Down South - On the Road Again!

We decided to head somewhere closer to home this trip.  Mexico is close and relatively familiar.  We flew through Houston - and it felt like were already in Mexico.  Seems like everyone was speaking Spanish!  

I lived in Guadalajara about 47 years ago - teaching first grade at an English language school.  Our hotel is very near the old town.  When I lived here it was somewhere in the suburbs.  The little things I remember, like the tiny tortilla shack just around the corner from our apartment or the multitude of roast chicken restaurants I was fond of are no where to be seen here.  We arrived at the airport around 2:20pm.  Everything went smoothly - we had all the correct forms filled out properly, got some peso's, paid for a taxi and on to our hotel.  

By 4pm we had left the hotel and were off to find the tourist office as our hotel had no detailed maps of the area.  Mike had the location on google maps on his phone.  After walking about 15 blocks the map kept telling us we were really close to the tourist office.  But we never arrived!  We kept circling the same area - the map telling us we were getting closer - and then saying we were to far away.  A little grumpy by this time we finally gave up and started heading back to the hotel.  A short ways later we passed this open to the street restaurant.  Ah - Donor Kabab, just like in Turkey.  Oops - No, its tacos!  We got two taco's with the meat, and a quesadillas.  They were each about 3" in diameter.  Alright, we are having a snack not a meal.  Renewed, we got out our cameras and started to capture the sights.

There was at least one stand in every block selling fruit and I think some veges. 

The architecture is interesting - hopefully the light will be better tomorrow to catch it.

 We finally reached the Catedral de Guadalajara or Catedral de la Asuncion de Maria Santisima.

 And right next to it is Palacio de Gobierno.

 One of the toys that seems very popular here is this missile shaped balloon.  A father was throwing this one up in the air for his little girl to catch.

 Inside the cathedral.  Actually there were two sanctuaries - this was the smaller one.

 Here is the second, larger one.

 This is a memorial the revolutionaries who died.  It was built around 1952.  There are statues of the people who died around the outer rim.

 A picture of one of the sewing stores in the fabric district.

Then we stumbled upon a side street with murals.

A random building with very Arabic tiles.