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We came here from Puerto Vallarta on Saturday, August 4 by bus. It was a nice ride, air conditioning, movies, big comfortable seats, nice scenery, sack lunch and toilet in the rear. It took five hours non-stop. It was nice to relax after working so hard to get the boat ready to leave for several months. We went to Spanish classes at the Vancouver Language Center for four weeks. The classes lasted 3 hours each day, Monday through Friday and most afternoons we went on excursions in the school minivan. Three hours of class was about as much information that we could absorb in one day. We had conversation practice on the excursions and homework every evening, so it was a busy four weeks. We learned a lot but are still very much illiterates in the language. We can fumble around a little more grammatically than before and can actually speak a sentence that has a verb in it, sometimes even conjugated properly! We both still have a lot of difficulty understanding Spanish when it is spoken to us and sometimes we totally misunderstand what is being said, which leads to very puzzled expressions when we reply. The teacher , a young man called Gabriel, was excellent and others on the staff were outstanding employees. There were many nationalities there learning Spanish, French and English. A twenty year old Japanese girl was learning English and Spanish at the same time, amazing. We have been staying with a Mexican family and taking a fifteen minute bus ride to school. The family is just wonderful and worries about us constantly that we are comfortable, that we won't get lost, that we have enough to eat. The eating part has been somewhat of a problem as the matriarch, Maria Elena Magaa, is a wonderful cook and we have been gaining weight steadily since we got here. She cooks many traditional Mexican dishes, all made from scratch, and has no concept of "low fat". She has been a widow for twenty years and lives in a 7600 sq. ft. house with two of her unmarried adult sons. The house is beautiful, all marble floors and staircases, with separate maids' quarters, but needs some maintenance. It seems to be true all over Mexico, that when something breaks it just stays that way and they work around it. The refrigerator, microwave and garbage disposal in the kitchen are all inoperative. There is another refrigerator in the pantry, so they walk to that one instead of moving it. There is one other son who is married and two married daughters, all with young children. They all come by frequently to eat and visit and leave the children with Maria Elena. They are all very warm and have welcomed us into their family. The youngest daughter lives in Mexico City and is a famous singer of traditional Mexican music. She appears frequently on television, although we have never seen her, and travels frequently to other countries. She was in Switzerland recently to perform at a function hosted by the Mexican ambassador and it going to Japan soon. She also performs at functions for the President of Mexico. The family is very proud of her. The father of the family was a champion Charro. There are charro rings all over Mexico, even in small villages. Charros compete in teams in feats of derring do involving horses and bulls. They dress in extravagant clothes and during a typical two to three hour match they lasso wild horses and bulls running at maximum speed, grab running bulls by the tail while riding their horses and try to flip the bull on its back, ride bucking bulls and broncos, and jump from one bareback horse to another, again at full speed. We saw part of a charro match in a village close to Puerto Vallarta and another rather more splendid on here in Guadalajara. It is here that the regional champions compete for the grand championship every year in the Fall. Charros are the epitome of Mexican macho. They love to strut about, charge their horses at full speed and then rein them in just before they hit the wall. Guadalajara is a beautiful city of five to six million people at about 5200 feet elevation. There is some pollution, but not nearly anything like Mexico city. There are many Colonial and post Colonial churches and buildings, wide boulevards with statues and fountains at their intersections and parks everywhere. Buses run everywhere until about ten at night and taxis are reasonable. Riding the buses is a real experience. The bus we rode to class was a small Mercedes and it crossed many intersections where it was supposed to stop. The buses are invariably packed with people and the drivers accelerate through the gears at maximum rpm and then slam on the brakes at the intersection. This goes on block after block. It is a real struggle to get to the exit to get off as the bus lurches along. You have to jump on and off quickly as it doesn't wait for stragglers. One day a little old lady, must have been eighty at least, got on our crowded bus carrying a full sheet cake in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. By the time she made it down the bus to where we were, she had just a little bit of icing on her chin. We got off before her, so we don't know if the cake survived, but I know she did. It wasn't until I'd been to the Charro match that I realized that the bus drivers were just frustrated Charros. We have visited many