Tlaquepaque!

I started to realize how comfortable I am living in Mexico when I can pronounce a word like "tlaquepaque" without a second thought.  Actually, Tlaquepaque is a pueblo on the outskirts of Guadalahara.  And if you're wondering "how the hell do you pronounce that?", it's something like "tuh-lah-k-pah-k".

The first hour of each of my Spanish class is spent in conversation (in Spanish of course) and I mentioned that I felt there weren't a lot of good day trips from this area.  The other two gringos in my class as well as the instructor started giving me a long list of potential day trips.  The most popular seemed to be Tlaquepaque.  So that's where Matt and I went on Friday.....we like to get out of the house on Friday so we can stay out of our housekeeper's hair.....and besides I feel very lazy sitting around watching this little pregnant lady mop my floors.

Tlaquepaque isn't only about a 45 minute drive and required driving into Guadalajara.  Matt has gotten much better about big city driving over the last few months, in fact sometimes he drives just a little too Mexican!  Matt tried to enter our destination into the GPS but couldn't find it, so we were using driving direction we found on the internet, which was making both of us very nervous.  The internet directions gave street names to exit the highway on but seldom are the actually street names posted.  When we neared Guad we saw our first sign for Tlaquepaque and that's when Matt realized he had been misspelling the name when entering it into the GPS.  So we entered it correctly, and no problema.  NOTE:  When driving in Mexico a GPS with current Mexico maps is worth it's weight in gold.

The GPS took us to the general area, but not to the centro artisan market area that we wanted to go.  We circled around a bit, and when we had no luck finding it, we broke down and asked direction from a young man standing on a street corner (thank you Gabriel for all your help improving my Spanish!).  One of the gringo rules in Mexico is to avoid asking Mexicans for directions.  Mexicans hate to disappoint so even if they don't know the answer, they'll tell you something.  But in this case he understood my question "donde esta el marcado de artisans?" and gave me directions that I could actually understand and that took us right to where we wanted to go.

Tlaquepaque is beautiful!  The marcado area is about six blocks and closed to auto traffic.  Every little pueblo in Mexico has a plaza, always next to the church, and usually with a gazebo.  Thought this one was especially pretty.  Quite a few tourists types were there, but almost all were Mexican - very few gringos.

 

 Lots of whimsical artwork in the area, including this little guy and the only mariachi band in Mexico that doesn't hound you for tips.

The mercado area in Tlaquepaque is one incredible colonial building after another. 

We found this potter giving a demonstration to some kids.  He was turning out angry bird sculptures and that seemed to hold their interest.

This is where Matt and I had lunch, not sure of the name of the restaurant but a pretty location.  I had my first torta ahogadas!  I believe torta can mean either cake or sandwich, and in this case it's definitely sandwich.  Ahogadas means drowned.  There are roadside stands on every block that offer tortas ahogadas along with tacos but we had never tried them before.  What we have been missing!  Not sure if they are all alike, but the sandwich I had was served fairly plain,  just stewed, nicely seasoned pork on a hoagie bun with red onions on the side.  Then they give you a big bowl of red chili sauce along with a little cup to ladle this over your sandwich.  This makes for a pretty awesome meal....messy, but declicious and just a little spicy.  So I've got a new favorite Mexican food, just what I needed!  My only complaint about Tlaquepaque ws the price of the cerveza - $340 pesos!  That's about $3 USD!  Standard prices around Chapala for a beer range from $180-$220 pesos, so this was about US prices!

Last weekend Matt and I tried a new restaurant, Tabarkas.  Matt's golfing buddy Vern and his wife Kathleen went with us.  I've always been a huge fan of La Bodegas in Kansas City and this was the Lake Chapala version!  They have a promotion for unlimited tapas and wine for $240 pesos, or $20 USD.  They brought round after round of tapas to our table, all very nice!  And the wine flowed - well at least for Kathleen and me!  Vern and Matt abstained and they had the non-drinkers version of the tapas meals for only $160.  Good to have a DD!

Tabarcas - the Chapala version of La Bodesga

 Such nice people here!  Vern and Kathleen are great and always so helpful.  Vern has been giving Matt a ride home from golf on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I can make my yoga class.  They've been taking golf lessons on Tuesday morning and Vern hauls Matt to those as well so I can go to the organic market.  I'm sure he's thinking "I wish they'd buy a second car!".  The first time we were invited to their beautiful house for dinner, Vern specifically included Hermann in the invite.  They have a labradoodle, Gracie, who's about Herm's age so we thought they'd get along great.  Oh, well, not the case.  Sweet Gracie went blind from a retinal disease and she's still adjusting.   Didn't seem to appreciate this invader on her turf at all.  And Herm, for his part, behaved no better.  Herm is very house broken and NEVER has accidents; or at least not until we visited Vern and Kathleen.  Within 15 minutes he had left a nice little surprise in their living room.  Later we walked into San Juan Casalo, the village where Vern and Kathleen live.  When we came home there was a pee trail from the living room, into the kitchen, to the door.  Needless to say, Herm has no more social engagements on his calendar.  I guess he know's not to mess his own house, but everyone else's is fair game.

And want to be sure and mention our other group of new friends.  We met Joe and Sharon one night when we went out to dinner.  We had Herm with us and dogs always seem to be a good ice breaker.  Really enjoyed visiting with them and they invited us to join their friends for dinner at Molcajete's in Chapala.  They usually have dinner every other Saturday night and there's usually 10-12 people there.  Always a very fun group.

Dinner at Molcajetes