This was a fun trip! I want to point out that, besides booking the hotel and the Futbol tickets, we had nothing else planned. Sometimes you just go with the flow.

I went with my good friend Vanessa. She’s awesome, and she speaks Spanish. Here she is:

We were in Mexico for 4 days — over Presidents day weekend. What better way to celebrate our president than to leave the country?

We flew in with a red eye. Our flight plans were actually pretty great — 4 hour flight, direct to Guadalajara, $300 round trip. Not too shabby for a weekend gateway. It was the best way to make use of our time. Any longer of a flight and we’d be wasting too much time. Also, there was only a 2 hour time difference between us and were we were going, so we wouldn’t loose much sleep either.

Anyways, we arrive at our hotel around 8, and take a fat nap. We wake up again.  We wake up around noon, and then proceed to get the first tacos of our trip:

They were street tacos. Pretty awful TBH.

Next, I got a SIM card which ended up costing me $30! This was thankfully the only time I really got ripped of in Mexico. Having a sim card is super useful in other countries though. If you need to look things up(which you always do), call ubers, do other things, they’re invaluable. Vanessa had data through her provider(as did I), but they’re 2G speeds so not very good.

 

Next more food. This whole trip ended up being a food trip(as a lot of my trips end up being).

These “nacho” looking things are called chilaquiles. They’re fucking delicious. As far as I can tell, they’re literally just chips with cheese on them. An official description: “Typically, corn tortillas cut in quarters and lightly fried are the basis of the dish. Green or red salsa or mole is poured over the crisp tortilla triangles, called totopos.”

I kept calling them “chaquitas”, which means little girl. I had also learned the word “jugo”, which means juice. You can also conjugate words to be adjectives, such as juciy, which would be “jugosa”. So at one point, I figured I’d  just to fuck with Vanessa, I said “chaquitas jugosas”, which means “Juicy Little Girls”. I thought it was hilarious saying it in public and embarrassing the hell out of her. In the uber, on the street — “CHAQUITAS JUGOSAS”. Freaking great. Anyways, we’ve also decided this is what we’re going to name our beer baby(the first batch of beer we brewed). Hopefully it turns out well.

 

So anyways, after that we took some pics in front of a cathedral:

This place was beautiful in real life. Sorry for the shiet picture. It makes you wonder how they built it way back in the day.

Then we went to a market. It was pretty big, multiple stories, lots of stuff. We hung around, got some ice cream, then decided to start the drinking(at around 3 pm).

Here’s a pic of the market from above:

A couple people cussed me out in Spanish. As Vanessa put it, they said “what’s up fucker”. I should have talked trash back in English, but I was already too far away when I realize it. Like a real-life shower thought were you win the agurment after going over it the next day in your head.

So yeah, we went drinking:

Everything is bigger in Mexico. These goblets were HUGE.

Then we went to a cute little restaurant called BANANAS. They had this fun tradition where you could buy a shot, and a “shake”. But what that meant was you’d take a shot, and they’d little grab your head and shake you around, then take a piece of bread with some nuetalla on it and make you try and eat it, and smoosh it in your face when you took a bite.

Yeah, idk wtf that’s about either. But it was fun to watch 2 different groups with birthday girls try it.

Next up: Karne Garibaldi. This was a “top 10” resturant in Guadalajara. They are famed for getting your food out to you in 20 seconds or less after ordering.

And they did deliver on this. Basically the food was a bunch of meat in soup. It’s a dish that Guadalajara is known for. I thought it was fantastic, but Vanessa disliked it and thought it was overpriced. She also didn’t believe it was an actual Guadlajara dish until I showed her later 😛

Then we went to take ANOTHER nap(a reoccuring theme), and then went out for drinks. We went to a couple bars, drank some Mezcal(which was freakin’ delicious!), and then tried to head to a club.

Now here’s the thing. I really wanted to go to at least one club while we were here. The waiter at BANANAS had recommended us a place called “Club Americana” that we could go to. Unfortuntely, when we tried to go to the place that Google map said was the club, it was just a normal looking house. No club to be seen. Damn guy lied to us 🙁 This was also a reoccuring theme — people in Mexico can’t admit they don’t know something. They’d rather just make something up 😛 Well that, and a combanation of us just sucking and not being able to find the club.

