Mexico Travel: My First
Day Studying Spanish and a Trip to Downtown Guadalajara
On this sunny Monday morning I got up early to
download my pictures from my exciting three-day
weekend in Guanajuato. I also had to get ready for
my first language class at the Guadalajara Language
Center, located in Guadalajara’s Tlaquepaque
district, which was literally less than a minute
away from the family that I had been staying with.
My class was to start at 9 am and my co-students
started arriving one by one: there was Michael,
in his early 20s, a computer expert from San Diego,
and Jorge (or rather George), a retired university
professor in his late 1970s from the west coast.
Our local teacher Miguel had also arrived. We spent
the next two hours dealing with rather complicated
grammatical subjects such as the subjuntivo, the
differences between the use of the imperfecto and
the indefinido, contrasting the use of por and para
and studying a variety of local idioms. George’s
language skills were extremely advanced - he even
knew some of the local slang that only native speakers
were familiar with. Michael’s knowledge was
more intermediate while I was somewhere in between.
My teacher Miguel (on the right), and my friends
George and Michael - studying hard
Language study travel is one of my favourite types
of travel, and I had already studied Spanish and
Italian in different places around Cuba, Mexico
and Sicily. I was really looking forward to my week
of Spanish studies and was enjoying my lessons.
At 11 am our first round of lessons finished and
I asked the owner of the Guadalajara Language Center
where to go for lunch. Wouter, always cheerful and
willing to help out, sent me just down the street
to get some “sincronizadas”, essentially
two flat tortillas with melted cheese, ham, tomatoes
and onions. This is a very cheap, yet extremely
tasty meal and a favourite of many students at the
Guadalajara Language Center.
Sincronizadas - my favourite inexpensive lunch
My lessons were finished now since I had only signed
up for two hours of Spanish instruction a day, but
most of the other students at the Guadalajara Language
Center headed back for two more classes after lunch.
A two-hour a day language study ritual works out
best for me since I need sufficient time to explore
the local destinations. This timetable allows me
to study languages while also focussing on my travel
writing, my photography and videography.
Several Canadian co-students in front of the Guadalajara
Language Center
After lunch I had to take the local bus to Tonalá,
another neighbourhood of Guadalajara in the east
end. The ride from Tlaquepaque to this district
is about a half an hour in a local bus. The one
I rode on was rather overcrowded and I just managed
to get some standing room right next to the driver.
But he dropped me safely off at the Estación
Nueva, the city’s main bus terminal, where
I went to the ETN bus company office to double-check
my reservations for my trip next weekend to the
city of Morelia. I had already made the booking
in Canada, but something had gone wrong with my
confirmation, so I thought it would be better to
double-check in person. In Mexico it is still important
to double-check on bookings in person as any arrangements
made by Internet can not be trusted one hundred
percent.
A view of the computer area at the Guadalajara Language
Center - with Slimpy the dog...
In the mid-afternoon I decided to check out downtown
Guadalajara which took about an hour to reach from
Tonalá. Guadalajara, also often called the
“Pearl of the West” or the “City
of Roses”, is a very large urban centre, and
with more than 4 million inhabitants it is Mexico’s
second largest city. Guadalajara was first settled
by the Spaniards in 1532 and became an important
administrative centre. The construction of the cathedral
started in 1558 and the University of Guadalajara,
one of the oldest in Mexico, was founded in 1791.
During the Mexican War of Independence from 1810
to 1821 the city became the location of bitter battles
between the insurgents, led by Independence hero
Miguel Hidalgo, and Spanish royalist forces.
Guadalajara's historic cathedral
From the late 1800s onwards, rail lines started
to connect the region with the rest of Mexico and
the United States. Electrical service was introduced
during the same era and the region grew substantially.
Starting in the 1930s, Guadalajara experienced another
important phase of growth and the city’s population
reached one million by 1964.
