Cathedral, Guanajuato, MX

After five days in the tiny hippie beach town of San Francisco I convinced Seamus that my wanderlust needed sating and we planned our trip to Guadalajara for a couple of days.  With Seamus riding pillion we drove up the hilly jungle highway 200 towards Compostela hoping to put Seamus on a bus there while I drove the rest of the way myself.

Compostela was a small town not to familiar with foreigners as we attracted a fair number of stares.  They helpfully told us that a bus to Guadalajara could be caught at the highway tollbooth (caseta de cobra). So, after ensuring that a Mexican family waiting for the bus would get Seamus on the right bus I drove on the free highway 15D towards Guadalajara.  It wound through a valley of of black volcanic rock formations before I decided I should get on the faster pay highway 15 to avoid arriving at dusk in rush-hour in Guadalajara ( 4-6 million inhabitants).

Cantina Drunk and Lance

The Hosteling International hostel didn’t have private rooms so I checked into Hotel Frances, a faded and crumbling once-grand hotel built in 1618 located next to the principal plazas and Cathedral de Guadalajara.  I was just about to drive my bike through the lobby and dining room when I saw a sweaty looking Seamus walking along the street.  We walked around for a while and had dinner, after which I went to bed feeling ill from the cold I picked up from Kephra in Puerto Vallarta.  Judging from the line on the tequila bottle, Seamus had continued the night somewhat elsewhere.

After two unsatisfying days in Guadalajara Seamus decided not to continue inland to Guanajuato so after a late groggy breakfast we parted ways and I drove to Guanajuato.  The town is beautiful, mainly car free and has tiny arty cafe’s, bars, multi-hued pastel houses, and cobbled streets – it feels like a European town.

Principal Plaza, Guadalajara, Jalisco, MX

Hummingbird Flowers & Houses (attribution: Lance)

I met Lance an Australian photographer in the Casa Bertha posada and we went to a cantina for a beer.  It was pretty authentic with a load of men drinking heavily and a metal urinal tub against one wall openly exposed to the rest of the bar.   Soon enough a heavy set very drunk Mexican man who introduced himself as Plantano (banana) sat down and menacingly insisted that we were amigos and he wasn’t going to rob us or do bad things – which was enough to make Lance clutch at his knapsack.   We both agreed we liked New York girls very much but Platano wasn’t satisfied with this and suggested we go to meet with some friendly women.  After the second round of enforced drinking I begged off with needing to go to sleep while Lance was to go to his hotel and then out for dinner.

Honey in Guad. market

I met Rick, Mike, and Mario – 3 very sound fellows from California who are riding around Mexico on KLR’s as well and hoping to make it to Guetemala – buena suerte.

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San Francisco to Guadalajara, to Guanajuato MX