Defeated, we wandered around bar to bar. I had some more late night tacos(which were actually good, and some of the best tacos on the trip). At one point at one of the bars, Vanessa ordered 4 shots for us. “Cuatro?” the waiter said with confusion/concern. “Si, cuatro”. But there’s only two of us, he probably thought. Like Ron Swanson once said,

 

We then wondered into some bar playing live music.

And this was one of the coolest parts of the night. We walk in, and they’re playing Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of”. We get literally a front row table, and we’re rocking out to the song while everyone else is just kinda “meh” about the song.

The lead singer and the guitarest also totally had a thing for each other. They kept eyeing each other up, looking all cute and stuff. The band was really fun, and they played 50/50 english/spanish songs.

After that we went home. Time for a new day.

Day 2

We slept in till 12, then vanessa took us to a resturant. We ate, the same sort of meat soup that we had had the other day. Apparently it was liver in mean juice. Looked like this:

I was a fan of the “meat soup” we had had the day before, and Vanessa like this stuff more.

While we were here, we met a guy named Martin. He spoke English. He just started chatting us up about every little thing. Kind of annoying, but friendly. He told us we should visit this lake nearby, only a couple of hours to get there. We kinda planned on going, but then changed our mind.

We wandered around a bit, and decided we wanted to go on a tour of somesort the next day. Problem is, there weren’t a lot of tour “shops” that we could go to. We decided the best way to setup on a tour was just to drop into a hostel and see what they had to offer.

So we go to one, and I ask if we can go on one of the tours they offer, even if we arn’t staying there. The lady was polite and was like, “no you can’t, you have to be staying here.” Then Vanessa started speaking to them in Spanish, and she made a “call” to ask someone if it was okay(in reality she was just talking to the person on the phone about something completely different), and then told us, “yes, they said it was okay”. Like bitch, Vanessa knows exactly what you were saying, you weren’t calling about the tours. Funny how someones tone changes when you speak their native language 😛

But in any case, we signed up for a tequila tour the next day. We were going to the TOWN OF TEQUILA ITSELF. HOW cool is that?

Anyways, we wandered around a bit more, and decided to go to a museum.

We saw some cool paintings:

Some creepy ones:

Some cool sculptures:

all surrounded/within a “hospital” with some cool paintings:

 

Then we went back to the mercado to buy some Jerseys. Orginally they were asking 300 pesos for one. Both Vanessa and I suck at haggaling, but there’s always a few tricks you can do — like walking away. I told Vanessa to walk away(cause lets be honest, she’s always doing all the talking in these situtations), and he was like, “okay 200, okay, 300 PARA DOS. PLEASE SENIORITA, POR FAVOR, COMPRAS MY SHIT”(I’m dramatizing a bit here).  and as she did they dropped the price to 300 for 2. We came back a while later, and purchased them, thinking we just got away with a steal. A little while later, we saw the same jerseys on sale for 100 pesos. ;____; guess we’re not as good hagglers as we thought. Still, 300 for 2 aint bad!

At this point we decide to get some more food. We go to a place to try tortas gordas(I’m spelling the second part wrong) —  basically bread with COLD meat, where the bread is soaked in spicy sauce. The place we ate at looked sketch-as-hell. That, combined with the fact that the meat was cold and looked unfamiliar, we were both certain we were going to get food poisoning. Here’s a pic of the alleged food:

Luckily we were both fine, and never got food poisoning.

We took a nap at our hotel AGAIN. We woke up a bit before the game to try and pregame and get a little buzzed~~~.

About an hour before we need to leave for the game, we head off from our hotel bar to try to find a bar with cheap hard alcohol. We search on Google for nearby bars. We go to one bar, it’s closed; fine. We try another bar, also closed. We try a third bar, and walk up the stars into a place with no sign. It looks abandoned/runned down. Two guys say hello to us, and walk past us and out the door. Wtf?? We get out of there fast as hell lol.

