Friday, 3 March 2006
Guanajuato Centro to bus terminal (4p each)
DEP Guanajuato 8:45 AM (Primera Plus, 234p each)
ARR Guadalajara 12:40 PM
Camionera Nuevo to Centro (TUR bus - with A/C, 9p each)
We wanted to be sure we got on the morning bus out of Guanajuato so we woke up early and arrived at the bus terminal an hour before our departure time. On arriving in Guadalajara we checked out the Hamilton hotel (Madero 381) but this was dreary and too spartan even for us. The Posada San Rafael (Lopez Cotilla 619) was full but a nice tourist followed us out to the street and told us that Posada San Pablo (Madero 429) was run by the same people. I'd passed it by because the Rough Guide has it in the same price category as the Hamilton, but maybe this is a new ownership since it's now more expensive. We took Room #104 (330/night) off of a sunny courtyard. The floor in the room was a little dirty, but otherwise it was fine. While we were there several people came in having been referred there from the Posada San Rafael, so it might be a good idea to make an advance reservation if PSR is your first choice. The biggest pain about staying at PSP is that you're not given a key to the front door which is locked 24/7. You have to wait to be buzzed both in and out. Ninja, the white poodle, looks scruffy but she loves to be petted.
We ate a late lunch at La Dona ("Tacos El Pastor" in my Rough Guide, Juarez 424) which may have been a mistake, though it was very popular with locals. I had three tacos al pastor and a jamaica agua fresca, and John had torta ahogada al pastor (a roasted sandwich which is covered in au jus, he noted it was very spicy) and two beers (70p).
After a nap we spent the evening walking around. We visited the big Cathedral and main plazas in the nearby vicinity. I'm told there are nice parks farther to the NE which we didn't get around to seeing, but what struck us about Guadalajara (especially in comparison to the cities we had just seen) was the lack of green spaces in their shopping Centro. The plazas we saw were huge expanses of pavement with very few trees, and fountains and outdoor art instead of landscaping. After Guanajuato this city seemed noisy, dirty, and crowded, with the pedestrian areas crammed full of the cheap types of trinkets and pirated DVDs/CDs which we've seen at every small town market day.
By this time our batteries were running low and we were ready to return home. That night John's ahogada sandwich came back for a little visit and he had to get up to vomit a few times. By morning he was running a fever.
Saturday, 4 March 2006
John stayed in bed all day. I went out for Tylenol, a thermometer, and Gatorade for John, and meals for me; otherwise I stuck pretty close to our room. The Tylenol brought his fever down and he didn't throw up anymore, but he couldn't eat anything at all. We really aren't sure if it was the ahogada that didn't agree with him, or just a 24 hour bug.