Spanish Verbs and Tequila Tours

Sundays in Guadalajara are something to behold.  Yes – it’s huge, busy, polluted…  It is also a city with soul.  Every Sunday the main business thoroughfare slicing through El Centro is closed to traffic so walkers, runners, grown-ups on bikes, kids on trikes, dog-walkers and gawkers can traverse the area by any means they choose – except the four-wheel kind (tricycles with training wheels are the exception).  It’s glorious.  Volunteer (?) cops manage cross traffic with good-old-fashioned-whistles and a sense of humor.  It all has a festival atmosphere.  Everywhere there are vendors of chips, ice-cream, fruit cups, agua-fresca and unknown things with hot sauce

In the historic district huge plazas provide a venue for every imaginable vendor selling every imaginable product.  Indigenous people are selling exquisite embroidered garments, woven bags, macrame and beaded jewellery and whimsical carved and beaded masks and animals. There are rock bands, saxophone players, bubble blowers, gizmo throwers, etc. etc. ad infinitum. I saw a man painted and dressed to look like a soldier statue, another spray-painted in gold mimed a mechanical man complete with ratchet sounds and yet another was painted silver - totally stationary holding a six-shooter, hopefully not loaded.  The best of the weekend was an Ecuadorian musical group dressed in native costume and playing traditional flute.  They were spectacular. This is the usual weekend entertainment and my entertainment is simply taking it all in.  Families are out in force, as are tourists, most of whom are Mexican, not American, Canadian or expat and that feels good.

On Tuesdays the historic Teatro Degollada opens its doors and offers free concerts for the public.  It’s enough just to go sit in this gorgeous place that harkens back to the age of crystal chandeliers, murals and gold leaf.  The music is a bonus.  Last Tuesday it was classical guitar; this week - Opera.  Museums are also free on Tuesdays, making art and culture accessible to all.  Statuary - whimsical and otherwise is everywhere, as are cathedrals, chiming bells and splashing fountains.  El Expiatorio, the cathedral near my hostel boasts a procession of automated saints that float along a  second floor balcony every hour as the bells tolls. 

A few weekends ago Guadalajara celebrated its 450th anniversary and the metropolis was on holiday.  Squealing, uniformed school children were bussed in in droves for free breakfast in Mariachi Plaza,  while adults were there for the Mariachi music, dancers, parades, free carriage rides and rock bands.  It was a great end to the week that began with my epiphany of NOT wanting to teach English, thereby terminating ITTO classes and starting Spanish classes.    Since then I've started said classes fittingly taught all in Spanish with English allowed only if we throw ourselves on the floor prostrate in frustration.  By the end of four hours my brain is steaming, but bit by bit I am becoming more conversant.  There are three of us in the class, although the specific members change weekly as people come and go. 
Every Wednesday there is an outing of some sort.  The first one took us on a tour of the historic district with a class that is learning English.  The first hour we helped the English class with their English and the second hour we switched to Spanish.  This picture was the result.  It seems the man predicted in my future has turned to bronze: still broad shouldered, still waiting, but has retained a sense of humor...   Look closely.

Last week I braved one of the big jewellery marts in the jewellery district that covers acres and acres of down-town (think of your biggest American mall and triple it.) I visited one three-story building with a footprint the size of several football fields. Two of the floors were just jewellery making supplies: beads, gems, fasteners, do-dads and gizmos.   It was absolutely packed.  These folks love their jewellery, not to mention Quicinera celebrations.  No expense is spared.  One full district is devoted to Quicinera dresses and finery. The dress on the right is considered modest.

At the other end of the spectrum was El Hospicio.  Not to be confused with Hospice as we know it.  It was - instead,  a huge complex built in the early 1800s to house and care for the disadvantaged (orphans, invalids, elderly).    What is most impressive is the balance between indoor and outdoor spaces (23 grassy courtyards) and the attention to the comfort and needs of its inhabitants.  Walkways are covered and arched, beautiful, open and light.  The entire design was to promote healing of the body and the spirit. The artwork and murals there are still considered some of Mexico finest.  We could learn a bit…   The children were instructed in music and the arts, while others were taught a trade.   Impressive.

And then there is TEQUILA!  You guys know me and I am not a drinker.  Half a glass of wine and I'm almost asleep or have a migraine.  Still, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go on a tequila tour and opted for the only distillery in Guadalajara. I chose not to go on the Bacchanalian version outside the city - a train tour with 200 hundred other people, most of whom will be tossing their cookies on the way back, because it's an all you can drink junket. It was fascinating - didn't know the entire plant sans spiky leaves is harvested, then steamed for eight hours to start the process.  Had three shots  of 100% Agave (no sugar added) in the tasting process and no headache. I have found my drink...  On an empty stomach I was glad I was still mobile to enough to find my way to the bus stop for the thirty minute ride and 30 minute walk back to the hostel.  

That's the news. The hostel is filled with kitchen sounds, the new group of ITTO students having now discovered the work load and cooking dinner rather than going out to party. Now Day 2, the glow of the first day has faded.  I am SO glad not to be doing that - but going down to fix some dinner and get the gossip.

That's all folks! Field trip tomorrow and now beginning to make plans to go to Mexico City after the course is over.  I have a lovely offer to be shown around to see the Aztec ruins and museum, so can't pass that up and it puts me closer to a ticket to Merida in the Yucatan, the heart of the Mayan Ruins.

Adios amigos.