Guadalajara 2019 - Guadalajara Bound, Finally

I wake up in the Super 8, shower, dress, pack my carry on and head downstairs to the usual "breakfast included" breakfast. The eggs are cold, the rolls are frozen, the yogurt is o.k., it's kind of hard to screw that up. I am instantly convinced that the other diners voted for Trump, they also talk funny. Southerners sometimes have a graceful drawl, Texans twang like an out of tune guitar. As we ride together in the airport shuttle I discover, to my horror, that this loud, twangy group are on my flight. Fortunately the flight is only half full so I only need to deal with the obese, unkempt men, one wearing the worst, most unconvincing toupee I think I have ever seen and women with hard hat hard hair in the shuttle.

The flight is uneventful, 2 hours pass quickly, due in large part to the games you can play on the screen mounted on the seat in front of you. Immigration and customs are a fairly rapid affair and at around 4 I am dropped off at the guesthouse, a mere 20 hours after my initial, expected arrival time.

The owner of the establishment provides me with volumes of information in a record amount of time. The guesthouse is a hacienda, built around 1880, the rooms situated around a courtyard. A lovely fountain, water jets out of ceramic faces set in the wall into a pool below, graces the ground floor. Mexican tile trim, traditional Mexican furnishings and painted ceilings give the building a historic, which it is, charming, south of the border feel. Large terra cotta jars grace the public areas. Glass plates with swirls of color, produced locally, decorate the walls. Plants in colorful pots line the second floor railing and sit on shelves set in among the faces of the fountain. In my room the ceiling is painted to look like a blue sky full of wispy, white clouds. A large set of french doors with multi colored panes, which look out on the courtyard below, takes up much of one wall. Reproduction light fixtures provide illumination. The colorful sink and accessories are also traditional, superb examples of Mexican craftsmanship and locally sourced. The attention to detail is impressive. I unpack and begin to plan my activities during my visit.