Okay, so we still haven’t found a bar. We try this cafe across the street, sit down, only to realize they don’t have hard liquor. We quickily apologize and leave.

At this point its about 20 minutes before we need to leave, and we’re getting desperate. We start literally RUNNINING down the street looking for a bar. At one point we run into a bar, Vanessa sees they don’t have hard liquor, and then we run out. We must have looked like two insane fools.

Finally we admit defeat about 15 minutes before we have to leave, and just settle down at a bar that serves beer. We have 2 really strong beers and call it.

So now it was finally time for our soccer game! We went to see Chivas(Guadalajara home team) vs some other team whos name I can’t remember.

We took an uber there. The driver was very friendly and we chatted about various things — gun laws, drinking in the street(he said it was legal), who was going to win the game(he said the Chivas were), how late bars stay open(oh yeah, they stay open until 7 am). By the end of the trip, we’d learn that every one of these statements were FALSE. Basically everything coming out of his mouth was a lie lol. Why do you have to lie??? Don’t make stuff up ahaha.

Anyways, Vanessa got us some dope-ass seats. We watched the game, cheering and just having a grand old time.

Here’s us pimped out in our shirts:

And a photo from our seats:

The soccer field was MUCH smaller than I imagined. I’m not convinced it’s not a smaller field than what’s in official world cup games.

Behind the other goal was the away teams fans. I have NEVER seen so much enthusiasm in my life. They were constantly jumping in sync, always shouting and cheering. They were legit louder than the rest of the stadium most of the time. It was pretty crazy.

The game was really fun to watch. Probably the most amount of fun I’ve had watching a sports game. At one point they were selling top ramen(i know right?), so I just had to get my hands on some.

The game was really close. They opposing team scored a goal, then we scored on a penalty kick in the last 20 minutes. It was tied 1-1, and the other team got a penalty kick. BUT THEY MISSED(bounced off one of the posts), and the game ended in a tie of 1-1. I didn’t realize that they let games end in ties, and felt pretty let down that they didn’t just keep going into overtime. I guess the games would last forever if they did lol.

After that, we decided spur-of-the-moment to go to a Casino! And boy was that a fun choice.

We got there, and I headed straight to the tables. Everything was so cheap! The min was 25 pesos, which is about $1.15. Paradise! I could actually gamble at these tables which was awesome. I put $30(around 500 pesos), and went to work at the Craps table. I taught Vanessa how to play Craps(again, her first time in a Casino). I was having a blast. I tried to do some blackjack, but all the tables were full most of the time. We also did some Roulette, where I promptly lost a good portion of my gambling money in like 5 minutes.

Near the end of the night I sat down at what I thought was blackjack, but turned out to be 3-card poker. Like, wtf is 3 card poker? I had never heard of such a thing. I quickly nopped out of there after a lovely spanish lady helped me with my one-and-only hand.

After that we went home. It was about 3 am when we went to bed, and we had to be up at 7. Big mistake, but worth it at the same time.

Day 3

This was the tequila tour day!

We got to our bus at around 8:30(after waking up at 7), and we were EXHAUSTED. We basically slept the first hour on the bus.

The tour was pretty fun. We first stopped at a distillery were they told us about the process of making tequila. The lady said at one point that the tequila is fermented by fruit flies(I just looked this up, it doesn’t seem to be true, or at least very exaggerated). At one point, they told us the distillery had partnered with Rammstein for a certain brand of their tequila. The tour guide asked us if anyone knew the band, and I was the only one who did(or at least who was vocal about it). Apparently Vanessa listened to them/knew them as well. Very odd to hear about some German band from my past that I listed to religiously. I didn’t expect them to pop up on a tequila tour, lol.

We ended up both buying a bottle of tequila. We also got to see the tequila fields which was fun:

 

After that, we went to lunch. It was buffet style. It was really good; there was even a lady who was hand pressing the tortillas! It had a pretty nice view next to the tables of a canyon:

After that, we FINALLY got to go to the town of Tequila. Yes, the actual town of Tequila. So cool.

