Guadalajara

I always wanted to go to Guadalajara because on the comedy show called ’Two A Half Men’ it has been mentioned a few times as Alan had gone to Guadalajara to learn his profession of being a chiropractor. I arrived here by paying someone to drive me in their nice car, it cost me about 500 pesos, but I arrived in Guadalajara November 11th and stayed 1 night at Hostel Hospedarte Centro, because they already had reed rooms, eventually come back to this Hostel when rooms are available, as they had free breakfast included, shared kitchen and 200 pesos per night if one pays a week in advance. I went to Hostel Lit again I recommend it, a shared kitchen and free breakfast included.

I stayed here in Guadalajara for a long time, why, I have no reason as wanted to move along at a faster pace. I had my expensive camera stolen the first day at HA Hostel: Hostel Americana so I do not recommend this hostel,I asked for my money back for the other two nights I already paid for. It was a Cannon 6D camera that I loved and treasured. I valued it at $3000., I sometimes think it was a inside job as I left the hostel for only 30 minutes, when I got back the camera was in a locked locker, but I noticed the corner of the locker had been pulled out, I guess pulled out enough for someone to put their hand in to get the camera, so someone knew their was a camera in there and knew I had left the hostel, it pissed me off greatly, as 5-6 months ago I had a MacBookPro laptop stolen, while in Ecuador, I knew who stoled it and still there was not much I could do about it. Again that pissed me off because of years of personal information as in writings and photos gone. I stayed at Olga Querida B&B Hostel which was very clean and for breakfast she had eggs available in the shared kitchen, which was bonus as not too many places have eggs for free breakfast included, I do recommend this place. Again I had to leave because of reservations already made in advance.

But just around the corner being a two minute walk, was the cheapest Hostel I found at only 155 pesos a night. It was called The RoofBackpackers Hostel. I recommend this hostel, here no free breakfast included as the price staying here was low, but a shared kitchen and on the roof top one can suntan as I did. I noticed they had a tour binder, I looked at some of the tours and one interested me with a tour going to Lago de Chapala or Lake Chapala and to Ajijic, it cost $600. pesos which I thought was reasonable as I got picked up at the Hostel about 9:30am and dropped off at the Hostel about 6:30pm. On this day of the tour, we drove by a ranch of a famous singer in Mexico that had news reporters everywhere, we stopped and took a look, this is what happened….Vicente Fernández, an iconic and beloved singer of regional Mexican music who was awarded three Grammys and nine Latin Grammys and inspired a new generation of performers, including his son Alejandro Fernández, died Dec. 12. He was 81. The Mexican people would say Vicente Fernández was like Elvis or comparable to Micheal Jackson in the USA, so in Mexico he was indeed very famous. 

This was a very big lake; Lake Chapala, one of the biggest lakes in Mexico and as I have been told in all of the Latin countries. Many vendors all over were selling their goods and treasures, from ice-cream cones to cowboy hats and jewelry. Our tour guide and driver took us to a very decent restaurant to eat, we also went to a Tequila tasting place tasting the tequila from 9 different bottles with their own unique flavors, tequila with mango or cafe, aged for a long time and others not so.

As far as me taking photos of Guadalajara I have to use the back up camera which only has a telephoto lens and makes photography very difficult, all the photos that I had already taken with the Cannon 6D was on the card inside of the camera I lost those images, when it was stolen.

Guadalajara is the longest time spent in one place during this stay in Mexico, I suppose because the nightly rate is the cheapest rate that I have come by.  Lots of people around squares where the Churches are buying the last minute Christmas gifts, hard for me to think it is Christmas without the snow and freezing temperatures in Canada. I am up on the roof sun tanning daily as the skin gets darker and and darker in colour. For those that have diabetes as I do, spending 20 minutes in the sun lowers the blood sugar levels.

All of this tanning has changed the colour of the mustache from golden brown to white, was not expecting that, I suppose its probably better as the goatee is white, my as well have it all white.