Mexico Guadalajara Travel:
First Discoveries in Tlaquepaque and the Arts &
Crafts Market in Tonalá
After my very chilly first night in Mexico I woke
up at 7 am at my homestay in Tlaquepaque, a pretty
suburb of Guadalajara. Although I had three blankets
to keep me warm, the wet and cold weather kept me
frozen all night. When I got up for breakfast, my
homestay hostess Graciela explained to me that the
current weather – it had been raining for
almost a week – was extremely unusual, and
that it was abnormally cold. This was aggravated
by the fact that Mexican homes generally do not
have heating. So the only way you can stay warm
is by covering yourself with multiple blankets.
Fortunately, as the sun came up, it started to
warm up quite quickly. After Graciela’s breakfast,
a tasty omelette with some tea, Michael, the American
language student living across the courtyard, picked
me up and took me over to the language school, the
Guadalajara Language Center. The school is located
very centrally in Tlaquepaque, a very picturesque
and safe district within Guadalajara.
The gorgeous cathedral of Tlaquepaque
Today was Thursday and I had planned a weekend
excursion to the city of Guanajuato from Friday
to Sunday. Guanajuato is a city in the Mexican Highlands,
which is about four hours by bus from Guadalajara.
A former mining town, it is renowned for its rich
historic architecture and the unique topography
among the surrounding mountains. I had made arrangements
with Tourism Guanajuato to spend two and a half
days in this gorgeous mountain city and had already
booked my bus tickets with the ETN bus line online
in Canada before my departure.
Wouter, the owner of the Guadalarara Language Center,
called the bus line locally to confirm my ticket,
and since we were unable to print the ticket out
online, he suggested that I go to Guadalajara’s
local bus terminal and pick up the tickets in person.
To that end he explained the Guadalajara bus system
to me: there is actually no real map of the bus
system, and there are very few signposted bus stops.
Instead, a local expert will tell you where to go
to catch the bus and you simply put yourself where
there are several people waiting and flag down the
bus that you need.
Metal mariachi on Tlaquepaque's main street
Since I had to go to the Estacion Nueva, Wouter
drew me a diagram of where to go in Tlaquepaque
to catch the local bus to the terminal, and off
I went on my first real Mexican adventure on this
trip. I walked several street blocks south of the
language school, past the main square and downtown
area of Tlaquepaque. The main square, or “zocalo”,
is a very attractive public space, with a wide open
plaza, called “El Jardín Hidalgo”,
with decorative trees and benches, a (bandstand)
– a mandatory feature of every Mexican zocalo.
Two big churches flank this attractive public space
on the west and north side.
Straight up from the zocalo is “El Parián”,
a large central quadrangle surrounded by identical
buildings with columned arcades on all four sides
that hold 18 restaurants. All the restaurants look
out on a very attractive interior courtyard that
also has a bandstand in the centre. El Parián
is a popular place to go to enjoy live mariachi
music, where musicians wonder from table to table.
The bandstand in Tlaquepaque's El Parián
I also took a brief walk down the main street of
Tlaquepaque, a cobble-stoned pedestrian street called
Calle Independencia that features dozens of attractive
galleries, arts and craft shops, bars, cafés
and restaurants. Tlaquepaque is an internationally
renowned centre for the production of pottery, textiles
and blown glass, and locally crafted works are on
display at all the various arts and crafts stores.
I was already looking forward to browsing some of
these stores to discover local art.
Slowly but surely the sun came out and dried off
the sidewalks and streets. The beauty of downtown
Tlaquepaque started to reveal itself and I felt
great that I had made a good choice for my destination
in Mexico. I walked further south to Calle Porvenir
where there was one of these unsigned bus stops
that Wouter had been telling me about. About a dozen
people or so were waiting at the street corner,
flagging down different busses which were arriving
frequently. I asked one of the locals which bus
I needed and he was very helpful and gave me the
proper instructions. Finally, my bus arrived and
I hopped on. All the seats and even most of the
aisle were full, so I stood beside the driver and
peaked out through the windscreen to get my first
look at greater Guadalajara during the daytime.
One of the many galleries in Tlaquepaque
It took about half an hour to get to the Estación
Nueva, and after I got off the bus I had to cross
the highway over an elevated bridge. A young local
joined me, introduced himself as Tino and told me
he used to work as a chef in New Jersey and that
he loved to speak English. Once we arrived on the
other side of the highway, Tino took me to the bus
terminal and pointed the ETN counter out to me.
I got my return tickets to Guanajuato printed and
was now ready for continuing my explorations.
I had decided to visit the arts and crafts market
in Tonalá, another suburb of Guadaljara just
east of Tlaquepaque, which is renowned for its large
selection of reasonably priced artistic products.
There was a bus running from the Estación
Nueva to Tonalá, but after waiting for almost
half an hour at the terminal I decided that I would
take a taxi. Once inside the taxi, the driver immediately
introduced himself as Alfonso and started to pepper
me with questions, where I am from, what I am doing
in Mexico, whether I am married, how many kids etc.
He was harmless enough, but I felt a little strange
about his inquisitiveness.
Colourful pottery in Tonalá
Once arrived in Tonalá I paid him the agreed
50 pesos and started to explore Tonalá on
foot. The famous Tonalá arts and crafts street
market is held twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays.
I started strolling from stall to stall and admired
the colourful pottery, ceramic and glass objects
as well as all sorts of other handrafted items.
Various local vendors were selling homemade food
to the locals and the colourful action and local
ambience were a dream for a photographer like me.
Rather famished by mid-day, I sat down for a late
lunch at a restaurant called “El Jardín”
where I enjoyed my favourite soup, “sopa azteca”,
a classic Mexican dish made with a tomato broth,
tortilla strips and diced avocado, which I followed
up with a cheese tortilla with refried beans and
guacamole. Then I continued my walk through the
Tonalá Arts and Crafts Market for another
hour or so before I checked with some locals for
the bus station of the local municipal buses that
would take me back to Tlaquepaque.
Lunch in Tonalá
Sure enough they pointed me to the right street
corner where there was another unsigned bus stop.
Several people were waiting already for the frequent
busses that were heading to different directions.
I soon saw one with a sign for Tlaquepaque in the
window and flagged it down. On the way back I took
in impressions of modest working class houses that
made up most of the housing stock in this part of
Guadalajara.
Back in Tlaquepaque in the late afternoon I got
off the bus near the Zócalo, and had another
look at the Parián and the downtown pedestrian
zone. In a local market I picked up some cereal,
some milk and fruit so I would be able to easily
make myself breakfast without having to wake up
my homestay hostess Graciela every morning.
The dome of Tlaquepaque's cathedral
Filled with the impressions of a busy day, I spent
the rest of the evening at my homestay reading up
about Guanajuato, my weekend destination for the
next two days. I would need a good night’s
sleep because tomorrow I would have to leave at
5;30 in the morning to go to the bus station for
my bus trip to Guanajuato, one of Mexico’s
most beautiful silver mining towns.
