"Tee hee hee"

We had a highlight of Mazatlan on Monday, which was a trip to the market.  The Mazatlan market is not an open market but an enclosed market with each vendor occupying their own space as a permanent shop. There were butchers, many vegetable sellers, cafes, clothing shops and the odd curio place but it wasn't really geared to tourists. We were looking for some nice steaks and fresh vegetables (amazingly, restaurants all seemed to serve frozen vegetables) because Nan and I were planning to barbeque that night. Steak selection was limited but it all looked very fresh. And there were vegetables aplenty so it is baffling to us why restaurants would not serve fresh. Once done there, Nan and Adriana were distracted by the large department store across the street with its wide array of shoes however, they were thwarted in their attempt.

The police. Incognito, for good reason. It's better not to upset them.

Adriana and Nan checking out the wares.

Adriana's favourite bakery at the market. Apparently, there are no rules about bakers owning parrots.

Fresh meat. Oink.

A street vendor, outside the market.

Yesterday's big adventure was the 6 1/2 hour bus ride from Mazatlan to Guadalajara. I am not sure how we would have coped without Adriana's help so we were very thankful to have her with us to buy the tickets and then to get us on to the correct bus. We had heard horror stories about people getting on the wrong bus and then ending up some place they had not intended. Just imagine how that could work out! It rhymes with "kartel bindoctrination".

It was an early departure, which suited us, and it was indeed a "premier" bus - three fully reclining seats wide, television with an assortment of movies, concerts, t.v., weather channel, and on-baord wi-fi, though it was a little sporadic. There was also a bag lunch served, which consisted of a fruit bar, bottle of water and the choice of a sandwich (we didn't dare venture there) or a bag of chips. Also, there was a headset for the t.v., which neither of us used. There was also a men's and a women's washroom, which was behind an external set of glass doors. The driver's compartment was segregated from the passengers however, despite the door between us, it did not screen out the music that he was playing for his own amusement. He appears to have a very extensive selection of tuba music and given that it played for several hours, I am guessing he has the world's entire collection because it is difficult to imagine there is that much. It certainly all sounded the same to me and for all I know, I might have been one song on a loop. But it played for hours.

Our driver, cognizant of the magnitude of his enormous responsibility, gave us his sternest pose.

The highway between Mazatlan and Guadalajara is a toll road and has a reputation for being a good road. I would say that it is as good as an average Edmonton street. At the end of winter. There were stretches that would have challenged a four wheel drive truck but other sections that were smooth and clear. I found the closer to Guadalajara we approached, the better the road and the greater the traffic. Closer to Mazatlan, there were very few cars, in fact, not really busy at all but what traffic there was consisted largely of heavy truck traffic. Closer to Guadalajara, the traffic became increasingly heavy, with many more cars and still, lots of semi trailer trucks. We even saw one semi that had fallen off the side of the road and was laying on its side. Not sure how it happened but vehicles tend to drive on the shoulder rather than between the lines that were painted to provide guidance. Since they pass anywhere they are inclined, irrespective of whether it is safe, I suspect drivers, truck drivers in particular, kept over to give lots of room so that three vehicles could fit into a space designed for two.

The toll booths along the way, and there were about ten, had about the only greenery we saw as it is quite arid. We did see some fruit plantations though it wasn't immediately apparent what fruit was growing. In fact, what identified them as orchards was that the trees were all in rows but in the countryside, it was quite brown. We also saw some cultivated agave plants. I can only guess what that crop would be used to produce.

Ah, Spellcheck, anyone?

A not-2000-year-old aquaduct.

Roadside stands on the way to Guadalajara.

Telpec, between Mazatlan and Guadalajara. Doesn't look like much tourist infrastructure here.

One of the many toll booths.

The bus trip was thankfully uneventful. In fact, it was going quite a bit faster than I expected and we were told the scheduled arrival time was 2:30 p.m. I did a quick check on Google Maps to see how long it would take to get to the bus terminal once we had reached the edge of town and it looked like we were going to get in about 45 minutes ahead of schedule and for a brief moment, I thought I should call the tour operator to say we were early. What I didn't realize was that there had been a time zone change so in fact, we were late, plus, that the traffic was close to impassable due to an accident somewhere. I was glad I didn't call. I had given him the link to track our movements so he had had a look at it to determine when he should leave and in fact, he had been waiting a while when we arrived.

