Sightseeing Guadalajara
During our trip to Guadalajara we spent a few days exploring the city as well as enjoyed some great meals at restaurants as well as with friends at their home.
In the city, we walked through a public market in an artistic area. The street was setup with a walkway in the middle where street performers put on shows, artists sold their work and people socialized and explored the city.
The area felt like a city in Europe with the variety of activity going on. In addition, the buildings in that an area had a blend of old fashion classic architecture mixed with modern.
Throughout the city, most of the businesses are common names such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Gap, Wal-Mart and the like as well as more traditional local Mexican businesses.
One thing that was surprising, is the amount of advertising on most of the major streets and highways. There were multi-level billboards present and the area felt congested.
Traffic throughout the city was heavy and it often can take an hour to travel a few miles.
On one of the days, we made our way to the older part of the city where we visited The Guadalajara Cathedral. The Cathedral was large and ornate inside.
There were traditional church pews as well as specific sections for different area of prayer. In addition, there was a small chapel on one side of the room.
The church was beautiful and it was a popular attraction. Inside they had candles that would light automatically if you placed a coin in the receptacle. That was a great fundraiser for the church. Any coin would do and each one would like another light.
After visiting the church, we walked over to a shopping area as well as a large four-story jewelry store featuring gold, silver and other stones. The building was old; however, it received a facelift to look more modern.
Inside the building there were many small jewelry vendors. The price was for the most part fixed and the stores sold things based on weight. When we attempted to bargain with them, they generally didn’t accept more than about a 10% discount.
Outside in a market, the vendors sold a variety of hand crafted items and gifts; however, again they did not accept much bargaining which is very common in the resort towns in Mexico.
Throughout the city there were many water fountains and other displays and there were many parks with walking areas and area to gather.
One night we dined at a taco restaurant and sampled a variety of items.
At every table, the servers brought out a bunch of small dishes with condiments in them including limes, onions, salsa, avocado sauce and pepper sauces which enhanced the meal. The combination of the containers made for a nice picture.
Our friends should us how to cook Chiliquilies and we had it a few times during the trip.
On one of the afternoons, I also learned how to make Flan!
One of the evenings we went to a larger dinner party where we had tortas, tacos and tostados that were home-made for us.
In addition, we shared a few shots of tequila.
One morning we visited an open air restaurant decorated with cows and other items and we had a great meal as well.
Overall it was a great trip and we enjoyed sightseeing in the city and enjoying some great food.
Have you visited Guadalajara? What did you do while you were there?