Walls, coffees and dresses.

After hitting up a Starbucks in the morning (I "needed to work" - aka. I wanted a fix) - my girlfriend and I did some sight seeing.

As I mentioned previously, we arrived late last night and had only a brief walk around - today, she was awesome enough to throw together a little walking tour of the plazas and building.

Perfect. I love walking and architecture is one of my favorite things. When I visited Europe a couple of years ago - pretty much all I did was walk around looking at buildings. It's not just famous buildings I'm interested in - I like examining every building as they all contribute to the feel of a place. For example, when I think Punta de Mita, I think unfinished cinderblock building with rebar sticking out the top or the corner stores painted in Corona's colours. Luckily for me, Guadalajara is an old city with a rich history (lots of Spanish influence). It has a lot of great plazas and interesting buildings.

One thing Mexicans are also quite serious about are their walls (which I find weird because they seem extremely social/nice). I enjoy the fact that each residence is fortified. 11 foot walls aren't enough - one must top it with spikes, razor wire and/or electric fencing (sometimes all three). We walked by the US consulate and didn't realize what it was until we read the sign. I just thought it was someone's fancy house (heavily armed guards outside? no big deal - I saw those at the mall earlier).

One place we went was a crazy indoor market. Something like 2800 vendors packed into what is essentially a 40,000 sq ft parkade. Packed being the operative word...I haven't seen so much counterfeit goods and food-safe violations under one roof before. The thing that amazes me more about the bigger markets - is that a lot of the shops sell the same thing. The common business mantra of differentiate or die seems to be ignored.

A small portion of the market

One business that is BOOMING here is giant dresses (think prom/Cinderella wedding). Once we noticed it, it seemed like every store was selling giant dresses. I was starting to think the Baader Meinhof effect was to blame until we stopped to count. 15/20 stores within sight were selling them...and we had passed many many more before that.

After our walked we sat and watched. I enjoy how busy the squares are. Lots of people watching opportunities in Guadalajara - people literally from all walks of life swirling around; Creepy balloon making clowns, bands filming music videos and a young couple getting engaged - just some of the things we witnessed in the hour or two that we sat on that bench.

Today was a good day.

I was disappointed to learn that this plant wasn't a gigantic pineapple...