Morelia, Mexico--Guadalajara, Mexico--Day 124

Today I took the bus from Morelia to Guadalajara which was again really nice, except the fact that we watched Troy (one of the movies I saw at the theater this week) and it was definitely a bootlegged copy! Anyways, the first movie was Troy and then after that there was this bizarre Japanese vampire movie with Jackie Chan in it, all of which I could hardly follow along with. So I spent most of the trip looking outside! I was so impressed with the scenery--all of the amazing little towns surrounded by green mountains and blue skies. Mexico is defiantly a gorgeous place!

We arrived in Guadalajara 3½ hours later and I got a taxi to my hotel. The taxi driver did his best to speak to me and even tried a little bit of his English and before I knew it he was offering to be my “private escort” for the week and was handing me all sorts of phone numbers that I could call to reach him “any time of day.” Hmmm. He seemed like 16 years old and to top it off still had braces, but I politely took his number anyways with a smile.

I checked into my hotel here and the doorman was seriously concerned that I was by myself. Did I like traveling alone? He asked me VERY concerned. I told him that I didn’t mind and he said, but you are what, 18? 19 years old?? And I just laughed and said, um, no, 23. And he was SHOCKED. Boy, no wonder my brace-face taxi driver hit on me!!

Anyways, after assuring the doorman that yes, I was just fine on my own, I unpacked my things and got my stuff ready to go to the zoo. I went out to get a taxi and the doorman was worried that the zoo was an hours’ drive away, and that it was getting late. Good point! It was around 2 o’clock at this point and since I wasn’t sure how much time I would need at the zoo, I should probably wait until tomorrow. So I got a taxi down to the center of town and spent the afternoon walking around Guadalajara, which is really interesting and filled with different monuments to just about every significant person associated with the city as possible. I also learned that you can’t exchange money in banks after 3 o’clock here (it was like 3:10pm when I tried to) and found that I had only 70 pesos in my pocket--was that enough to get something to eat and then back to the hotel?

I chanced it and got a quick bite to eat and a taxi back to the hotel, with just enough pesos to spare.



(c) 2004 Sarah Galbraith. All Rights Reserved.