Last days in the G-D-L

Sons of Jalisco!

We're back from our exchange in Guadalajara, having arrived home in Mexico City last night. Happily, as much as we dug Guadalajara, we are delighted to be home. This was our longest stretch away from Mexico City since we landed here a little more than a year ago, and it turns out we've gotten attached to the place!

We did manage to squeeze in some more adventures before we left. Overall, our time in Guadalajara was fantastic, thanks largely to the great guidance we got from Gina, Kevin's wife, on the city and especially their own corner of town, Colonia Providencia. Sasha, Ivan and LouLou are still homebodies for the most part these days and they couldn't have been happier to hang out in this bright, cheerful house with plenty of cool stuff to look at, books to browse and nearby routes for dog and baby walking. Sergio, for his part, had a great time trying on Kevin's job for a few weeks and overall the whole exchange was a very refreshing change of pace! Sometimes a change of location is just what the doctor ordered, and we feel we've returned to Mexico City with more energy than when we left.

So back to the travelogue. As some of you may have noticed, eating is usually pretty high on our agenda when we travel. After doing a little research, we decided there were a few things we needed to find in Guadalajara: tortas ahogadas, pozole, carne en su jugo and fish tacos. Sergio managed to check off everything on the list while Sasha performed only half as well trying out two of the four.


For the Mexican stew called pozole we decided to try the down-home Dona Gabina Escolastica in Zapopan, about 10 minutes north of Kevin and Gina's house and right around the corner from a beautiful Basilica. We had to wait outside the restaurant for about 40 minutes before being seated which was a surprise, and one that Ivan didn't exactly handle gracefully.

This blows, Mommy.

(We're learning Ivan's an impatient little dude. His grandparents nicknamed him "Mr. Greenlight" because he screams bloody murder every time the car stops and then quiets immediately when the car starts moving again. )


The menu at Dona Gabina was really good, traditional fonda treats with the star of the show being their pozole. The place was packed with families and the open kitchen allowed us to watch some older ladies going to town making fresh tortillas.

Morenos on the town!

The pozole was indeed fantastic, dressed with shredded lettuce, onions, radish, lime and hot sauce. The sopes were stuffed with chicken, potatoes or beans. Everything we tried was fantastic and the long lines outside made perfect sense. Even Ivan forgave us and spent dinner either flirting with the ladies in the booth next to us or contentedly sleeping.

I ate none of this food!

On the way home we wandered through the Zapopan and stopped at the plaza to look at the beautiful church. Lit up, it took our breath away. On our way to the car, we spotted a big crowd dancing at a wedding reception in the city hall rec room making for a very sweet end to a great evening.


Our next eating adventure took us to Karne Garibaldi, THE place for carne en su jugo. The restaurant actually holds a world record for fastest service -- 13 seconds, which is apparently achieved by keeping the menu simple and having multiple waiters anticipate what you want before you even know it (and they were right). At any rate, we know we were eating delicious tacos about two minutes after we sat down. The waiters were excellent, one even thrilling Ivan with his birdcalls. The carne en su jugo is just about the only thing on the menu and was reminiscent of Texas-style chile with a bacon and spice-studded ground beef mix.

Yes, this will do just fine...

Besides eating, we had a few things on our shopping list . First we found the clunky handblown tumblers Sasha was after in Tonala. We drove downtown another night to cross off the other major item on our Jalisco list: finding a pita belt for Sergio. We've both admired these belts for a while and were excited to be in Jalisco, where the art of piteado was developed. Piteado is the term used to describe the intricate embroidery on leather done with a thread taken from the agave plant.

We went to the Mercado San Juan de Dios to find Sergio a belt on the recommendation of some shopkeepers in Tlaquepaque. The mercado was a little rough around the edges with booths full of bootleg sneakers and DVDs manned almost exclusively by angry young men (who looked like they were all straight out of East L.A.). On a mission, we charged past the vaguely-criminal enterprises and swept by the vaguely-criminal proprietors until we came upon the charro section of the market. As soon as we slowed down to check out the boots, belts and hats on offer a tiny teenaged girl appeared out of nowhere to swear up and down that her stall had the real-deal, made-by-hand pita belts and saddles we were looking for. The prices were steep but, as far as we could possibly tell, reasonable.

Finally, no more twine.

Sergio scooped up a very handsome example of the craft and we skipped off to check out the view of the larger produce market and food stalls below us. Like a laser beam, Sasha scanned the scene and picked out her own made-by-hand souvenir.


An old man sold Sasha her very own made-by-hand beachy tote bag. Perfect for, well, shopping at a market just like this one and much sturdier than the usual mesh bags made out of giant rice bags, etc.


After checking everything off our lists, we returned to Providencia and relaxed for the rest of the weekend. One of our favorite features of the neighborhood was this enormous park a very short drive from the house. Ivan has become quite the naturalist and seems to have taken a real interest in watching trees --- he lights up whenever his ride passed under a tree, leaves blowing in the breeze. This park was full of them.


The park also had a lovely Japanese garden with a huge koi pond.


Everywhere you turn, there are couples getting wedding photos taken or young girls getting their quincenera pictures done making the park feel a little like one big fashion runway!

Sasha-y!

All in all we had a fantastic time in Guadalajara, finding it to be a very laid-back, lovely Mexican city. We had read in guidebooks that it is the "most Mexican" of Mexico's cities, whatever that means. We kept thinking it was a little bit like a Los Angeles to DF's New York. Not a totally accurate comparison, but close. Guadalajara seemed a little more casual, a little less crowded and more horizontal than vertical. Other things we observed---men wear cowboy hats in GDL which we almost never see in Mexico City, and we saw tons more pick-up trucks. People dressed more casually in GDL, and strangely, more people spoke English to us. Perhaps there is more migrating back and forth in this area?

There even seemed to be a few more American food products at the grocery stores. Sasha scooped up some Pioneer brand biscuit mix and Sergio loaded up on one of his favorite Texas treats -- Best Maid Pickles!

That's the dilly-o.

It was a great opportunity to live in another Mexican city, and we are so thankful that Kevin, Gina and Elsa were interested in being our partners in this adventure. We hope they had as rewarding a time in our city as we did in theirs!

Now, we're back home in time to watch the political conventions unfold, enjoy a long holiday weekend and kick-off Fall and its new beginnings in earnest. Ivan will be three months old soon and no longer a "newborn." Sasha's got some decisions to make about her return to work and Sergio starts a new rotation at his job. Lots to look forward to!