museums, churches, colonial buildings, historic places, great restaurants and street food vendors and, of course, Costco, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. We have stayed an extra week to try to see more and have enjoyed it all. The city has many traditions and there are lots of stories to tell. One of the most interesting ones is about the Virgin of Zapopan. This is the second most important Virgin in Mexico, after Guadeloupe in Mexico City. The Virgin of Zapopan is a statue of the Virgin Mary and is about ten inches tall. It was revered by the conquistadors after they won a battle with the Indians and it was believed that it could perform miracles. They built a beautiful Basilica for it in Zapopan, just at the northern boundary of today's city. There is huge lake, called Chapala, south of the city that supplies most of the city's water and in the 1950s the lake had started to dry up. They took the statue down to the lake, put it on a boat and went around the lake. Miraculously the water was restored, flooding the lake right up to the steps of the town's church. This year the lake is lower than it has ever been, so last week they brought her down again. So far, no flooding yet. There is real concern that the lake will dry up and there will be not enough water for this huge city. They say there are two solutions, the practical and the miraculous. The practical solution is to bring out the Virgin of Zapopan, the miraculous is to rely on the politicians. Every year in June the statue leaves the Basilica and travels to each church in the city, staying from a few hours to a few days depending on the importance of the church. Each visit sparks a fiesta with firecrackers, Mariachi bands and general revelry, often going on all night. The streets along the parade route are decorated with colored banners, as are the doors and windows of the houses. The final place to be visited is the big cathedral in Guadalajara and the last parade is from there back to the Basilica in Zapopan, a distance of about six miles. This happens on September 12 and, unfortunately, we will not be able to be there to see it. The Virgin has a brand new car to ride in every year, but they never run the engine; the car is pulled on ropes by many people. We are told that this final fiesta lasts all week. One weekend we went to a small mountain town called Tapalpa, which we enjoyed and another weekend we took a long, 200 mile bus ride to a a mountain city called Zacatecas. It was well worth the 7 hour bus ride there. It was founded in the mid sixteenth century when the Spaniards discovered that the local Indians were getting silver out of the ground. At one time 20% of all the silver mined in Mexico came from this one mine. The wealthy silver barons built magnificent colonial mansions and a beautiful cathedral with reputedly the most ornate facade in all of the Americas. The air was clear and rarified and we really enjoyed the city, although a weekend wasn't quite enough time to see everything. The mine is no longer operational as a mine, but has been turned into a disco on weekend evenings. During the day there are tours and, of course a gift shop full of junk stuff. You take a little train down to the third level and walk around the tunnels. Unfortunately the guide spoke in such rapid Spanish that we could only pick up a little of the commentary. On other days we have visited other small towns like Tlalquepaque and Tonala where much of the pottery and handicrafts sold around the country and exported to the U.S. are made. We also visited Chapala and Ajijic on the dwindling lake, and of course the town of Tequila, where we toured one of the factories. There are many, many brands of tequila available in Mexico, but true tequila is 100% made from agave plants with only water and yeast added and then double distilled after fermentation. Only the state of Jalisco can claim to make real tequila. Just like scotch whisky, there are different flavors depending on how it is aged and the more expensive brands are very tasty. When you order it, it comes in a small glass accompanied by an identical glass filled with sangrita, a tomato based liquid with added spices and fruit juices. Sometimes there is a third glass filled with lime juice or just a dish of limes cut in half, and finally the salt. It is tequila first, then sangrita, then lime juice and salt. I am not able to discuss with the waiter the merits of all the different brands available as I can with scotch whisky at home, and, of course, he wants to know which one I prefer. But practice will make perfect, and practice I will, for the good tequilas are quite delightful. Well, we have loved Guadalajara. We are really city people and we have enjoyed staying in such a nice one. Everyone we have met, including the people in the street, at the charro match, in the parks and museums have been friendly and helpful. We will leave tomorrow to continue our bus journey to about ten other historic cities and towns. We may get as far east as Puebla or even Veracruz before heading back across the top of Mexico City to Guadalajara. We will stay a few days here and they it will be back to the boat about the beginning of September. Best wishes and kindest regards to you all, Colin & Patricia, |
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