IN SEARCH OF WARMER CLIMATES

The decision was made a while ago to not spend the winter months in our new home in Lethbridge but Oaxaca, our last year hang out was a bit too cold for the winter months so we changed our destination to Tlaquepaque, a suburb of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco in the country of Mexico.
We arrived about 10 days ago after bussing to Calgary, flying to Phoenix and then on to Guadalajara and taxing to our new apartment. It was 12:30 AM when we arrived here but our host Olivia was waiting for us and got us settled in a very nice, very large apartment that we will call home for the next 2.5 months. It has very good wireless internet and we have one laptop to use it on. It also has very good cable TV with a number of news channels.
Our life has been pretty quiet. We have done nothing too outreaching except take a trip via bus to the new bus station to get times when busses were leaving for some trips we have planned and another to the center of Guadalajara. We spent most of our time there trying to get our broken camera to work but to no avail, so here we are with no camera, a few early pictures that we will share but so enjoying the warm climate in our home away from home.
Our journey to the center of Guadaljara and back was certainly the most exciting thing we have done so far. The trip to the center was uneventful and only took 20 minutes. Coming back was a different story. We missed the place where we should have gotten off so had to do the total route with a very accomadating driver. We did get the full tour of Tlaquepaque for a total of 50 cents each but it was 2 hours later before we arrived back at our original bus stop. You would think we would not make such silly mistakes after so many years of travelling but we do. I grumbled and Nancy just laughed and wondered where we could get such a good tour for only 50 cents. And what else was there to do anyway



As in every Mexican town or city there is a central park and in every central park there are old men resting, playing cards or just visiting.

And other old men still need a job and this gentlemans job is to collect bottles from garbages. It also happens in every town and city in Latin America and we are sure other parts of the world also.

Two years ago when we spent some time in Tlaquepaque we found this wonderful restaurant and we found it again this year and to our dismay it is shut down. Kaput, bummer!!!!!!

An interesting way to unload a truck. We spent an hour watching this guy take the totes from the back of the truck (and it was full of totes) and pitching them across the street, between cars and pedestrians and bikers, to the other side of the street.

Where two men on the other side would collect them and take them into the store.

The guy who threw them worked steadily for the full hour and sweat was pouring down his face when he was through. He seemed happy to have us for his audience. It was fun.

Guadalajara is famous for Mariachi bands and there are many. This gentlemen just finished singing with a band and had come down off the grandstand to pay homage to this older lady who we think is his mother.

And this young lady took the place of the previous gentleman on the stage.

A not a very good photo of the Mariachi Band. We do like Mariachi music.

And followng the girl was this very handsome gentleman with a marvelous voice as well.

And the show is over and a bit of a better photo of the band.

So this is it until we get another camera and we think our son Dennis is going to bring one from Australia when he comes to visit this Sunday. Looking forward to seeing him and his camera.