Guadalajara

Well, here I sit on my small balcony in Puerto Vallarta at four in the morning banging away at my laptop. I haven't been able to get a DSL connection in my unit yet so I have to try to suck from someone else's wireless connection. I can only pick it up out here and it is too bright during the day for me to see my screen. Not unlike a vampire I drain drain the wireless connection and work in the dark. I shall sleep on the beach during the day, avoiding the sun and having Igor bring me my drinks.

I left New York on February 6th on a 6:00 AM flight to Guadalajara with a short lay-over in Atlanta. As I was waiting for my connection (airplane, not drug) Shawn, the mayor of International Falls was on CNN talking about how cold it has been up there. You may remember her, she was at Woody's Pub where I had a party for bar number 777.

The Mayor And Me


I got to Guadalajara with no problem and I must say that compared to the hassles you generally have to go through returning to the United States from abroad, getting into Mexico is a piece of cake. It goes without saying that the Mexicans seem to like us better than Lou Dobbs likes them.

I stayed in the Morales hotel right in what is known as the Historical District. The hotel was very nice although it didn't seem to be doing much business. Apparently it was very popular with visiting bull-fighters when bull-fighting was a much more popular and glamorous sport than it is these days.

Hotel Morales


The hotel is right across from a little park where the primary activity seems to be either shining shoes or getting your shoes shined. There is also a little horse and carriage that is always on the corner and never seems to go anyplace.

The Park


The carriages used to be the means of transportation for the wealthy who, when they weren't using them, allowed the drivers to hire them out. To signify that the carriages were available the drivers would wear a yellow arm-band. Hence, the carriages for hire were referred to as canaries and they are still called canarios (Spanish for canaries).

The hotel had a nice little roof-top area where, supposedly, you get get cocktails on Friday and Saturday evenings. Alas, that never seemed possible. I suspect this was because there were so few guests that it wasn't worth their while to open the bar. The views were nice though.

Views From The Top




I don't know how many people are familiar with the thing New York had with cows a few years ago. For some reason if you were an artist you could get a plastic cow and then decorate it as you saw fit. These were then placed in various locations around the city, some of which are still there. For some equally strange reason Guadalajara seemed to have the same kind of a thing going on, but their cows seemed to be decorated in what I can only assume is a more Mexican style.

Vaca de la Muerte (Cow Of Death)


I particularly liked this one of a cow displaying his victory over an enemy elephant. Go figure.

Vaca Victoriosa (Victorious Cow)


I will post more about my stay in Guadalajara in a day or so, but I did want to share a couple of pictures of a bar in which I had one of my more interesting experiences. I don't remember the name of the bar, you had to kind of take it on faith that there was actually going to be a bar behind the door.

The Door To The Bar


Actually, a lot of bars seemed to have fairly obscure entryways, for one reason or another. Anyway, the reason this place was a bit unusual was that above the bar was a small television that was showing the movie "A Dog Of Flanders." Not exactly the most upbeat of movies and the woman bartender had to serve me my beers through her tears as she sobbed during all of the sadder parts (and there were many). One of the few times it was the bartender and not me crying in my beer.

"Enjoying" A Beer At The Crying Bar


I would have liked to have gotten a picture of the bartender but she kept waving me off. I guess her mascara was running or something.

Well, I hear a rooster crowing which means the sun will be coming up soon, so it is time for me to head inside and put on the coffee. Until manana then.