Encounter with the Law and Shopping in Tonala

No pictures for this part of the post.
Today we got an early start to go to Tonala and to walk around and look at all the handicrafts that are sold there. On the way we had a couple of interesting experiences. First I managed to get us lost. Missed a couple of turns and ended up thoroughly turned around. Then the most interesting of the two things. To set the scene – the traffic and smog and motor exhaust on the road was terrible and we were talking about how to figure out where we were going so we put our windows up. They are usually down as the weather is so nice.
As The Driver finally figured out where we should go a motorcycle cop pulled up behind us and hit his siren - BLEEP! “Was that for us?”
“No.”
We turned at the next Retorno to get headed in the right direction and the cop followed right behind us. BLEEP! BLEEP! and his lights came on. Oh, oh! He got in front of the lane of traffic to our right and motioned us to pull over. Neither of us could figure out what we had done. Surely weren’t speeding as we were trying to figure out where to go. Maybe a light had burned out or something? Blinker on and pulled over as soon as there was a safe place to do it. Put the window down and waited. Hands visible.
The policeman walked up to the window and asked to see Bill’s license. Bill already had it out of his wallet and held it up for the man to see. “Give me the license.” He spoke excellent English. Bill said, “No.” and held the license closer to the man. “Give it to me.” And “No.” continued for a few more times. Then the policeman said if Bill didn’t give him the license he would call a tow truck and have “This vehicle” towed away. OH BOY!! We still didn’t know what we’d done to be pulled over so Bill asked.
The police man asked to see the papers for the car. We dug them out and gave them to him. Registration and temporary import permit.
He asked, “Where do you live?”
“In Las Vegas, NV.”
“No, where do you live here in Guadalajara?”
“We are staying in a motorhome park on Mateos.”
“You don’t live here?”
“No, we live in Nevada.”
Well your tinted windows are illegal here in Mexico. (remember I said we had the windows up.)
“But they are legal in Nevada.”
“You’re not in Nevada – this is Mexico.”
“No one ever told us they were not legal in Mexico. I can’t take the tint off just to visit Mexico.”
Policeman thought a while and agreed – that would not be practical. ”Well they are illegal here in Mexico. So when you drive here you must keep your front windows rolled down. (I immediately put mine down and he kind of laughed.)
From then on all was fine. No problem over the license refusal and no ticket.
I must stress that at NO TIME was a bribe even hinted about – and I got the impression if we had offered him one we would then have been in trouble.
He was very professional and courteous. In fact he and Bill had a friendly talk about all the changes for the better that have been happening in Mexico the last few years and he gave us directions to get to where we were headed. Adding, “Keep your window down.”
He got back on his motorcycle, pulled up next to us and said, “I like the sign in your back window – to roll you over.” He gave a half wave and pulled back out into traffic.
Maybe he just liked the jeep and wanted to speak English for a while.
We kept the windows down the rest of the time we were driving around.
Will write about the fun we had in Tonala later - and with pictures and videos.

The visit to the streets of Tonala

With our windows rolled down and the policeman’s good directions we made it to Tonala. Words cannot describe the place. Years ago it was a tiny village that held a handicraft/farmers market one day a weeks. We visited it then taking a long taxi ride from Guadalajara. Well now you never leave the city to get there and the market is seven days a week. Everywhere you turn there is a stall or store selling something. You can get everything from the tackiest piece of painted plaster junk to exquisite paintings and furniture there. I took lots of pictures as it would be hard to explain. We walked miles – back and forth on the main street and up and down the side streets. Unbelievable how much stuff was for sale. The sidewalks were packed, mostly with Mexican nationals. The whole time we were there I only heard one group of English speaking customers.
Where to begin…..
Here is a poster that was there – declaring that Tonala is The Mexican Capital of Artists.

Kind of describes the place. First I think I share some of the street scenes to give an idea of the magnitude of the size and items for sale.

This is just one of the buildings.