When we did arrive, we got off the bus and went to collect our luggage, which the drive had unloaded. It was very easy to identify our bags because of all six passengers on the bus, we were the only ones with luggage. However, we still had to produce our baggage claim tickets to get our stuff back, something I had not realized would be a requirement. I had to really look around to figure out where I hade stored them but eventually, came up with them.

We were met at the bus stop by our motorcycle host John, which was a great asset. Guadalajara is a city of 5 million and I can't imagine navigating it on my own. In fact, I don't think John could imagine it either. Nonetheless, better him than me. Traffic is unlike what we are accustomed to seeing back home though I suspect it is not all that different in other big cities. The biggest difference is how narrow are the lanes and it seemed like we could have reached out and touched the neighbouring vehicles, if we had been inclined. There is also an element of "survival of the fittest"; it is more an element of knowing where to take your chances rather than following any set of rules. If it is more convenient to drive a little ways down the wrong way, that's o.k. as long as it's "safe", or if you need to cut across traffic to get to your exit, that is fair game, too. For motorcycles, typically the drivers go in between lanes, not necessarily a bad thing if you know how to do it but they would also cut across lanes directly in front of moving vehciles to get over. Car drivers seem to be on the alert for this type of driving and nobody seems to be too stressed about is. Except maybe us.

The drive to Ajijic was relatively short - about 40 minutes, once John figured out how to get onto our road. This is information form our hotel's website:

Ajijic´s history dates back to a long time before the Spanish conquest. Descendents of the ancient Nahuatl tribe established themselves around the shores of Lake Chapala.

It is said that the first Nahuatl Indian arouse from ashes on Mezcala Island, the island is now considered one of the four cardinal points in Nahuatl mythology.

Axixic in ancient nahuatl tongue means ¨Place where water is born¨ or ¨Place where water bubbles up.¨ This was mainly due to abundant natural springs of water that existed here many years ago.

Ajijic was renamed and founded by the Spaniards in 1531 and is one of the oldest villages in western Mexico. The conquest of the Chapalteco Sea as it was known back then, was accomplished by Sir Alonso Dávalos, and the conversion of natives to Christianity was the responsibility of father Fray Martín de Jesús. Thus establishing Ajijic as one of the oldest convent towns in western Mexico. The convent was originally established in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, but at a later date Saint Andrew became our patron Saint and still is to this day.

Our cobblestone streets, the first chapel and our main church, plus a number of the old estates have a predominantly Spanish influence. It wasn't until the 1930s that Ajijic became a destination for travelers from all over the world.

Now, we have been working for some time to try to figure out how to correctly pronounce the town name. People more sophisticated or worldly than us might have known right away but not us. We started out by calling it "ah-zhee-zhick" but Adriana told us "ah-hee-hee". However, it seems the locals call it "ah-hee-hick" and we sometimes see it spelled "Axixix", which of course, would have helped us immensely.

Whatever, we have adapted. The town is so quaint: narrow, cobblestone streets and many houses and buildings are very colourful, painted in pastels or orange, brown and ochre. Every house has a gate which seems to open into a courtyard that is either grassed or with a patio or both. There is a "downtown" and residential area, though we are having difficulty making the distinction because houses appear to be interspered with little shops and businesses.  Lake Chapala has a cooling breeze, which saved us earlier today because we stopped at a little cafe situated along the lake's edge as a respite from the heat. It is 33, which apparently, is unseasonably warm this year.

Since our arrival last night, we have spent our time walking around the town trying to get acquainted with our surroundings. This is much more of a tourist destination than Mazatlan as there are many street vendors and shops oriented to tourists than we saw in Mazatlan. That may be just that we didn't really go into the tourist zone in Mazatlan but we are in the thick of it here. It's all good though because it is not too intrusive. The people here are friendly and good natured; while we were standing on the street corner looking somewhat bewildered this afternoon (in fact, we were looking for the "Ninette" restaurant) someone standing in a doorway volunteered us directions.

Tonight, we are going to meet our riding group. We are being collected at 5:30 to have cocktails with the owner of the riding company then we are walking to a local restaurant. It all begins in earnest tomorrow.

Very colourful trees everywhere.

Guadalajara "on" ramp.

Our introduction to the beautiful Ajijic.