Camino Real - Guadalajara

... crawled across my chest. I instinctively brushed it off me, but I was still half asleep and it was too dark to see what it was. All I knew was that whatever it was had been big enough to wake me from my slumber.

Yet last night I had forgotten all about this incident and drifted off to sleep as normal - only to be woken once again in the small hours of the morning by something crawling along my back. This time I was quick off the mark and reached for ...

... kept flowing. After a couple of hours we returned to shore to fill up on pizza and replenish our beer supply. We eventually returned late that night, with the party continuing throughout the drive home (I have learnt that drink driving here is the norm rather than the exception). Thankfully the next day was a public holiday, but the parade in Guadalajara began around 7am which proved far too early for us after the previous night's events.

... of Tequila and Mariachis it is still a distinctly Mexican city.

On the first weekend I took a walk with Isobel and a few of the Americans down the railway tracks near our house. After about half a mile we reached a shanty town next to the line, where we spoke with a few of the local inhabitants. One was a former gang member from East Los Angeles, who had been deported from America and was living estranged from his family there. His story was just one of many similar ...

... beans, and toasted bread in her stove-top panini press. She either starts frying the egg when she hears me coming down the stairs, or just has a bizarre 6th sense to detect when hungry young people are in the vicinity. While I eat, she brings me hot water for my instant coffee, and starts making the sandwich that I´ll take with me to school. We chat over breakfast (I eat, she watches), and at some point after I leave for school, she sneaks ...

... translucent-thin, mountains of diced cilantro, and a battallion of sauces of varying agressiveness. I've been back almost every day!

Looking forward very much to meeting my host family (tomorrow) and starting classes on Monday...it feels like summer break is ending and school is about to start, but I'm so ready to dive into my classes and make a life for myself here. All my love, and drop me a line when you get the chance!
-D

... abusive crowd I had ever seen. The crowd was divided into two, the Pobre (poor) up the top with the cheap tickets, and the rich, and the rich who had slightly more expensive tickets would sit on the bottom. No one there was necessarily poor or rich, it just depends where you want to watch from, the top with the view or the bottom close up. Gorgina, the girl who I was with always went up the top. She had the same shirt many of those up the top had which read “1000 ...

... excitement in the air, instant friendship, a bonding that is just there when fellow travelers meet.  The next several days are full of activity as we discover more of the city and enjoy the festivities of this particular one month long celebration. It seems that festivals never end here, they just run from one to the next. The weather is perfect, just when it is getting too hot, a breeze blows up and saves the afternoon. Walking every day down and up the hill, because the ...

... of the churches, this one is almost 100m years old but was not finished until 1962. This one was good, the stone carving was extremely good and they had lots of marble decoration as well as hardwood doors with bronze inlays. From here we went to the historical section of the town, again we start with the cathedral, this was begun in 1558 and consecrated in 1618. The decoration is a complete hodgepodge of styles, inside there are Gothic vaults ...

After having driven in the third and fourth largest cities, promises of fame and fortune could not have convinced me to drive in the second largest city so hence today's entry...bus trip to Guadalajara! This promises to be the most informative entry courtesy of some plagerizing from Lonley Planet Mexico. I have to be honest that I wasn't too excited about another big Mexican city but after strong recommendations from several ...

This morning we woke up early and went one last time to El Centro to visit a few more historic sites. We had some freshly squeezed juice from a street vendor for breakfast. I spent some time in the park across the street from the Cathedral where there are dozens of statues honoring heroes from Jalisco's past. I visited the Museo de ...