Colonial Tour: Part One
March 2006
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After a 10 day binge of good surf in Sayulita, we decided it was time to explore a bit of the interior of Mexico. We planned a route that would take us from the coast to Guadalajara, then north to Zacatecas, south and east through Aguas Calientes to Guanajuato and on to San Miguel de Allende. We thought it would take us about a month or so since we had only read and talked to others about all that would be waiting for us along the way. This post covers the first “half” of the journey which includes Guadalajara and Zacatecas.
The drive from Sayulita to Guadalajara took us about 4 hours on the super nice “Quota” or toll road. All told, the cost was pretty high, 27 dollars U.S. The money obviously goes toward keeping the toll road in good repair. This stretch of road was as good as any freeway in the states despite its mountainous passage. We arrived in Guadalajara and were immediately astounded at the size of the city; it is the second largest in Mexico but surprisingly easy to navigate. We found our way to a recommended campground and found the place almost completely vacant. For our first day, we walked to the public bus stop and took the bus into the Centro. The bus ride only took about 35 minutes and it was such a treat to look out the windows and not worry about the driving. We arrived in the Centro and immediately headed to the Palacio de Gobierno to see some of the famous murals by Jose Clemente Orozco. The main stairwell has a famous mural of Father Hidalgo. It completely took our breath away. Pictures really cannot convey the size and scope of this mural. The room where congress used to meet also contained a beautiful mural but not quite as spectacular as the Hidalgo mural. What a remarkable idea to have a mural of such force staring at lawmakers every time they climbed the steps to work. We learned that Mexico was actually the first country in the world to officially ban slavery and make it illegal. The building that housed the murals was originally built by slaves, making the murals and the signing into law the ban on slavery within the building years later even more powerful.
There was so much to see in Guadalajara that we ended up riding the bus into the Centro for the next few days to take in and experience as much as we could handle. The second trip into town was supposed to put us at the famous Mercado (outdoor market); instead we let the day unfold and met a local guy named David during lunch. After lunch we all decided to continue the conversation over some beers so we spent the rest of the afternoon swapping stories in David’s favorite local bar. David was a very interesting guy who had lived in several places in the U.S., including N.Y.C., L.A. and Las Vegas to name a few. He is a hardworking young father, very motivated, educated, resourceful and entrepreneurial. We exchanged info and wished him the best as we parted ways late that evening. It took us a day to recover, but our next trip into the city brought us to the Cabanas Cultural Institute where we wandered around and made our necks soar looking at the many Orozco murals on the interior. We found a site with a picture of every single mural inside and we have also posted a few of our own shots in our photo gallery, so take a look when you have time. After gorging ourselves on art and architecture we strolled to the Mercado Libertad, a massive multi-level public market at least 10 times the size of Pike Place market in Seattle. We literally lost ourselves among the endless booths containing everything from leather goods to bead art to hardware to fruit and vegetables. We picked up a new wallet for Eric and Sarah looked but didn’t drop in on a pair of shoes out of the hundreds on display. We thought the day was action packed as we sat down on the bus to go home, tired and wide eyed. Oh… but the adventure had just begun…. About 10 minutes into the bus ride, we noticed the locals looking at each other and talking about the unusually high rate of speed our bus driver was employing. Apparently the buses have an alarm on them so that in the event that the driver goes too fast, the alarm sounds and should trigger the driver to slow down. The alarm worked as it beeped almost continuously to no avail. Moments after one of the back jarring stops, the driver proceeded to plow into a car as the bus was attempting to re-enter the flow of traffic. At that point, the bus driver headed off course in an attempt to catch the car he had hit. Suddenly, we were weaving through neighborhood streets at what felt like 80 miles per hour, hitting low hanging trees and creating quite a stir amongst the passengers. After the bus nearly hit a white Mercedes turning from a side street, one man walked to the front of the bus and started shouting to the driver “what the @$## are you doing? We have families you @##$%^& idiot!!” The driver seemed to get the message as he slowed down a click or two for all of a minute. Next thing we knew we were back on course and on our way when the driver pulled over and walked off the bus. We talked to the fellow passengers who all started to exit the bus and discovered another, safer bus waiting for us all. Never underestimate the potential adventure on a 4 peso bus ride.
We decided we had seen as much as we could handle of Guadalajara so we packed it up and hit the “free” road north to Zacatecas. The 200 mile journey took a full day since the geography of the area we traveled was extremely mountainous. The slow but scenic drive took us through all sorts of cool little towns. We figured out that unlike Baja, there are banks, Pemex gas stations and grocery stores in practically every small town here on the mainland side. We checked our camping guidebook as we rolled into Zacatecas and made our way to the beautiful Hotel del Bosque. Despite its near 5 star rating, they allow campers for a very small sum. There really aren’t any places to camp in Zacatecas so we were just happy to have a spot, let alone one as picturesque and quiet as the Hotel. The hotel was located at the top of one of the two peaks in town. The two peaks, Cerro del Grillo and Cerro de la Bufa are connected by a cable car or teleferico. The town of Zacatecas was spectacular and somewhat European in the way it felt. Very old, loaded with art and very wealthy due to the long silver mining history in the area. Many of the town’s buildings were made of pink sandstone, including the impressive main cathedral. The pink façade of the main cathedral was so detailed that one could spend hours looking at the carved figures and scenes covering the exterior. We found our groove and spent several days exploring the Mina el Eden, the museum of Pedro Coronel, the museum of his brother, Rafael, with its famous mask collection, as well as visiting the main plazas, Cerro de la Bufa via the cable car and our favorite morning ritual of breakfast at the Café Acropolis. There were surprisingly few North American tourists that we saw. There were several folks we bumped into who were studying Spanish for a week or two in town but largely this town’s tourism seems to come from within Mexico, which is also a special characteristic of this mountain town. We loved Zacatecas and hope that we will be back someday. Feeling the call to move on, we split and headed south and slightly east to Guanajuato, the subject of our next post.