October 23 - 24, 2002: Ixtlan del Rio - Guadalajara

Odometer: 12,909

We rode close to 250 miles to Ixtlan del Rio, which as it turns out is a big tourist draw. At first I thought it was for the fact that there are some ruins just outside of town but that didn't appear to be the case as Hugh and I were the only guests at the site the following morning. Hmmm, I don't know.

In any case, Ixtlan is a very quaint little town. We stayed at the Hotel Plaza de Hidalgo for $25 with two beds. Not bad and they even used the court area for parking.

The ruins were ruined with reconstruction. So, when you look at the pics just remember some dude with cement and a trowel put rocks in places that they _think_ is the correct position. I think they made it all up personally, but who am I to tell :)

The next day we travelled about 100 miles to Guadalajara and along the way stopped at the ruins and the town of Tequila. The land into Tequila is filthy with Agave plants. I had no idea what it was until we visited the Jose Cuervo distillery. The plant is a sort of purplish green and stubby. It looks a little like Aloe but not green like that. And once steamed it is very sweet.

From Tequila we headed into Guadalajara without incident. Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico and I was expecting more of the same old, same old we have been growing accustomed to. Buildings tightly crammed together blaring all sorts of colorfull advertising and too narrow, often cobbled streets. I was happily surprised to find the greater metropolitan Guadalajara is very much like any large city in the USA, with all the craziness that accompanies a large city.

Toughts on Mexico so far: The people here have been very friendly and easy to approach. They really try, about as much as we do, to try to understand what we are saying. Also, they seem about as clueless toward the U.S. mindset as we are (generally speaking) to their own. There is indeed a whole other world out here.

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