Interior of the Cathedral of Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Mexico’s second most important
city, is the capital of the State of Jalisco, one
of the most developed regions in the country with
a comparably advanced standard of living. It is
home to a diversified base of industries that include
a wide range of manufacturing, including food and
beverages, automotive parts, electronics, footwear,
textiles, furniture, steel and pharmaceuticals.
Its electronics production has earned the city the
nickname “Silicon Valley of the Mexico”
and has attracted companies such as IBM, Hewlett
Packard, Siemens, General Electric, Jabil Circuit
and many others. The city has become a magnet for
a lot of foreign investment and the city’s
exports increased from less than 4 billion USD in
1995 to more than 14 billion in 2003. I wanted to
check out the downtown of this vibrant metropolis
in more detail.
Here is the 19th century bandstand on the Plaza
de Armas
I exited my bus on the Calle 16 de Septiembre and
found myself on the Plaza de Armas, the city’s
main square, just south of the Cathedral. The square
is anchored by a delicately ornamented bandstand
made of French ironwork that was bought by Mexican
president Porfirio Diaz in 1885. At the north end
of the square is the monumental cathedral which
was begun in 1558 and consecrated in 1616. The two
asymmetrical towers were built in the mid 1800s
after two earthquakes in 1the 700s and 1800s had
destroyed the original façade and towers.
A range of architectural styles, from Gothic to
Baroque, Moorish and Neoclassical are represented
in this building.
One of the memorials that is part of the "Rotunda
de los Hombres Ilustres"
To get to know the city better, I decided to join
one of the double-decker sightseeing tours called
Tapatío Tours. “Tapatío”
is incidentally a nickname for a person from Guadalajara.
The red buses were stationed in an attractive park
called the “Rotunda de Los Hombres Ilustres”
which features a mausoleum of important personalities
from the state of Jalisco right next to the cathedral.
I managed to score a seat upstairs right in front
of the bus, and to the right of me was a retired
couple from New Orleans. The older gentleman started
a conversation with me and indicated that he has
been living for about one and a half years now in
the Lake Chapala region, a popular retirement destination
for Americans and Canadians which is less than an
hour south of Guadalajara.
Views from the sightseeing bus
This was an area I was planning to visit myself
this week so I paid close attention to what he was
telling me. In his thick southern accent he told
me that he loved living in Mexico. He described
the Lake Chapala region as safe and beautiful and
even raved about the local Mexican healthcare, which
costs him only $325 a year. His hobbies in his retirement
paradise include line dancing as well as dancing
classes to learn cumbia and salsa. As the bus started
moving, he added that he would never go back to
the United States; this statement told me how much
he was enjoying his retirement in Mexico.
Guadalajara's Glorieta Minerva from the bus
After spending about a half an hour in very dense
traffic in the city’s centre, we finally started
moving towards the suburbs of Guadalajara. We passed
by the Glorieta Minerva, a roundabout that is adorned
by a statue of the Roman goddess Minerva. The fountain
has a diameter of 74 metres and is highlighted by
the slogan “Justice, wisdom and strength guard
this loyal city”. The statue itself measures
8 metres from head to toe and looks straight westwards.
Here are the imposing Millenium Arches
The next major sight on our bus ride were the Arcos
del Milenio (the Arches of the 3rd Millenium), an
impressive architectural monument consisting of
six monumental arches of yellow metal that reach
52 metres at their highest peak. 1,500 tons of steel
went into the construction of this monument and
were intended to herald the beginning of the third
millennium. However, the last portions of the project
took until 2005 to be completed due to recurring
problems with financing.
The Corona factory
Our double-decker bus also took us by the Corona
factory, which produces Mexican’s best-selling
beer and one of the most popular beer brands in
the world. Now we were on our way back to the city’s
centre and caught up with traffic again. At one
of the intersections, a brightly costumed clown
pulled up a step ladder and provided an impromptu
performance in return for a few coins that were
tossed to him by some of the motorists.
