Blogs from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, North America - page 12

Having returned to Bolivia in November 2008 to live in my own little house, I set off again in January to visit a friend in Mexico, whose birthday was soon to be celebrated. We were joined by another friend from Venezuela (all three of us had been in the community where I lived in 2006). We stayed a week in her village of Tapalpa, one of the Magic Villages (Pueblos Magicos) - a title assigned by the State of Mexico to some 34 small towns around the country for their exceptional touristic attraction. In that week we visited the nearby city of Guadalajara, a vast city by most standards and the highlight for me was visiting the nearby ruins of Guachimontones - an ancient complex of circular pyramids. There were apparently 10 mounds of concentric circles, ... read more

Hello everyone!!! As Tom just pointed out to me it's been over a week since my last blog entry and apparently that's shocking so here we go with another one!! Firstly I want to thank everyone for their responses to my last entry! It's really nice to hear other peoples points of view, and it definitely helps to keep Alix and me sane if we know we're not the only people in the world who think that some things just aren't right!! We managed to pluck up the courage on Saturday night to tell the Mayora that we are not religious, and although rather awkward, it seemed to go down not TOO badly although she seemed a little disappointed...it did however mean that we didnt have to go to church again on Sunday!! woot! SO what ... read more

Saturday So we couldnt stand to stay in the Hogar for a WHOLE Saturday without doing anything useful or interesting as we didnt have to do anything with the 11 kids who were here over the weekend, so Alix and I decided to get ourselves a bus into town and do some more exploring! We hadnt even made it 10 metres down the road before we got our first surprise...yes there was a van with a big tiger in it just driving down the street, then it stopped outside the pharmacy next door. So random I had to take a photo!! We then caught the bus...rather nervously...to the city centre. We had to wander around quite a lot once we got there, as we werent exactly sure where we'd got off (we just did when everyone ... read more

Well hello there everyone, Sorry it took me a week to write anything but I've been nice and busy travelling around and getting settled in at the Children's home here in Guadalajara! So Alix and I arrived in Guadalajara on Monday evening after a 7 hour bus journey - reeeeeally nice bus though! :D Will looooads of leg room, tvs, lunch included etc etc! We were met by Lucy, our local representative, who seems really nice but freaked us out a whole lot more than we already were by telling us all about how dangerous mexico is, how we'll always get lots of wolf whistles etc etc etc...things we already knew anyway! She took us to our hotel which was right in the center of the city, near the Cathedral, museums etc etc. It was a ... read more

Day 12 We took the ultimate class bus to Guadalajara. We booked into Hotel Frances which was the first hotel in Guadalajara. Built in 1610 the court yard which is currently a bar was originally stalls to hold the guest´s horses. We were thrilled to be in such a beautiful hotel and we thought we got it at a great price only to realize that late at night there is a disco in the adjoining building that pounds music out till 3 in the morning. This bar called Los Hipalco gave new meaning to the phrase hole in the wall, as while Neil was using the Hotel Frances lobby mens room he was able to peer into the bar thru a large hole in the wall. While we relaxed in our lobby bar listening to mariachis ... read more