Driving to Tonala and Guadalajara

After about 5 hours we end up directly into Tonala the shopping mecca on Sundays in Guadalajara.  This was my 2nd visit so I was not going into sensory overload this time!!  It is Sunday Flea Market day and for miles the vendors are out in full force displaying their wares for all to see.  Of course I had to do some more purchasing of Mexican handicrafts including a new plate for my wall, some small flower pots, and usual things I like to buy there for 10% of the price in Puerto Vallarta!
We head to my favorite hotel from there about 20 minutes away Gran Hotel de Reyes  http://www.granhotellosreyes.com/.  It seems to be the best deal and I like being across the street from Plaza Los Mariachias and the inside Guadalajara Flea Market San Juan de Dios.  After a bit of a rest from the 3-4 hours of walking in Tonala we head over to a restaurant I have come to love called Birrieria las Nueve Esquinas www.las9esquinas.com/ingles/index.html  with their special recipes of Goat and Lamb.  Homemade corn tortillas, homemade salsas, homemade beans, etc. it has won many awards for providing authentic traditional Mexican recipes and preparation methods.  Once again it was fantastic!  Located at a plaza that has 9 street corners because many streets come together here......that is the origin of their name.  After dinner a walk around the sights of the main square, cathedral and many other plazas finds us back near the hotel at Plaza Los Mariachis for some dessert!
I love this city and tomorrow we make the 5-6 drive back to PV......and work!

Driving to San Miguel de Allende

After leaving Guanajuato our drive to San Miguel de Allende was only about 1 and 1/2 hours.  Arriving by early afternoon and a quick drive around town we found a public parking lot to leave the car and get to know the city on foot....probably the best way as parking is very limited.  So we began our walking tour of the city and my first impression is that the look and the feel of the city was very uniform and the city codes must prevent the building owners from making any major changes to their street side appearances.  The beautifully handcrafted doors and bright paint colors make for a pleasurable image of a well kept city.  The shops along the way provided many handicrafts, furniture, and design ideas for furnishing homes.  San Miguel de Allende is the birthplace of one of the main revolutionarys when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810 and therefore his namesake.
There are numerous beautiful churches in the city including the main cathedral the Parroquia, the pseudogothic church in the heart of San Miguel de Allende.  We took some great photos of the church during sunset and later that evening witnessed a spectacular light and sound show displayed on the exterior of the church depicting the Mexican Revolution.
With a great late lunch at an Italian Restaurant, we once again we decided to take the 'cheap' around the city tour bus and it provided us with a great around town trip of many of the places to be seen including the birthplace of the water aqueducts and a drive to the upper roads with a fantastic sunset overlooking the city.    It seemed that the expensive ones were located around the main square of the cathedral so we started to walk back to our car parking lot and noticed many smaller inns along the side streets.  We had not previously arranged a hotel as we were unsure of where we were going to overnight and many of the hotels around the main plaza seemed a bit expenseive, so we ventured back toward our car along the side streets and found a great place with only 6 rooms for 450 pesos each.  We decided to make that our overnight!
We arose fairly early as our plan was to make it to Tonala near Guadalajara for the Sunday Flea Market shopping experience that I have done once before and wanted to do it again!

Driving to Guanajuato The City of Tunnels and Beyond

Since living in Mexico as of December 2009, I wanted to go and see a bit of the country that I now call home!  So this past December my Mexican friend Alvaro and I decided to make a whirlwind 4 day trip to areas beyond Guadalajara which I had been too a few times already.
So off we went at 6am and about 7 hours later arrived in Guanajuato, Mexico without any incident...not even a military or police checkpoint.  Mainly took the toll roads because of our need for speed to get to our destination.  We had pre-arranged our stay at the Hacienda D'Cobos Motel the GPS guided us there quite easily.  After a quick checkin we decided to find some lunch and explore this fantastic city before our planned city tour began around 3pm.  I find that taking the tour buses on the first visit to a town helps you get a feel of the entire place without missing some great and important sites.  Guantajuato literally means "Hill of Frogs" and was founded in 1548 as a silver mining town.  Since Guanajuato is such a difficult city to maneuver around, it was really the best choice.  The city is composed of 3 "levels"; the lower tunnels, the main streets, and the upper roads along the hill sides.  Due to the constriction of buildings, roads and the increase in cars the city had to build tunnels underneath itself to handle the traffic flow around town!  These are amazing places with entrances, exits, and underground parking.  The entrances and exits to the tunnets were scattered in cul de sacs and even with them getting around trafficd on the main streets took a long time.  The longest tunnel is about 1 mile long and our tour took us through many of them.  The design of the city was very European with many houses entrances only accessible via walkways and sidewalks.  We also had stops at the very upper street level to see the whole city from above, a great sunset spot, a working mine, a Torture Museum and of course the Mummy Museum.   All in all worth the price of 10.00 USD to see so much in about 3-4 hours! After returning to the hotel it was time to once again venture out and find dinner.  Since the city is a bit of tourist place restaurants were not cheap, so we found a reasonably priced one inside a hotel and had a great meal.  The next day we would get back up to the upper roads via taxi and take some more great photos of this picturesque and wonderful city during daylight.  We located the cable car and rode down back to the hotel that way.  And we are off to our next city of San Miguel de Allende!