Looking across the street at the vendors there.
Looking ahead of us down the street.
One of the many street side "restaurants."
Sanitation for restaurant. There is a bar of soap there on top of the jug. I guess whatever works. He also had a bottle of hand sanitizer.
How merchandise and children are moved around. Notice the boys to the left.

Here is a man selling all kinds of cold drinks. Bill bought a limeaid - ick

In this tiny store (actually it is a home) we were invited in to watch the man of the house make clay cups. He was working the clay by hand then pounding it flat with a piece of wood. Then he would mold it around a cup shaped form. Then bake it. Then paint it. We asked if we could take pictures. The wife said okay but the man was quick to say No.To get to his workshop in the back we had to walk past Grandma with the baby, through the kitchen and bedroom. All actually just one long narrow room. Amazing what they do with what they have.
Most of the stores on the main street were pretty nice. And almost all of them had really nice tile floors - that were shinny clean.
A very few of the things we saw for sale - I took over 145 photos so be glad I'm only sharing a few. These are knick knacks - a set of three ceramic mushrooms with twine around the stems and painted beans and seeds on the tops. Good idea.
The mosaic balls were interesting - saw a lot of this on many differnt items.
Just some metal work that was down one of the streets. The star shaped things are pretty.
Good idea for cool curtains. Just colored gauze with knots and decorations on the ends.
She was just sitting on the bench watching the world go by.

Not so much a fan of the painting as of the way it is done and the shape it has. The stretcher boards are curved.
This is another one with the same idea. Kind of interesting.

And what house could do with out one of these. The third from the right has a Mexican man sitting by a cactus painted in the bowl. Hum......don't think I would like that if I was Mexican.
Now these we really do like - wish we had a place for them. Kind of like what we saw and loved in Hidalgo last year.

Just a wooden screen - there were a lot of them along with all kinds of carved wooden furniture. And right by it coconuts for sale

And I couldn't leave these out - what everyone needs for their garden
I'll continue later. Will post before I lose it.

Guadalajara Market

One of the days that we were staying in Ajijic we took a trip into Guadalajara (about 35 miles.) Spent a little time there wandering around and decided we needed to spend more time there so here we are back at the campground in Guadalajara. Here we can get Internet from another guy in the park who has it – for a fee – which is fine with me.
So far we’ve been here four days including the day we drove up from Ajijic and we have walked our legs off. Still have more on my list of things to do and see.
One day we walked around the main plazas [found parking right under the main plaza] for awhile then hiked down to the old, big central market – this is where we went shopping 32 years ago and didn’t get any shopping done as Gil got a bloody nose and we had to leave. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The place was impressive then but now it is mind boggling. It takes up three square blocks and is four stories high. Quoting from a guide book "Here one finds everything that the soil produces plus that which man's fancy and needs can devise with his hands." A pretty good description of it. This is the older part that I remember -a big open area surrounded by stalls.

Looking at part of the interior - you better remember where you came in.

Like things for sale seem to be clustered together. Some how we ended up in the section selling leather goods and cowboy stuff. The saddles for sale were magnificent.

It’s a darn good thing we don’t have a horse. All kinds of leather clothing. In fact Bill found something he has been looking for for years – a Shearling Coat. You know the kind that is suede outside and lined in sheep’s wool inside. They are so expensive in the US he’s never bought one. So he’s got one now – I told him that for sure we have to spend next winter at home so he’ll get some use out of it. Every thing you would need if you had a horse. Boots, belts, chaps, hats –from plain straw to great big decorated sombreros,
spurs – fancy and plain, bits, and more saddles.
In another area there were clothes. Again everything from plain jeans to fancy Mariachi suits in all sizes some small enough to fit a one yr olds both for men and women. And the dresses for the women – for the dances – wow – so beautiful.