As we walked down the street, there were these 5 liter jugs of tequila liquor that we could sample FO FREE. Fantastic! We were pretty buzzed after only walking 2-3 blocks.

Then they were selling these Vampiro drinks four about $3:

Yes you got to keep the mug! Unfortunately mine shattered immediately when I dropped it on the bus back lol.

We walked around a bit, took some pictures, I bought a shot glass. Overall a grand old time. At one point, I got a michelada:

Freaking massive. Everything’s bigger in mexico.

I also took a fun picture of the town:

Here’s my doggy friend:

I wish we could have spent more time here, as the place was so cute and fun to hang out in. Unfortunately we only got to spend 1 1/2 hours, and our bus had to go back. Oh well.

On the way back, we watched a movie called “Rush” — about a rivalry between 2 formula 1 drivers. One of the drivers ends up getting in a horrendous accident that burns up his lungs, but he continues on to race. It’s a great movie and I won’t spoil the ending, but both Vanessa and I were on the edge of our seats watching it lol.

After that, we went and took another nap, waking up at 10 pm.

We go to one bar –Peter Brown Bar. This place was amazing! They had some really good food, which name I forgot.

There was a bartender with the COOLEST tattoos. It was basically 2 black lines across his face. They kinda looked like whiskers. We called him “Mr.Whiskers”, the most appropriate name. I didn’t really get a chance to take a picture of him, this is the best I got(from a video snapchat of something else):

We stayed till 3 am when they turned on their lights, and kicked us out. We got some tacos nearby, which were Vanessa’s favorite of the trip, but I thought were just meh. And then off to bed.

Day 4

This was our final day here. It was basically just us going around trying food. We had originally planned on taking a food tour, but it cost $50 to go on the tour, and it was sold out. BUT, they published their itinerary, so we just ended up going to the restaurants they recommended. They were pretty good, but nothing too standoutish.

Btw, I would like to mention that I had SOOOOO many Pina Coladas on the trip. Like, I must have had at least 15. For example:

and

oh and

This was all in one day too lol.

At one point, a coworker of mine sent me an article about a building in Guadalajara that had to be moved 15 meters to make way for the widdening of a street. Rather than tear down the building and rebuild it, they decided to put it on rollers and move it. What’s even more crazy is that it was a telephone company, and to prevent loss of service for the area, they decided to move it with all the telephone lines attached, and the PEOPLE INSIDE STILL WORKING. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, the civil engineer who orchestrated the move had a statue built in his honor. Since it wasn’t far from were we were, I decided to take a pic:

Clearly I’m working harder than he is.

After that, we hung out at some more bars, then went home.

On the flight was a great movie called “me after you” — about a trust funder who becomes disabled to an accident(to no fault of his own), and then falls for the girl that ends up taking care of him in his disabled state. Spoiler alter though, he ends up doing a doctor-assisted suicide anyways in Switzerland after 6 months with this “newfound-love”, because he just doesn’t have the same life without his ability to move on his own. It was a touching movie, and really makes you rethink the idea of death and taking your own life on your own terms.

Reflections

This was a great trip. I’d like to thank Vanessa for coming with me. Hopefully we can do it again sometime! Puerto Rico maybe? 🙂

Also I ate way too much on this trip. To the point of being uncomfortable. I also gained like, 5 pounds. So I really need to cool it on the vacations and eating.

Guadalajara was fun. Any city can be fun if you know what you want/what to look for, and most importantly, if you’re with the right people. If you’re not with someone fun, you’re not going to have a good time.

You should also know what you’re travelling for. While I did have fun on this trip, I know that I wouldn’t be able to do something like this for longer than 4 days. If I’m going to t be travelling for weeks or months, I’m going to need something more fulfilling than just going out to bars and eating. Namely, I’d want to do more outdoorsy adventures and travels. City travelling has it’s place too, but at some point all the cities blend together, and then you really wonder what you’re travelling for.

Anyways, a fantastic trip, a nice break from the work grind, and some great memories with a great friend.