Road
trip May 08
We visited the cities of
Guadalajara, Ajijic, Tonalá, San Miguel de Allende and
Guanajuato over a 10 day period in May 2008. The
autopistas were great and for the most part travel was easy.
We have broken the trip up into two legs and show the various
cities below with hyperlinks to the parts of the log that
discusses each city. Enjoy.
May 16 –
19 First leg
Guadalajara
We left Paradise Village at 8:27 am driving north through
beach towns until we came to the toll booth that would lead us
to the
cuota
carretera.
We rode on the toll rode past three toll booths. Our choice of
the toll versus the
 free
road is based mainly on the condition of the road. We have
found the pavement on the toll to be very smooth, allowing you
to travel rather effortless. The free road has many potholes,
topes and other things that you have to avoid. We exited the
autopista
(toll road) to explore the town of Magdalena. We had been told
by Susan of "Two Can Play" that Magdalena was a good place to
buy opals.
 We
found the main plaza or
jardín
and noticed that there were three shops that advertised opals.
Starting for the first one, we realized we didn’t know anything
about opals so we hoped that we could learn from the
proprietors. As we left the first shop a man who was standing
on the plaza called to us. He was a polisher and wanted to sell
us some stones. We looked at his stones but told him that we
didn’t know enough to buy any right now. He was fine with that,
saying come back to him after we had seen all the stores for he
would give us a better deal. We ended up learning the most from
a lovely lady who showed me many opals at escalating prices.
After taking up a lot of her time, and yes, I did buy from her;
we followed her recommendation to a lunch stand that sold
birria.
We ordered the small bowl of
birria
stew or soup which came with tortillas.
Birria
is goat meat and in this case is just fell off the bones and it
was very good. This was my first time eating goat and I was
happy with the experience. After eating we went looking for the
man in the park and I got 3 irregular shaped opals from him.
Back on the
autopista
we drove on toward Guadalajara. We were seeing agave plants all
over the country side. This is the plant that tequila is made
from and we were very close to the town of Tequila. We made the
decision not to stop and see the two major producers of tequila
in this region for we had toured tequila plants before and
didn’t think we would be seeing anything different.
Having a
good map book is a must when driving in Mexico for they are not
very good about numbering
 their
highways and if they are numbered, they might not be numbered on
the map. We have a good book and it has many enlarged maps of
the major cities, so as we entered the town of Guadalajara we
were in great shape. Unfortunately we were in a lot of traffic
and all of a sudden the route we wanted to take was closed for
construction. Our map also didn’t help us with one way streets
so we were not in the best of moods when we finally located our
hotel in the historic district. Hotel Frances
www.hotelfrances.com was built in the year 1610. A room is
643 pesos a night for 2 persons and the hotel is right in the
heart of downtown, steps away from the Cathedral, theater, and
the government palace. It is a delightful place and the only
suggestions would be to try to be as far away from the nightly
entertainment as possible for the Friday night music lasted
until the wee hours.
When we
first arrived in town we were questioning our choice of staying
in the downtown area, we were not sure if we were going to
enjoying driving or even if we were going to find our way
easily. The main choice of downtown was that it was cheaper
than if we had stayed at the two smaller towns on the
outskirts.
 After
organizing our bags and taking a few deep breaths we headed out
to explore the main historical district. Our first place was
the tourist office where we got a terrific map. Next we found a
small outdoor restaurant right on the main plaza where we
enjoyed a cold beer and some chips. Mexican cities are alive
with people especially in the evening and since this was Friday
night we were not disappointed with our people watching. The
square or Plaza de
Armas
and the Plaza de la
Liberación
were surrounded with beautiful buildings.
Ajijic
The
following day we decided to drive 45 south to check out Lake
Chapala which is the largest lake in Mexico. It is also an area
of a great number of expats who have decided that they would
like to live in Mexico 6 months of the year or who have just
decided that they could have a better retirement with the lower
cost of living in Mexico. We had some cruising friends in the
town of
Ajijic
so we headed that way first. Ajijic is about 7 kms. west of the
town of Chapala. We called our friends but got a recording so
we left a message and hoped that they were only out shopping.