Then we found the sweets area – yum. All kinds of strange –to me- candy. Did buy some Dulce de Leche and some dulce de leche candies.
And electronics – stall after stall. Got a couple of good movies for about US$3. Want to go back and get some more. One with Meryl Streep and Alex Baldwin and Steeve Martin was pretty good – funny. Also Last Chance Harvey.
Then in the open area were chicks and fighting cocks, pet birds of all sorts - cages piled one on the top of the other - everything chirping, squawking or crowing.


and a couple of sorry looking puppies – made me want to buy them to give them a good home. The Driver drug me away from that area. Just one stall of baskets - any color or size you would want. The shopping bags like we bought 32 years ago are still being sold.

Want a foot massage - no problem you can get one.

On the outside edges of the open area were food stalls.

Some of the black spots on the watermelon were bees.

Also lots of places to eat……Could have spent all day there and are planning on doing just that before we leave here. So that's just one thing we've done here. More to come. Today we are going to Tonoala - thats were we went to the little market place years ago. It has really grown up.

Visiting Chapala

Went over to the town of Chapala to walk around the Malecón a while Monday morning. The lake is pretty clean now. No more acres of water plants along the shore. There is a new little “island” built just off shore with a big statue on it.

Couldn’t find out who it is – but the birds sure seem to like it. There are new iron gates with a copper fish motif on leading out to the pier.

By the entrance of the pier is an interesting fountain sculpture of four fishermen working with a fishing net. The net is a real net. Looking at it the right way there was a pretty rainbow.

Took a look up at the power poles that have the wiring for the lights for this area. Some things just don’t change. And this is the cities doing.

Ate at the restaurant we ate in three years ago. From it we could see that the area around the yacht club is actually a marina now, not filled with floating plants. There are even some sailboats docked there.

But the breakwater seems a little in need of some repair. How much longer can it hold up?

The garzas are so elegant – the captain of the ship. He just stood there and watched all the other birds fly and paddle around.

Along the Malecón there are lots of vendors. Beings how it was Monday not all of them were open but it’s still interesting to walk along and look. And it’s a really great place for people watching.
All dressed up for the day.

When we first got there they were just setting up and there was trash all over (from the day before, Sunday) but by the time we left it was completely clean.
Lots of clothing for sale, in fact, I bought another blouse – no I didn’t need it but it looked cool – not fashion cool – weather cool. Also lots of food places. Fruit cut up, lots of candy an sweets and even hot food prepare on a Coleman stove right there in the vendors stall. The hot food place also sold beer. One guy who said he was from Chicago and wishes he was there now – hum why isn’t he? Could it be the tattooed tear drops? Any way he was trying to talk us into eating some of the little dried white fish from the lake. No thanks.

Also stands selling drinks with liquor in them. Even ice cream stands with the ice cream in metal containers set in baskets with dry ice around them.

What always stops me though are the older women who sit on the ground and weave blanket material. There were two of them that day. One had her feet straight out in front of her covered with some cloth.

The other lady was sitting on her feet.

They both were sitting on a couple pieces of cardboard covered with blankets. And the material is beautiful. I could stand and watch them all day.
Suddenly there were what sounded like cannon shots. BAM, BAM, BAM – (didn’t count them that time but found out later there were 31.) They were fireworks, not the pretty kind, just the loud kind. While we were there there were three sets of them. And while they were going off the church bells were ringing too. Monday was March 1st and the bangs were offered to Providence to ask for good times for the month – 31 days. And they were coming from the church. Check out the video at the end. Turn it way up. It they didn’t get Providences attention they sure should have.
Leaving that area by car is always a challenge – at one place four lanes of traffic all coming from different directions has to merge into one lane heading towards the center of town. It’s basically a case of who is bigger – or – who has the most guts to cut in. I just close my eyes and hang on.

At the main corner with the road leading back to Ajijic there is a police man who stands with the button to control the lights and a couple more that stand in the street directing. Still there is a lot of horn blowing and nosing in.
On the road to Ajijic there is a new mural – again outstanding work – and again about the history of the area.
There have been a lot of changes since we were here 32 years ago and it was just a sleepy little town.