Metropo-what?
Trip Start
Feb 02, 2010
1
17
119
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Next to a Police Station
Guadalajara, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico
Monday, March 1, 2010
Where should we start? Stories galore in Guadalajara, mostly good ones but man... what a town.
Overall, its a huge metropolis of about 4 million people, something quite strange to us, as we were used to smaller towns and villages of thousands, if that. So right away, the traffic, lights, and people shocked us. With that said, it was beautiful with so much to do and see. We spent 5 days there just exploring the city and eating their delicious food.
The plazas were plentiful and full of people. The churches were awe-inspiring beautiful. The car horns were loud and obnoxious. Kim thought they had the best radio stations playing all-American pop hits.
So that was the good...
How shall we start?? Ok, so we usually sleep in the van parked next to a police station because one would think it's relatively safe. First night we slept right outside the station undisturbed. The second night however, the street was all full across from the station, so we parked a block away. WORST IDEA EVER. First, there were a gang of dogs contesting for the loudest dog award. I'm pretty sure a small little shit dog won the award with his consistent yelp every 2 seconds. The barking contest finally ended around 3ish. Then the loudest, most obnoxious car alarm contest started. Ridiculous, no? Seriously, about 5 car alarms went off within 1 hour. By then, we were wide awake and exhausted. Steve was just laying in bed looking out the window wide awake at about 5am when he noticed someone walking across the street then ducking down next to a car. Steve watched silently for a couple minutes to see what would happen next. By now, you'd probably be shocked to hear that that guy who ducked down was trying to break into the car. But we weren't, since this was the WORST NIGHT EVER. Yeah, that guy was jostling the lock of an old VW sedan. The second Steve heard him open the door, he started shouting 'iayuda, ayuda! (Help, help!). He then rattled off some gibberish Spanish in an attempt to alert the neighbors. Then, mysteriously, a old Lincoln pulled up right in front of the VW. Coincidence? I think not. It must have been the robber's look out, because they pulled up and disappeared right away. After a few shooken minutes, Steve went out to check out the damage. Of course he was armed with mace in one hand and a chain in the other. By now the sun was starting to rise. Upon reaching the VW, we noticed that the radio was jacked and underneath the steering wheel there were wires exposed like it was trying to be hot wired. WORST NIGHT EVER. In talking with neighbors later that morning, we found out that coincidentally that VW wasn't even running anyways! Needless to say, we didn't sleep on the street that historic night, nor ever again. The next few days in Guadalajara we sleep RIGHT IN FRONT OF the police station.
Don't worry, we now sleep with mace, an axe, a saw, a chain, and a knife next to us at all times.
Guadalajara, what a storied city. That said, I don't want people to think we hated Guadalajara. It was a great place and we stayed there for 5 nights for a reason.
Comments
yo! we need an update! it's been more than 2 weeks! Keep livin' it up down there!
glad to hear the chain was handy. keep that hatchet close!