Next, we got a map of the town from a local realtor and started
to explore. We went to see one new development but we needed to
have a salesman to be allowed inside, so they helpfully called
the office and a great guy, Francisco appeared to show us
around. He took us to two different developments and explained
that his company, the Desherman Group, had been building in the
area for the past 15 years. Website for the Interlago real
estate is
www.interlago.com.mx We were especially impressed with the
Arroyo Alto development, but remember, we are just in the
looking stage of our retirement.
After
spending the morning looking around, visiting the tennis club,
and finally having some lunch, we headed back to the city of
Guadalajara. This afternoon we found even more activity. There
was a street band walking down the street and also many students
in their caps and gowns for graduation.
This was
really a night for the whole family to be out and about town.
We saw men playing checkers, shoe shiners at work, clowns
performing for the crowd, and even a young boy playing the
accordion while his sister slept at his feet. People were
walking and snack food was everywhere.
Our
dinner that night was at La
Antigua
which was at 371 Morelos street. Hank tried Molcajete
with arrachera which was a soup with meat that was served in a
grinding bowl. Being a true shrimp lover, I tried the
Camarones
al Agave and was very happy with my choice. After dinner we
stopped at the hotel bar to listen to the singers and to watch a
little of the soccer game.
 The
second day we woke to go and find a place for breakfast, we like
to try different places for it helps us to get a feel for the
town. The first breakfast was at the hotel. For 59 pesos you
could have the breakfast buffet, the second morning we tried the
Café Madrid. The guide book describes these as a favorite for
over 50 years. We sat at a window seat and as we ate, we saw
the bike race that was taking place. This was not like a real
bike race but more like a charity event with sponsors for it
started at 8 and went until 2, people rode bikes, walked, ran
and even roller bladed.
Tonalá
Our
main event for the day was to drive to
Tonalá
for the Sunday market. Tonalá is a busy suburb of Guadalajara.
Many of the stores are selling leather furniture and decorator
items that you might find in a hotel lobby or in a
 modern
office reception area. The items were huge and the varieties of
dried floral goods were astounding. There are factory stores,
street and parking lot venders and just a huge crowd of people.
Luckily we got there early for by afternoon, you walking down
the narrow aisles squeezed between two other people. This would
not be the place to get lost
 from
your party for the only way to find them would be to meet them
back at the car! I was interested in the glass ware for this is
where most of it was made. We watched glass blowers making heart
shaped vases. Our mouths watered at the array of food venders
but the main concern was would you be able to get away from the
crowd to enjoy your lunch. We did find a little stand set up in
a parking lot where the mom and dad were preparing the food and
the two sons were serving and doing the clean up. We each had
two tacos and a large drink for a total of 44 pesos. After
eating we explored some more and then toyed with the idea that
maybe we had enough room left for one of the beautiful cups of
fruit that many venders were selling
 Back
in Guadalajara for our last day we decided to make sure we had
seen the most important sights. When we walked to the
government office we saw a crowd was sitting and watching a
show, as we approached we saw a woman doing Flamingo Dancing.
She did several dances and then she presented her students who
also danced. It was fun to see the crowd obviously enjoying the
performance of their own kids or relative, it was also great
that it was in a lovely old courtyard and that it was free!
It was only
about 5:45 when we passed the restaurant La
Chata and saw a line. We knew that if Mexican people
would line up to eat it must me good, so we went up and asked,
“How long?” We were told 15 minutes so we got in line. This is
a great place for they pride themselves on quality food in large
portions. I had the chicken
pozole;
Hank had the two meat
pozole,
and were not disappointed. We split a piece of cheesecake but
maybe should have tried the flan instead for the cake really
lacked flavor. Restaurant La
Chata
is on Av. Corona # 126. It is a great place for a quick, good
meal.
