Guadalajara & guanajuato

North America » Mexico » Sinaloa » Mazatlan
September 21st 2006

Published: September 21st 2006

Well i'm back in mazatlan. a hurricane actually hit here on the weekend but thankfully we were all gone to guadalajara so we didn't even feel it. lots of signs are wrecked and palm trees are broken. apparently in the golden zone the water was up to your waste. thankfully old mazatlan doesn't flood so my house is fine........too bad for the rich folk in the golden zone. i was impressed though because i was the only student who got an email from my home university seeing if i was ok. way to go UofC.....represent.
anyways, so abou the trip....it was muy divertido (very fun). although it started off really bad. we all went out on wednesday night and things got out of hand and we got a little drunk which caused heather to pass out and not wake up for the bus. me and ilona banged on her door and yelled for an hour but no luck. so we had to leave heather behind (she took a bus on saturday and met us at guadalajara). shes swears she will never drink corona again......ya right.
so on thursday we left at 4am (after 1 hour of sleep) and drove to Tequila. we did a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory which was pretty cool. they showed us how they make it from the Agave plants which are really crazy looking. then they gave us all shots of tequila BEFORE it was distilled....which basically means you are drinking 100% alcohol. wow did it burn and i definately was feeling a little happier after only 1 shot. then they made us all free margaritas which were really good. i actually learned a lot.....like your not supposed to do shots of regular tequila because it is made only for mix for margaritas. there is a special kind that is 100% (not alcohol but original) and it still has all the sugars in it. anyways, thats made only for shots and it is good stuff. maybe everyone already knows this i don't know but i felt cool so too bad.
after tequila we went guanajuato. me and ilona and virginie spent the night walking around the centro historico which was the coolest city i've ever been too. its built on hills so lots of the streets go through tunnels which is really cool. its so damn pretty i can't even explain.
the next day we did a tour of the city and went to a mine, a candy store, a museum, and a few shopping places. the jewelry was so nice and cheap i bought a lot. then we walked around some more and bought stuff for teh independence day celebration. we all got dressed up and faces painted and went down to the square where the mayor comes out and everyone yells VIVA MEXICO a whole bunch and gets really drunk. there were so many people it was nuts. then we all went out to a few bars and continued the party. we ate at a taco stand at about 3 am and this mexican lady beside me put some sauce on my taco. I was drunk so I was like ok whatever I’m sure its good. I had one bite and I almost died it was so hot. Emmy was running around trying to find water and finally found me a sprtie which I chugged. It burned so bad I can’t even ing explain. Then as I was in tears and biting my own arm this random mexican guy came up and was like SAL SAL (which is salt) so I took the salt shaker and took off the lid and dumped it in my mouth. It was refreshing but I will probably die of a heart attack now. Anyways, that was unlike any I’ve ever tasted before and I really hope karma comes and bites that lady in the ass because that was NOT COOL.
After that we had to catch a cab back to the hotel but there was none because it was so late so we ended up getting a ride from the postman in his big white van (don’t worry it wasn’t unmarked with no windows). There was about 7 of us and we all paid him 10 pesos which must have been a good deal for him cause he was so pumped and even got out and opened the doors for us…..nice guy.
Oh I just thought of another story. Before the taco stand me and cam were outside of the bar playing in the puddles because it poured for about 2 hours and we decided to get some food. So we went to this convenience store but it was weird cause there was no door, just a window but there was an entire conveniece store inside. Strange I know and we had to tell the guy what we wanted and he ran through the whole store looking for it. Anyways, so after about a half hour of confusion he finally got us what we wanted and then everyone else walked out of the bar and were like TACOS so drunken Cam just yells through the window NO GRACIAS and runs away wearing his mexican flag like a cape. Maybe you had to be there…..really though, it was amusing.
Then when we got back to the hotel cam had locked his keys in his room so him and emmy climbed thgrough the window (why they both did I have no idea but it seemed right at the time). I definitely got some good pictures of that one.
The next morning we left Guanajuato and drove to a place called cerro de cublilete (I think - or something like that anyways) which is up on the top of a mountain. It’s a HUGE statue of jesus overlooking the cities from the top and there is church too. It was so beautiful I was in shock. On the drive up the mountain we passed so many little towns and so many little kids just wandering down the street. There were little huts where people live in the trees which were basically nothing. It was pretty sad but a good experience.
After that we finished the drive to guadalajara. We got there at about 6 and went and saw a movie, did a little shopping and then waited for heather to get there (seeing as she missed the other bus). On Sunday we did a tour of the centre of Guadalajara but our tour guide didn’t show up so our teacher did a makeshift one which was pretty shitty. There were a lot of nice buildings but it wasn’t that great. We did go to the market though which is unbelievably large. I don’t even know how many blocks there are but it’s a lot and its 3 floors. There is everything including DVDS not even out yet for 10 pesos (a dollar), clothes, cheap jewellry, food, I could go on and on…oh and SO MANY SHOES!!! Eileen you would have went nuts I was thinking of you while wandering through about 3 blocks of only shoes…..cheap shoes.
Then me and heather and ilona headed to one of the big malls and on the way we found even more cheap jewelry so I bought more. It is great. The mall was really fun because we hadn’t shopped in so long and we were all so deprived. It was a good time. Then we headed back to the hotel where we all got dressed up for a mariachi bar (mariachi is the kind of music the guadalajara is known for….its a whole bunch of guys playing wearing tight little mexican suits…its cute). Anyways so we all walked there and it wasn’t open because it was Sunday so we ended up at some little cuban bar where they wouldn’t serve us cause they thought we were american (some of us were). It was interesting. So we went back to the hotel. Me and heather fell asleep cause we were so tired but then were awoken at 5 am to about 10 guy exchange studnets on the roof outside our window in their boxers knocking on our window because they needed to sneak back in because the security guard was chasing them…..how this all happened I have no idea and I didn’t even bother to ask.
Monday we went to a part of guadalojara called tonala which is like another little city. It is really artsy and has endless blocks of really cool jewellry, ceramics, clothes, arts and crafts shops. We got a tour of a glass blowing factory which was pretty cool as well. It was weird though cause none of the workers had protective clothes on or anything.
That night we actually got to go to the mariachi bar which was really fun. We all got drunk and danced and then woke up in the morning and drove back.
That about covers the trip. It was a good time. Guadalajara wasn’t all I thought it would be but guanajuato was much more so I guess it evened out. This is a relaly long blog and I am impressed that you read all the way to here. Dedication.
Adios.
sarah
oh ya and check back because i will post photos tomorrow and put the link up on here so everyone can look.

Guadalajara & guanajuato

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