Guadalajara:
Roaming the historic streets,
Thinking up haikus.
I struck lucky in Mexico's Second City; aimlessly wandering towards the centre of town upon the evening of my arrival I randomly came across a trio of ebullient Mexican amigos. Attempts were made to catch some quintessential Lucha Libre, but we missed the last bus. Game on for my Grand Tour. With them as my guides we engaged in some furious linguistic pidgining, and I got a sense of Guadalajara's twin narratives of glorious revolution and endemic corruption; of a people united by their shared history of rebellion against the colonial yoke and fractured by the iniquities of the intertwined institutions of Church and State. The city centre was loaded with magnificent architectural pieces - museums, administrative buildings and a cathedral - alongside legions of statues of revolutionary heroes. However as we walked past a late evening mass in one of the many lesser churches, Juan told me of the paedophilic abuse suffered by his uncles, among others, at the hands of the selfsame priest administering the Eucharist; no punitive action had been taken because of an 'our word against his' situation and the work of local hardline Catholic adherents to the "Lord works in mysterious ways" bullshit). In a similar vein police misconduct went all the way up the ladder, from street-level bribery to alleged high-level criminal ties. America's Drug War is going well.
On the less distasteful side of life Guadalajara was a culinary sensation, the pinnacle of which was to be found at Las Carnas Garibaldi, the fastest servers in the West. Within 45 seconds of entering the building they had taken AND DELIVERED my order: Carne en su jugo sided with soft shell tacos, delicious bean mash, roasted baby onions and salsa madness. Acccompanied by Corona served in an ice-frosted glass rimmed with salt and containing fresh squeezed lemon in the bottom. They turned the flavour up to 11.
My next stop was the quiet beach resort town of Sayulita on the East coast for some sun, seafood, and surf. It boasted a strong 2/3 as the swell was unfortunately placid. Surfable, but not challenging. I did, however, have some mindblowing fresh-caught fish in various forms: tacod (naturally), Ceviched (raw fish cured in lime and herbs - insane), and barbecued.
Now back West before turning South.
