I have had a very good two full-day visit here in Tlaquepaque and will be catching a taxi at 4:45 tomorrow morning to go to the airport and catch my flights home. Since I am going to end up in Stewart Airport, it should surprise no one in the Hudson Valley that I will be going via Los Angeles to Philadelphia and then to Newburgh/Stewart. I leave Guadalajara at 7:15am local time and finally arrive at Stewart at 10:30pm local time, or 14 hours total. But that is OK, and I will only be bringing a carry-on and my laptop case, so I don’t have to worry about customs, immigration and passport lines after having to go pick up my checked bag when landing in LA, which will shave off a lot of time and stress.
My Casa Tlaquepaque hotel is very nice and a short walk to the Centro where the Feria de San Pedro – Feast of Saint Peter – is taking place. The roads are all paved, which is great as I only brought my huaraches and no other shoes, and as citified as this town is, I never expected to hear roosters crowing in the morning, but there it was. I will be including 2 or 3 photos of a hen from Cofradía.
When I first saw this hen near my house, she was sitting in the street next to the curb, and not moving. At first I wondered if she was dead, and then if she was sick, but upon closer inspection, I could see that her feathers were puffed up and tiny chicken feet were underneath her. As I approached closer, she got up and walked to the other side of the road, with four tiny chicks following her. Apparently she sits on them at night when they all go to sleep.
After getting situated in my room, I decided to do some exploring. I still get lost finding my way around this hotel, even though it is rather small, but finding my way to the Feria was quite easy – right turn out the front door, go to the traffic light, make a left and after one block turn right onto the Calle de Independencia. No mistaking it as there are pilons blocking traffic from going down that street, so you can walk for many blocks and not have to worry about oncoming traffic, except at the crosswalks to the side streets.
On this plaza – for lack of a better word – there are many shops, museums, restaurants of all types, stores selling clothing and artesanal wares, food, sweets and alcohol of many types. There were street musicians and many statues ranging from commemoration of historic events and people to the abstract. Also tables set up all along the street with handmade wares of many types, including beaded jewelry.
I decided to have lunch at one of the fancy restaurants, the Casa Luna. The interior was amazing, with blue walls that reminded me of the blue in Frida Kahlo’s house, the Casa Azul. There was a huge fake tree with enormous glass raindrops hanging from its bare branches, and large glass decorations scattered throughout the room for which any words I can think of would be inadequate.
There was also live music, including a female singer singing in French. It gave me the feeling of being in France rather than here in Mexico. After spinach salad and lasagna with panela, and a piña colada that I probably shouldn’t have had, I had a bit of a buzz on, and made my way down the street to where the musical entertainment would be.
They had quite a variety of musical entertainment, from a quartet, to an orchestra that played classical music to folkloric groups. I attended last night and the night before, but had to cut it short last night before the big band music started. It was something that I had really wanted to hear, but between the heat and the drink, I really needed to lay down in my air conditioned room.
This morning the first thing I did was confirm my reservation for tomorrow and print out my boarding pass. Quite different from the U.S., where the airlines won’t allow you to print up your boarding pass ahead of time for international flights.
Afterwards I went for a walk and explored another block parallel to Independencia,visited a museum and came back to pack, just to make sure everything would fit in my two bags, and they do, just barely.
So now, I will post pictures, hit publish and try to get some sleep and get up before dawn… Enjoy!
mex-pat.org 