A clown does brisk business at a Guadalajara intersection
Closer to downtown we saw the Monumento de los
Niños Héroes, a 50 metre high monument
that celebrates the contribution of the Child Heroes,
the boy soldiers who died defending Mexico City’s
Chapultepec Castle against invading US forces during
the Mexican-American War in 1847.
The Monumento de los Niños Héroes
After this hour and a half long sightseeing tour
we had now returned to our parking spot just north
of the cathedral and I had gotten a better overview
of some of the important sights in the more outlying
areas of Guadalajara. Now it was time to explore
the centre of the city in more detail. Immediately
east of the cathedral is a large public square,
the Plaza de la Liberación, which is surrounded
by a collection of historic buildings that include
the Palacio de Gobierno, the Museo Regional de Guadalajara
and the Teatro Degollado.
Downtown Guadalajara also has modern architecture
The Museo Regional de Guadalajara is housed in
a former 18th century seminary and features displays
on palaeontology, prehistory, archeology, ethnography
and local history. Baroque architecture is represented
at the Palacio de Gobierno, which is home to the
state government of Jalisco. One of the main features
of this building are murals by José Clemente
Orozco that adorn the staircase, the upstairs congress
chambers and the dome of the former chapel. This
was the place where, in 1810, Independence hero
Miguel Hidalgo proclaimed the abolition of slavery
in Mexico.
The Teatro Degollado
At the eastern end of the square is the Teatro
Degollado, built in a neo-classical style and opened
in 1866. Nine massive Corinthian columns front the
entrance, capped by a triangular pediment depicting
Apollo and the nine Muses. A pedestrian zone extends
for nine city blocks east of the square along the
Avenida Morelos. I walked past a mix of historical
buildings and square concrete blocks from the 1960s
or 1970s. The street was lined by many souvenir
shops, fast food outlets, clothing, shoe and jewellery
stores.
Walking in the pedestrian zone of Guadalajara
At the eastern end of the pedestrian zone is the
Instituto Cultural Cabañas, a former hospice
that was founded in 1791 and fully completed in
1829. With its huge central dome and 23 courtyards,
it is the largest colonial building in the Americas
and one of Mexico’s finest neoclassical structures.
For a long time the building was used as an orphanage
and housed up to 3,000 children at times. From 1979
onwards it was restored and has since become an
exhibition space and a designated UNESCO World Heritage
Site. It also houses a phenomenal collection of
murals by José Clemente Orozco.
The Hospicio Cabañas - a UNESCO World Heritage
Site
After my walk back through the pedestrian zone
I arrived back at the Plaza de la Liberación
and decided to explore the district west of the
Cathedral. This area was bustling with locals doing
their shopping and eating at various street eateries.
Now that it was the late afternoon, I was getting
rather hungry at this stage and started to look
for a nice-looking sit-down restaurant. Most of
the places in the immediate area were of the fast-food
kind, so I strolled back towards the cathedral and
ended up on the Plaza Guadalajara, a large public
square, facing the western façade of the
Cathedral.
The Plaza de Armas in Guadalajara
The local tourist information had a booth on this
plaza and I asked the tourist guide for ideas for
a nice sit-down restaurant. She pointed me towards
an attractive restaurant called La Antigua at the
southern end of the square, just opposite the cathedral.
I went upstairs and found a nice table next to a
large window with a French balcony from where I
had a gorgeous view of the cathedral. I ordered
a “sopa azteca”, one of my favourite
Mexican dishes. A thick tomato-based soup with tortilla
strips arrived accompanied by little plates with
minced onions, cubed cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.
Sopa azteca, my favourite Mexican soup
After a long day of studies and sightseeing, I
sat back, enjoyed my soup and watched the cathedral
as it was illuminated by large floodlights. The
sun was setting in Guadalajara and I finished my
leisurely meal before I took the bus back to Tlaquepaque.
I had spent a long and full day studying Spanish
and exploring downtown Guadalajara.
