Alone in Tlaquepaque

And it is a bit of downer and sort of lonesome. John Paul left last Thursday and Dennis left Friday and here we are, just enjoying each others company and the great weather. We so enjoyed the time with our boys/men and they kept us pretty busy and active.

Also, you will see a bit of improvement in the quality of the photos. John Paul brought us a very nice Canon camera, just like the one that malfunctioned on us. We think we will take the one we bought at the pawn shop back and see what we can get for it.

And here is John Paul, freshly from Chicago, via Seattle and a bit tired. He and Dennis both make their living as techies so spent much time talking about things that Nancy and I had no idea about.

John Pauls first day here was just getting to know Tlaquepague so we just walked and walked and walked and enjoyed and enjoyed and enjoyed.

The part of Tlaqupaque that is west of the central park is pretty uptown with many upscale stores and very beautiful homes. The east side of the park, the side we live on is not so upscale, very middle class but wonderful and friendly people. This photo is the front yard from one of the homes on the west side of the park in Tlaquepaque.

When we hear the word Mariachi we think men but that is not always true. This is a mariachi band, of all women. They play in a very expensive restaurant so we really have not listened to them much, but this day they were playing and we sort of sneaked in, listened for a bit, and took some photos.

Last week there was lots of music and dance in the park in conjunction with a used book fair. The next three photos show folk dancing from this part of Mexico.

It seems on every one of our journeys, Nancy makes a very special friend. And this is her friend in this city. He has a most interesting job of which there are many here in Tlaquepaque. The streets are very narrow and all parking is parralel parking. He guides drivers into a spot that is one the street where he does his work. He also carries a cloth and will wipe the dust off the car if the driver so wishes. He works entirely for tips.

There was a water leak on our street and it was sort of messy getting in and our of our apartment with water runnng down the street and cars splashing it up on the sidewalk. We thought it might be like that for the rest of the time we were here but one day a big truck and many workers arrived and in a few hours the leak was fixed. The guy in the hole was up to his middle in water and still sweating. It was a hot day.

This photo is of Oliva, our most beautiful and wonderful landlady. She is having a street sale, that when on for two days, out on the street right across from our apartment and directly in front of her house and restaurant. Nancy bought some earrings and a necklace.

This is just a small part of Olivia's extended, and multi layered family. Just in her home and one of her apartments are 3 generations, the mom, 5 children and some grandchildren. She comes from a family of 10 so we also see many nieces and nephews and the man in the photo is her husband, Juan Carlos, who is always around to help out with the many tasks of renting apartments and running a restaurant. We love him dearly as well.

In our apartment in one of the cupboards was a hat. A very nice Panamanian hat and it fit Dennis perfectly and he liked a lot and he wanted so bad. So off to Olivia to purchase the hat and here he and she are, contemplating this purchase.

As you can see, he wants it badly and he came back so dejected. He was informed that the hat belonged to a previous renter and he was returning real soon so the hat had to stay.

The sign indicates that this is a doctors office and a consaltation with said doctor is 20 pesos, not 20 dollars. That 20 pesos is about $1.85 Canadian. This is the reason we never buy extra health insurance when we travel any place in the world except the US.

A girl, becoming 15 years of age, is a huge family event all over Latin America, and Mexico is no exception. The celebrations are very costly but of utmost importance. Today is this girls 15th birthday and she is showing off her dress that she will wear for the celebration that will happen this evening.

More folk dancing but on a different night. There is so much that happens in this city and every night that we walk to the center there is new and different events, especially on the weekend. We certainly do like this part of Guadaljara. We met folks this night who came out from Guadalajara, just to watch all the free entertainment.

And this is it for another week. We have nothing great planned for next week, maybe some journeys to some other barrios of Guadalajara.

.