Sunday, December 13, 2009

Guadalajara Trip




At last, the promised post on the Guadalajara/Tonola trip. I've been really sick with a crappy flu for three days and am finally well again, yeah!

Thanks to Ann for providing the photos for me. Tonola is an amazing town. The ENTIRE place is a shopping mecca. The hotels cater to the buyers-wholesalers and tourists alike. The place where we stayed devotes the entire lobby to storage space for purchases. They have a fantastic system set up. There are areas to rope off and a white board on the wall for you to put your name and room number. Then you simply store your stuff in your space. The best thing of all is that you can give this information to the shop and they will deliver your purchases to your space and you don't have to be there to accept the delivery-so you can keep on shopping! You can buy everywhere you look, even from the back of a truck, where I bought my three kitchen jugs. There are also many many boys in the street pushing carts for your things as well. So if you buy from one of the street stalls you can hire a kid for a few pesos, pile your things in his cart and send him to your hotel. For some reason, it is perfectly safe. We used these kids and everything was right in our spot when we arrived home! With all the stuff I bought, Ann and Jack bought, and Marilyn and Barry needed help with, my van was almost as stuffed coming back as it was from Victoria!

One morning we went for breakfast at a really nice little place. It was only about 15C that morning, so definitely chilly for here. I pulled on a sweatshirt and was quite comfortable. We arrived just as the place was opening and one little waitress arrived dressed like she belonged on an Edmonton street. She was wearing a jacket with hood and scarf wrapped completely around her face. We were so delighted with the contrast and laughed so much with her about the temperature. She was happy to have her picture taken with us!

We had great food everywhere we ate. There was a tiny little kitchen (almost literally the food was cooked in the family kitchen) right next to the hotel, where we had an amazing meal home cooked by the Mama, orders taken by the son and served by the daughter one night. The cost including a beer was under $5.00 Canadian each. Then by contrast, we went to a really nice place around the corner another night where I had one of my favorite Mexican meals, Mocajete. The only other time I had this was a few years ago in Guadalajara so when I saw it on the menu, there was no need to look at the other choices. It's sort of like a thick soup or stew, filled with either chicken, beef or prawns and stuffed with lots of other veggies. It's served in a very hot dish made from black lava so the meal stays hot right to the finish. It is DELICIOUS!

Finally, on the way home, we took a 20 minute drive detour so we could stop in the town of Tequila. I just had to go! It's a sweet, quaint little place and just about the only thing for sale is well, TEQUILA! And coffee flavored, coconut flavored, almond flavored, pineapple flavored etc etc etc. TEQUILA!  Because it is all made there it is incredibly good and incredibly cheap. I had a literally, 1/4 tsp. taste of the each of the flavored ones because I was driving, sob! But were they good! Jack and I each bought three 5 litre bottles of coconut, pineapple and pina colada liqueurs for $200. pesos each (about $18. Canadian) and a five litre bottle of aged regular tequila for $150. pesos (about $13.00 Canadian). This stuff is not gut rot, it's really good! Am I going to drink it all? Not a chance, but it's great to have for company!

We didn't think we could stuff eight 5 litre bottles of alcohol in the van, but it's amazing what you can do when you have to!!

On the way home, I was thinking that this was the most amazing shopping I had ever done in my life. A van filled booty and booze and I didn't have to go through customs!!

1 comment:

Mexico winter 08-09 said...

What a fabulous shopping expedition!! Wish we had known about that town when we went through Guadalajara. And we know that Mexican stew dish - amazing!!! Love the blog!