May 16 – 19 Second leg
San Miguel de Allende
Our second leg
of the trip was one of the most important reasons for our trip.
 We
would be going to cooking school to learn traditional Mexican
cooking. We left Guadalajara about 8:20 to drive to San Miguel
de Allende. I picked up sweet rolls and coffee before we left
so following our maps we traveled easily, stopping for gas,
paying cuotas, and finally arriving at our Bed and Breakfast in
San Miguel at 1:30 pm. We would be staying at Alba de Castillo
on the outskirts of San Miguel. Our host was Mario Ruiz Uribe
(standing with Betsy next to the fountain above left) and
Alba del Castillo can be reached at
albadelcastillobnb@hotmail.com or his website
www.albadelcastillo.com.mx . We chose our room
that overlooked the lake. The house was beautiful and our room
was big,
 airy,
and beautifully decorated, as was the whole house. We looked
over the map with Mario and decided to head for town and find
some lunch. We drove through the narrow streets and found the
El Buen Café. We next walked to the main plaza looking for the
tourist office. Here we found a great local map that helped us
negotiate the various one way streets. The two main churches on
the square are the Templo de La Salud with its blue and yellow
tiled dome and the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel with its
pink ‘wedding cake’ towers.
The town of San
Miguel is another beautiful, narrow street town with kind and
helpful people. It is true that you will find many English
speaking people there but since a good amount of our time was
spent in cooking school we were not bothered by what some say as
too many gringos. We quickly learned where to park, for the map
showed designated areas that were very secure and how to get
around the town with out going through the most crowded areas.
After our late lunch, finding out where the cooking school was
located and stopping for a bottle of wine at Mega we headed back
to our B&B for the evening.
 This
the view from our B&B that next morning. Breakfast was
served each morning at 9 so we would come downstairs do computer
work and enjoy a great cup of coffee before sitting down to a
delicious breakfast. After that first breakfast, our cook was
kind enough to incorporate something we had brought from school
to her regular breakfast preparations. I believe that she must
have changed her planning completely when we arrived home with
tamales and mole sauce for our breakfast was so nicely
prepared.
The second day
in town I decided to see if I could find a jewelry store that
could work with my opals and have the piece ready in two days.
I drew the design that I was thinking about and then we looked
around the stores for someone who would do it. I found Victor
on Zacateros #49
joyeriadavidsma@yahoo.com.mx who said he could have it for
me by Friday afternoon. So leaving the opals we continued
looking around town. We found that it was best to come back to
our B&B after our schooling so that we could put our notes and
recipes onto the computer. We would usually rest and then head
back into town for dinner. We ate at some great places and we
had more that were recommended to us by Mario that we didn’t get
to try. The most traditional was Bugambilia Another was
Olé Olé which is a small family run place decorated in
bullfighting memorabilia. We had a snack at Hecho en
 Mexico
and noticed many people with good looking meals. Our last
dinner was at Tio Lucas which is a steak house where we split a
cowboy steak and a Caesar salad.
There was a
regional Rotary convention in town while we were there and it
was fun to talk to the Rotarians and to see them enjoying the
town.
 If
you visit our recipe
section of this website you will find more information on
the
 cooking
school that we attended along with some fabulous recipes that we
were fortunate to make at the school. We had done some online
research on cooking schools and we really happy that we chose
María Ricaud traditional Mexican cooking school
www.traditionalmexicancooking.com.mx We learned so much
from her, and we left feeling that we were leaving a friend in
San Miguel. Our first day was 6 different salsas but they
are so important because they are the bases of many other
dishes. Next we made adobo sauces, then pipián sauces and we
ended our classes with a mole sauce in the morning and tamale
making in the
 afternoon.
