Why You Should Visit Guadalajara

I’ll be honest, my first impression of Guadalajara was not great.  I visited the city twice in the past but only in taxis at night between bus trips to and from Querétaro.  This weekend was a good reminder that first impressions can be wrong. 

After a great Peace Corps training on monitoring and evaluation (and I actually mean that in a non-sarcastic way), I set off with mi amiga Alana to get a feel for one of the largest cities in Mexico.  Guadalajara has an international vibe with amazing art, public parks and plazas.  More than once I found myself asking “where am I?” as I passed upscale nightclubs reminiscent of New York, trendy restaurants straight out of Portland, pedestrian malls á la D.C., and restaurants and boutiques to rival any cosmopolitan city in the world.

  One of many lovely squares.

  Me and Alana at los arcos.

  Cool art in a public square.

  So many beautiful old buildings.

 So much cool, creepy art.

Rotunda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres.

We visited the Ex-Hospicio Cabañas with murals by José Clemente Orozco.  It didn’t feel right to take pictures of art in such a tranquil space, but you can see them in all their glory as taken by other people without my moral righteousness (and better cameras – just Google “Cabañas murals by José Clemente Orozco”).  Las Cabañas is huge and beautiful, with multiple courtyards and galleries showing beautiful pieces in different artistic mediums.  This includes the room I’ve affectionately titled the “Mexican Vogue” room.  The high-fashion photos with exposed body parts and makeup were cool but a jarring contrast to the dark and fiery murals in the main hall.

 

Buildings and art at Ex-Hospicio Cabañas. 

We also visited Musa, a free museum that had a great exhibit on art, politics, and the environment.  I enjoyed the wall of newspaper that the artist had encased himself in and then ripped his way out of, a modern puzzle piece exhibit, and an amazing outdoor art piece by Javier Marin.  If there had been a small reproduction of that giant head, I would have purchased it in a heartbeat.

 I love this giant head. 

I finally took a picture of one of the murals; don't judge me.

We tried to visit the Mercado de San Juan de Dios, one of the largest traditional markets in Mexico, but to be honest, it was overwhelming.  Saturday afternoon was a wee bit busy in there and it was wall to wall DVDs, speakers, clothes, shoes, watches, jewelry, kitchen pans, sound systems….  I have no idea what the other 99% of the market holds because we only made it around one level before we had to escape for sunlight and air.  We passed numerous food stalls on the way out, including one with a cow skull with limes in the eye sockets.  The city was just brimming with art.  

 View from the mercado.

  Art and a pedestrian avenue near the mercado.

Although I enjoyed all of the centro district, my favorite street was Chapultepec.  It had the best cafes, fountains, sculptures, handmade crafts, and a pedestrian mall for a long leisurely walk.  It also had a huge gathering of hipsters and I felt extra cool by proximity. 

  Trendy bar near Chapultepec.

  A great pedestrian mall.

  Art on Chapultepec.

Guadalajara has every mode of transportation you desire.  We didn’t make it in a horse drawn carriage or on one of the community bikes, but we did ride city buses, electric trolley buses and Uber.  We got stuck in a flash flood in our Uber for about an hour with two nice people from Mexico and China who showed me how to play Pokemon Go.  Although I was increasingly concerned that I was stuck in a car with rising water outside, we eventually backed our way down the street to higher ground.  Lesson learned: do not go anywhere near a low point in Guadalajara after a rain.  Or only ride in the big city buses as they were able to make it through the deep water – and make our little car float with the force of their waves.

  View from our Uber during a flash flood.

 I waved goodbye to the family on the right after our hour together.

On the 5-hour bus ride home my bus broke down a mere 80 minutes from my town.  It became evident that we weren’t moving again after our driver left with a big piece of metal never to return and then the bus stopped running on its own.  I eventually saw the driver sitting in the shade down the road talking on his phone.  Someone finally went out to talk to him and returned to tell us that we needed to wait for another bus.  I joined the driver in the shade and tried to interpret what was being said about our next steps.  I deduced that there were three options: 1) we were going to wait 30 minutes for a gang of taxis to get us, 2) we were going to wait for a bus going to a different town to pick us up and take us to that town, or 3) we were going to wait 3 hours for the next bus to my town.  What actually happened is that the bus to another town arrived a little over an hour later and took us to an intersection where the woman behind me told me I needed to exit, and I joined 7 other people in 2 shared taxis to make it the rest of the way home.  Although this was not one of the options I interpreted, I decided it was close enough, so I’m basically rocking Spanish now.

If I haven’t convinced you to visit Guadalajara yet, consider this: if you are a friend or family member, you can also see me!  And my awesome Spanish will totally get us where we need to go and we can order food and buy stuff.  Also, Guadalajara is the birthplace of mariachi music and tequila.  That ought to do it.