This is the main Cathedral in the center of Guadalajara
Birthday party for 5 year old Page, the grand-daughter of our host Rafael.
Rafael with his cousin's baby.
Kids playing with the Pinata
All kinds of Mexican candies
Me with Chido, the weekend cat. Chido belongs to Jordy, who spends weekends at the house.
Pinky, the albino ferret (a.k.a. "Pinky the Stinky")
Back yard
Fernando, who spends afternoons after school at the house
I am a sucker for kittens...
Erik in the front yard.
House from front
Gwen & Fernando
Fernando
Erik, helping out with the new range
Our bedroom
Erik & Fernando
dressed like twins...
Random picture of a plant in the living room
Inside of the "Exconvent de Carmen", another old Cathedral in the center that was formerly associated with a large Convent
Most churches have a fountain in front of them. I believe this one was in front of Carmen
The catacombs inside of the large Cathedral in the center
Interior of the Cathedral
Inside of the main Cathedral
Cool sculpture in the plaza in front of the Cathedral. The Cathedral has plaza's on all four sides, three short ones and one long one. Looking from above, it forms a cross. This sculpture is in the body part of the cross.
This is the "Kioska" at one of the "arm plazas". Great people and pigeon watching here.
Vendors sell all types of things on the streets in Guadalajara. This guy was selling toys to all the kids playing in the plaza.
Sculpture with a pigeon on it's head
This building is across from the plaza, more cool old buildings.
We rented a car and took a road trip to the nearby mountain town of Tapalpa. We went on a little off-road adventure there...
River crossing. Probably the most inaproprieate car ever for crossing a river, but we made it.
Another cow on the road
Erik...fishing (or trying to at least)
Big lake outside of Tapalpa
We hiked to a nearby waterfall while we were in Tapalpa
Random shots taken on a weekly field-trip around the city.
This was from an old building that housed archives of documents about the city dating back almost 500 years.
Those are the original doors
This is a government building. I thought it was interesting that they had fake owls dangling from the roof.
More random field trip shots. Classmates in the background...(Natalie from Seattle in the gray t-shirt, Mario with the blond hair behind her)
More classmates
Mexican street markets
a whole store full of pinatas
Fruit market...very typical
a whole store for hot sauce
huge blocks of raw honey for sale...swarming with bees (also very typical)
more random shots...
this is adventurous as I got with street food markets...those are pomegranate seeds. Erik got really brave this day and ate trype tacos.
the pomegranates that the seeds came from
Different field trip, this time to the art museum. That is a full size cow sculpture mounted on the wall of a building. Same cow exhibit that travels the US every year.
Erik standing under the cow for dramatic effect.
a preview of the oddities we were in for at the art museum
the entire museum was dedicated to an exhibit by Mexican artist Alejandro Colunga (one of my favorite stops on the trip)
yes, that is an entire sculpture of peni
this is where they made me turn off my camera because I couldn't figure out how to disable the flash. Erik took some cool pics with his iphone though.
The other big Cathedral...this one is a bit more Gothic in style. My favorite part was the 12 apostles that popped out of the wall and walked around every now and then.
Trip to Tonala with classmates--we heard the shopping was good here
Andres (Mexico), Zach (Vermont), and Mandy (Germany).
Mandy & Andres
Andres & Zach
Back at the Plaza with the pigeons. The guy in the white shirt is actually feeding the pigeons with his mouth.
We went for a horse & buggy tour of the city
Shots from the buggy...
This picture is for Jami--that is the Oasis Day Spa
Digital signage is everywhere in Guadalajara...
Jose Cuervo tour...they make you wear a cute hair net.
Those are great big dry agave's getting crushed to make Tequilla
Agave's being left to ferment. You know when something goes icky in the trash can? That is how this smelled.
Free tequilla samples at the Cuervo factory
This is pretty much how Erik looked the hole 5 weeks...glued to the iPhone! :)
This is Jose Cuervo...translates to "Joe Crow"
say "hola" Joe...
Yummy meal of some sort of pork that we had at a restaurant in Tequila
Mexican Rodeo. Those cross dressers are apparently the rodeo clowns. Very entertaining!
caballeros (cowboys)
the rodeo was a big party, with lots of beer, dancing, and live music
the band keeping the crowd entertained while we waited out the rain
Erik's personal lap dance
random caballero's that we made friends with after the party
Lake Chapala, where all the American's retire
Me at the Westin Puerto Vallarta, ready to go home!
