Guadalajara isn’t a sophisticated, tree lined, café strewn Mexico City. It’s not an architecturally rich colonial city. It’s not a Caribbean or Pacific beach playground. It’s just Guadalajara. Which is great. It seems to live within itself and does a great job of simply being a functional (at least in Mexican terms) day to day city. And it’s been a good place for me to spend a week getting to know it a bit.
Guadalajarans say their Mercado Libertad is the largest indoor market in the world. It’s definitely the largest one I’ve ever seen. There are four big sections surrounding a nondescript courtyard in the middle.
What’s also interesting is the huge shopping district fanning for block after block in two directions from the indoor Mercado Libertad.
Outside of the central tourist area, Guadalajara is a spread out city with wide streets and pretty basic buildings, as the next series of photos show. It’s not much of a walking city, but it’s probably a much easier city to get around in a car than many I’ve seen in Mexico.
I visited the Cabanas Museo. It was originally a huge orphanage founded in 1805. It’s now a museum which includes 23 separate patios sourrounded by schools of art, music and dance; an art cinema/theatre; various exhibits; and a main chapel that now contains some amazing murals by the famous Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco.
This fascinating quote was on the wall at the entrance of one of the exhibits.
Ahhh, modern art. I guess when you “get rid of everything” you get the paintings in the next hall: a room full of meaningless circles.
I went down to Laguna de Chapala, which is about an hour south of Guadalajara. It’s the largest lake in Mexico. It’s a really nice area with mountains surrounding the lake. There’s a large number of North American retirees living in the towns around the lake. Unfortunately, it’s a relatively shallow lake with minimal water flow, and it now has a large nitrate pollution problem from agricultural runoff.
I went up to Parque Mirador at the northern part of the city. It’s a beautiful park that overlooks an amazing canyon. A nice, tranquil oasis at the edge of the city.
I also went to the nearby zoo. It’s considered one of the best zoo’s in Latin America. It’s like walking through a forest with the chance to see a lot of cool animals. Most of their compounds seemed to have a good amount of space as zoo’s go.
Just like Guadalajara itself, my Airbnb apartment is simple and functional. Most importantly, it’s in a fantastic location, right next to the main cathedral and other tourist attractions.