I can’t say enough about the instructions and the quality of the
guidance. Each day about noon we sat and ate a light lunch
someway using the sauces that we had just made. I say light
lunch, but truthfully that was all we needed, for after leaving
we never stopped for more food. The tamale lesson was amazing
and the results were to die for! We have been making tamales
for Christmas Eve for about 8 years but nothing that we had ever
made would compare to these light and tasty tamales. We learned
a true tamale doesn’t need salsa to make it moist, it should be
flavorful enough with out the salsa.
 After
5 nights in San Miguel we were sad to leave Mario our gracious
host, the sunshine of the central courtyard and the
quaintness of this town. We didn’t know whether we wanted to go
back toward La Chapala or go on to Guanajuato. After talking to
one of the guests at our B&B we had tried for reservations in
Guanajuato the night before, but in the morning when we had
heard nothing we called and found them full.
Guanajuato
We decided to use up some points and
made reservations at the Holiday Inn which is slightly out of
the city of Guanajuato. This turned out to be a stroke of
genius for us. After settling into our room which looked like
every other nice Holiday Inn any where in the world, we took a
taxi for 40 pesos to town. Now this is another of those map
things. For Guanajuato has a whole subterranean structure of
some 8 tunnels, I am sure that after many driving experiences
you could figure out the spider web design of these tunnels, but
we were happy to leave the car and let someone else drive. Even
when we were walking the town the maps from the tourist kiosks
were confusing. Luckily they have “You are here” maps all over
and many smaller information kiosks where helpful guides explain
directions. We have found that when hearing directions in
Spanish it is best that we both listen and then we repeat the
turns to the guide. That method was successful about 80% of the
time. Guanajuato is a gorgeous city crammed onto the steep
slopes of a ravine. It was settled in 1559 due to the deposits
of gold and silver that were found in the hills.
We got out of
the taxi, walked up the stairs to the ground level area and came
out in the Garden of the Union. Juarez Theater faces this park
and it was our first glimpse at the beautiful architecture of
this city. While looking at the theater we saw that there
was a program that night, so we purchased tickets for the Ballet
Folklórico that would be at 8 that evening.
 There
were many people about and
this is not the high tourist season, but it was the weekend. We
saw a wedding coming out of the Basilica de Nuestra Seńora de
Guanajuato, and a girl having her quinceańera (celebration when
a girl turns 15).
We rode the
Funicular up the steep hill to see the panoramic view of the
city from the El Pipila monument. You would be amazed how far
the city extends and how brightly colored the building are. 
 That
night we were back in town to see the ballet. We arrived in
time to have dinner and then wait in line for the theater to
open. The inside of the building is spectacular,
 with
three levels and box seats along the high wall. The colors and
design is breathtaking. The Theater filled and soon they were
ringing the 5 minute warning bell. The show lasted an hour and
a half; I was amazed that someone could have that much energy
for they were constantly bouncing around.
 Our
last day was spent visiting the museum and birthplace of Diego
Rivera and finding the Callejón del beso. The museum proved to
be very interesting even if they were tearing up the street in
front of it and you had to jump a few holes to get in the door.
As we wondered the gallery part of the house we saw how Diego’s
work had definite periods even to the extent that you wondered
if it had truly been done by the same person. The picture that
I know best is of the back of a woman holding a large bundle of
calla lilies for you see it all over Mexico.
Finding the
Street of the Kiss or Callejón del Beso was another stop at an
information kiosk. The street or alley is 68cm apart where the
balconies are the closest. Legend tells of star-crossed lovers
who one pined for each other from separate houses directly
across the street. In one home was a daughter of a wealthy
family and in the other was a miner who had rented a room. On
the balconies they kissed but an angry father catches them in
the act and kills his daughter in an inhuman rage; distraught
her lover kills himself. It is now considered good luck to kiss
you lover beneath the infamous balconies. Mexican tourists seem
to know this little bit of tradition more that others and they
patiently wait their turn to take a picture. We kissed but I
was able to catch Hank’s picture a little further up the alley.
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