museums in the central city (the buildings were more impressive then the museums). At night, there is a strong smeell of yeast/hops, so i got out my scientific calculater punched in some numbers 5318008, turned the calculator upside down and came to the conclusion that yep there must be a few brewries around here... smells good. Day 2- Today i caught the bus to Tequila.. thats right there is a town called Tequila. Interesting enough, its where tequila is made. Word on the street is, ... read more

Vacations officially started one week ago today. For the past week I honestly haven’t done anything except stay at my friends house. Last saturday (16th of April) my friend and I went to a friends birthday party-man, it seems like everyone had their birthday last week- it was really fun, and a great way to practice my Spanish (apart from the whole livng in a Spanish speaking country). Alex (birthday boy) had a few friends at his party, but most of the people there were his cousins, and there was also some aunts/uncles and his parents.I talked to his cousins (in Spanish of course) through most of the night. It was pretty funny- and just another example of how different people are here in comparison to those in Canada-every time one of the guys would say ... read more

Well we finally made it Guadalajara after a three hour Greyhound bus ride from LA to Tijuana, and a four hour flight from Tijuana to Guadalajara. Once we collected our bags, we sat in the airport trying to decipher the directions given to us by our hostel and eventually decided to try our luck with the local bus system. Unfortunately the airport bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere which, in absence of a decent map, began to cause us a fair bit of concern. In hindsight our concern was probably unwarranted, and was probably exaggerated by the Mexican crime books I have been reading beforehand; not a good choice before a trip to Mexico! Anyway, after a great deal of deliberation we decided to risk being taken hostage and flag down a cab. ... read more

Saturday: Cumple de Ricky!!!! Up bright and early Saturday morning, although not sure why... I felt half dead... However, I got up anyways and a cringing 8 o’clock and got ready for my day to begin!! I didn’t do anything really except put on my workout clothes-I was going to the gym at 10. First of all I would like to say I LOVE this gym, the membership basically includes everything (classes, squash, swimming pool, pool tables, etc.) except the pilates reformers and that freaky machine that is advertised on tv that doesn’t anything besides make your body-fat included-jiggle.... So as much as I would love to see that, can’t say I’d be shelling out the money for that anytime soon, oh and the gym is less than 2 blocks from the house. The first class ... read more

Hello everyone! Welcome to my brand new shiny blog!! This being my first blog post, I suppose I must write something about myself, before I can actually write something about my travels, right? I'm a 23 year old psychology student who currently lives in Guadalajara. Now, I haven't really travelled that much, but I've had quite a few revelations from own experience (and of course internet browsing): WHAT THE HELL?? How is it possible that I've visited so very few states whereas everywhere I look there are people looking forward to vacationing in Mexico? I'm seeing all these great pictures from places I could easily catch a bus to and haven't even been there! On one side, it strikes me as ridiculous to be always dreaming about travelling to a whole other continent and knowing new ... read more