February 15 & 16 - Guadalajara

February 15 was spent prepping for Guadalajara.  February 16 dawned with us dropping Kirk at friends and boarding the Primera Plus bus to Guadalajara.

arrival at Guadalajara

We took a 25 minute taxi ride to the Hotel Morales which was a very nice 19th century neoclassical inn.

Hotel Morales lobby

outside our room

view from our balcony

Hey that guy looks familiar.  Horse carriages lined up by the park.

After freshening up, a few of us headed out to walk through some of the historic downtown area.

Guadalajara Cathedral

Governor's Palace

José Clemente Orozco painting in Governor's palace (undergoing touch up)

Guadalajara Cathedral

 After wandering about for a few hours we went for supper at La Chata reputed to be one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city and right across from our hotel.  We tried a number of dishes including 3 kinds of mole sauce. I settled for the mole poblano (about 26 ingredients in it) on chicken enchiladas.  As we walked out of the restaurant, a horse and carriage caught our eye.  Dwende was our horse.  We toured for an hour on a lovely night.

Baño pit stop at a restaurant, Cam patiently waiting in carriage 

Dwende didn't seem to be bothered by the traffic on certain streets.

Guadalajara University and other buildings were lit up in the historic district.

I gave our driver 20 pesos to by a manzana (apple) or a zanahoria (carrot) for Dwende.  Our Spanish, although not great, is improving.   Luckily we had learned our fruits and veggies in Spanish last week.