The bus system in this country is amazingly efficient and cheap. Don drove us the 10 km to Chapala bus depot, but we could have walked 3 blocks from the house and paid the $.35 to make the same ride--that is what we did on the way home.
The ride into downtown's historical area of Guadalajara was about 50 km and took an hour at a cost per person of $2.50--air conditioned and very comfortable.
The history of the town dates back to the mid 1500's. The ideal climate of the area and its agricultural wealth made it an important Spanish city immediately. One enormous cathedral that rivals anything in Rome plus 2 other churches bigger than Montreal's cathedral are the centre piece of the "old town". I do not know where they found all the people to fill their enormous buildings.
2 huge justice buildings and grand theatre are also impressive along with a half dozen more stone structures that predate even the existence of our country, dominate the area.
Mexico is famous for having central squares of "people space" in the middle of their towns. Guadalajara has at least 3 of these in the old town area only a block from each other. Serious planning must have gone into the creation of this city.
We continue to be impressed by the courtesy, helpfulness, and politeness of the Mexican people. Unlike in Canada and USA, they most often pass you by on the street with eye contact, a smile, and "holla" (meaning hello). It takes a bit to get used to. It is unfortunate that the upper echelons on Mexican society in government, police, eduction and the state owned oil company have such a tradition of corruption and graft. Far too much money disappears in their hands and does not filter down to benefit common Mexicans.
I think the common people are finally starting to address this situation. Rarely a day goes by where there are not protests against something. In our bus trip we saw many hundreds of people holding up traffic as they marched to support some issue--fortunately for us they were walking in the other lane!😃
Throughout the last week many protests actually shut down towns as people protested the 20% increase in gas that was compounded by the recent devaluation of their currency.
This situation has been both good and bad for us. Locally produced food here is now ridiculously cheap, but gas prices are the same as we pay in Canada.
Sent from Tom's iPhone
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