Guadalajara, Mexico city pt 2 and Puebla

We arrived in Guadalajara early evening, immediately noticing the intense heat of 35 degrees. We checked into our Airbnb which was a bizarre setup in an old, neglected mansion which they had turned into student accommodation as well as a hostel. It came complete with a 'games room' (beanbags on a mouldy carpet and a wonky table tennis table), 2 kitchens with only plastic plates and one knife, and even a gym (padded flooring with 2 dumbbells and a punch bag lying on the floor).
We spent the first day walking around the city using a self guided tour online, thus took us to the numerous plazas and churches. Guadalajara is known as the birthplace of the mariachi band, which we enjoyed sat on a bench behind an old drunk man sitting on a bucket, who at times thought he was the conductor of the band and other times tried singing along, every so often adding a squeak or blowing a raspberry for effect.

One of the many churches

Fancy fancy

The government palace, not that it seemed like much government work was going on here

Someone has been procrastinating with their government work

Making a lovely concoction of body fluids

So much market

A country that knows the correct Jonno drink size

The romantic scene of being serenaded by a mariachi band in the mariachi square...

 ...but we preferred this display more!


We finished the day going to a building which was once a huge hospital and now housed art exhibitions, the kind where a half completed scribble means it is portraying the vastness and complexity of space rather than when the artist got bored.

DON'T MAKE HIM ANY THINNER!

Crazy big horse

Yup. Yup. Yup.

Such deep meanings...Hours of conversation

We would have been up and ready for another day of exploring the following morning but unfortunately we were not allowed much sleep- the students had decided that it was a perfect night for a big night out and when they returned at 1am the evening was not over, so from then until after 4am we were treated to the symphony of banging doors, shouting down the corridor and running between rooms, with Jonno getting more and more like a bull ready to charge. Eventually they must have passed out, allowing us a few hours of sleep but leaving us exhausted the following day and not having the energy to leave the room until early afternoon. We decided on a shorter day than we had planned, to visit the nearby towns of Chapala and Ajijic, about an hour away by bus from Guadalajara. Both towns are on the shore of lake Chapala, a vast lake which made the places seem like seaside towns. Families were out walking along the waterfront, eating ice creams, flying kites and riding horses, which made them a nice place to sit on a bench and people watch.

Chapala

One of those crazy lakes that looks like the sea and even has waves

Not just content with an ordinary merry go round

Interesting place for a meeting

Weeeee!

The arty town of Ajijic 

The following day, after only half an hour of shouting and door banging at 2am, we decided to make the 2 hour bus journey to the town of Tequila, no explanation needed about what their speciality is. We headed straight to the top activity in the area, a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory, where for £15 each we got a tour and explanation of the tequila making process and a tasting at the end. And we didn't have a gentle start, our first taster being the spirit at 60% before it is weakened to make better for public consumption. We were shown the process of taking the blue agave plant, the only plant that can be used to make tequila, heating it for a long time to create the agave nectar and then adding yeast (the original source of yeast when tequila was first made was apparently human sweat) and fermenting it. It is then either kept clear, or put in barrels and aged.

Blue agave. Where the hangovers and regret all begin.

All aboard the chilli mobile

LETS GET FUCKED UP. In a classy way, obviously.

Heating the agave 'pineapples' for a stupidly long time.

Cooked agave. So extremely sweet.

Chug?

Where all the reeeeaaalllyyy fancy stuff is kept

We were then taken to a tasting room, with some very generous amounts of tequila, and showed how to taste tequila properly. Apparently the only reason people do a shot of it with lemon and salt is because the quality is so bad it masks the taste of the tequila (I would have thought a fine establishment such as a weatherspoons wouldn't have anything but the best for their customers) and tequila is supposed to be sipped and appreciated. Then we had effectively an adult sensory play time- swishing the glass and looking at the pretty patterns on the glass, sniffing coffee beans and cinnamon before we could drink each type of tequila in the proper way- making it more bearable but I would still put it in the 'best appreciated when already trashed' category.
By the time we had finished all our glasses, including one extra for the road and declining any more free tasters being offered by the guide who had also partaken in the drinking, we were pretty merry, although we now had to think about the 2 hour bus back to Guadalajara so playtime didn't last much longer.

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHO... oh wait, we sip it here?

Keeping a lid on the tequila in case all that gorgeous alcohol escapes

Post Tequila selfie!

Most of the next day was filled with a bus back to Mexico city, where we were greeted by torrential rain and a room occupied by many mosquitoes.
We had one more full day in Mexico city, initially we had thought we wanted to do a lot more in this city but we had since lost some motivation and spent the morning wandering around fairly aimlessly, only deciding in the afternoon that we should do something productive. The main attraction we had not seen was the home and museum of the artist Frida Kalho, who Jonno had never heard of and I knew very little about other than she could have done with some tweezers.
We got the bus across town, with the help of some lovely local people who warned us to keep an eye on our bags on the bus, and found the famous 'casa azul'.
It turns out, Frida was a pretty badass woman. She contracted polio at the age of 6 which left her needing to use crutches or a wheelchair, and then was in a traffic accident which gave her multiple fractures and needing 30 operations, and then later in life had to have her foot amputated. She married another famous artist, Diego Rivera, who then had an affair with her sister and she still took him back and remarried him. She was also a bisexual, a communist and a fashion icon, mixing traditional clothes with modern and turning her spinal braces into fashion pieces.  She used art as a way to express her beliefs, disabilities and her relationships, and died early at the age of 47. Her house was both interesting and moving and it was clear to see why she has become such an icon.

The image of Mexico- An eagle on a cactus eating a snake (Eagle = good, snake = evil)

Pup not too sure about his ride

Paper mache on another level

The gardens of the 'Casa Azul', we couldn't take any pictures inside

Frida Kalho- Strong woman, strong brows

A photo of Frida painting while bedridden

One of her famous paintings where she could show her true emotions

A short 2 hour bus away from Mexico city was our next destination, Puebla. Although initially looking like there was a lot to do in this city, it turns out that most of the activities are 'see a church' or 'walk to the plaza' and although pretty, it was fairly similar to the last few cities we have visited. It is however famous for 2 dishes: 'mole', pronounced moe-lay, a sauce which has an interesting taste which I can only describe as a mixture of mud, chocolate and chilli all at once and actually isn't too bad at all, and Chiles en Nogado, which is a pepper stuffed with vegetables, covered with a sweet pastry and walnut cream sauce which tastes like vanilla custard, and sprinkled with pomegranates. Kind of your main course and dessert all in one, but again, pretty good.

Handy when all the colonial cities start to merge into one

The rumors are true

Chiles en Nogado, so good!

Another Jonno sized beverage

Yeah i'm sure the pup won't mind if you rest your balls there

The top recommended thing to do was to visit an old convent for nuns, which showed us fascinating things such as where the nuns had a bath. There was also a huge selection of holy paintings, apparently it's okay to stand on the decapitated heads of baby angels if you are religious.
Even though we only had a day and a half in Puebla, it was a day too much and we were ready to move on to the next city of Oaxaca.

The courtyard of the convent

Nun tubs

Room for one more, right?

Not at all creepy

Riiiiggghhhttt.... being sprayed with ye holy milk and breast blood