Fiesta Americana Grand Guadalaj Guadalajara

... it's made up -- they had a couple of Italian restaurants along one street and so deemed it Little Italy. Probably very cynical of me. The W Hotel is happening tonight ... some big wine tasting event. Lots of sleek young bodies in high heels and/or tight pants. Both men and women. Very amusing. I definitely felt out of place ... <br>

At work all day, then late afternoon flight. No problems with flight at all ... arrived, got rental car, then drove the few miles to the W Hotel. Very swank. The "living room" bar was happening ... but we just went to our rooms, then met for dinner at Rice, the embedded restaurant, which serves Cuban/Asian fusion. Food was fine, not fab.<br><br>Room is fun ... there's a chalkboard (that received a bit of J. Alfred Prufrock from me) and a window seat. And the linens are wonderful.<br><br><br>

From the Pacific to the Atlantic to where the Pacific meets the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Atlantic and back to the Pacific. Phew! What a ride its been. I am back in Cali (again). Heather picks me up from the airport and we sleep on her new sailboat! First time for everything! I have the best sleep of my life. We get up the next morning and ...

... I going to survive? Was I going to get caught up in drug war or die from Swine Flu? Kidnapped? But now all that worry was disappearing. All I felt was excitement, I was about to land in Mexico. <br> Then I landed in Mexico. MEXICO. Since discussing with Bob where we would like to travel back in 2003, I had a dream of one day spending a good deal of time in Mexico and now finally I was here. 6 years of saving were finally worth it, six years of fantasising had come to ...

... ride it to the coast.  We reach Buceris, as a traditional bustling Mexican town on the edge of tourism. With Puerto Vallarta down the road a few lucky tourists venture this far to discover Bucerias. There is a gringo population here; business owners, snow birds, and other travelers who came to visit and never left.  Anthony and Lisa are waiting for us and the next 3 weeks are full of meeting and socializing with the nice folk that help make this place home for our son. My ...

... buried in the rotunda. Finally in this area we went to the Plaza de la Liberacion, here they had a competition for stone masons with some impressive carvings. On one side is the old state legislature building, across the street is the Palace of Justice built in 1588 as part of the Covent of Santa Marie, Guadalajara's first nunnery, Alongside again is the Teatro Degollada, built in 1856, the interior has five levels decorated in red velvet and gold and ...

... Cultural de Cabanas (a former orphanage and insane asylum, now a museum) and ended up at the Mercado Libertad, a three story market selling everything from live birds to pigs heads and includes a food complex which takes up a city block serving everything from goat stew to sushi. We ate the goat. Our bus ride home proved to be a little more interesting. We are still unsure whether the driver was drunk, drugged or just ...

... just next to Mexican border. Here you can basicly do a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico so that said almost no one was fluent in English. The city itself was of compact size, nothing too remarkable. However, to find acceptable eatery proved to be a significant task- after healthy sushi in Japan an American counter attack came in form of Fatburger, the first place we came across! Somehow 4 layers of ...

... Populares de Jaliso, and then Casa Museo López, which had a really interesting modern art exhibit by Gabriel Flores. Then I went to Museo Regional de Guadalajara, which in addition to housing some beautiful colonial paintings and many historic artifacts, also has a great exhibit on the history of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Mexico.