So Jess ended up having to leave on the tenth to go to Guadalajara and deal with the whole lost visa thing. This made me quite sad because that meant that I had to go through my last day in Guzmán without her. My last day at work was horrible. I had to say good bye to my boys and it completely broke my heart. I thought that I would be pretty teary but I was full on bawling. It was literally one of the hardest days of my life knowing that I would never see them again. I had come to love these boys as if they were my own and would have smuggled them all home with me if I had thought of a way how. I still tear up every time I look at photos of them. They were angels in my life and will be in my heart forever. When I got home from work, my host mum Sara took one look at my puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks and said “What happened to you!?!?!?” And of course I started crying again as I tried to explain to her how hard it was for me to leave and how much I was going to miss Guzmán. I then packed up the rest of my stuff and said another teary goodbye to Sara and Fernanda. Then Jous took me to the bus station and I had to say yet another goodbye to a dear friend. It was a really horrible afternoon.
I arrived in Guadalajara a couple hours later where Fernando and Aldo came to pick me up and took me to Fernando’s house. Fernando, being the awesome guy that he is, had offered Jess and I his home whenever we were in town. When I arrived, Fernando’s mum fed me a big meal that included SALAD!!! My first real salad in two and a half months! I was in love with his mum from that moment on.
That night the boys took Jess and I to this super-cool underground bar. No sign, no windows, just a big black iron door. We knocked on the door and a guy on the other side slid open the little window, peered out at us and told us to wait. It was pretty packed once we went inside but the music was great and the building itself was awesome. After that we put on our dancing shoes and went to a salsa club to shake our groove things. Good times!
The next day I decided to forgo taking the eight hour bus ride to Mexico City and booked a cheap flight for later that evening. I was meant to meet Leonor and Leticia in Mexico City who I had studied with in Australia and Leo had told me I could stay with her but about an hour before I was supposed to leave I got a text from Leo saying that she was out of town travelling for the next four days. Leticia was out of town too so I was pretty bummed and had to spend money on hotels for the next two nights until Leti got home and invited me to stay with her. But in the end it all turned out well because I got to stay right in the center of the city and do touristy stuff on my own for a couple days. On my first night I stayed at an awesome hotel for $50 that Jess had recommended me called Hotel Gillow ( I highly recommend it to anyone going to Mexico City anytime soon). So anyway, it was already dark when I got into town so I decided to just walk around in the Zócalo (aka town square). It took a grand total of five minutes to be approached by some random guy who wanted to be my boyfriend. Then about five minutes later another guy approached me, and then three seconds later another guy offered to take me on a tour of the city in his car. And so set the tone for the next two weeks of travelling Mexico. Needless to say I didn’t stay out too long that night. The next morning I meant to do all the touristy stuff in the zócalo but walked the wrong way and ended up in the Alameda next to the Palacio de Bellas Artes. I saw a Jose Luis Cueva exhibition, murals by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Montenegro, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano and Jorge González Camarena. I was in heaven. Next I went to the Diego Rivera Mural Museum where there was only one mural in the entire building. His most famous but still… I was expecting a little more. Next I paid a visit to the Franz Mayer museum. Mr. Mayer had way too much money and a massive antique and art collection so he decided to make his own museum. It was actually really cool.
Next I decided I should go check out the Jardin del Arte where all these incredible local artists sell their work. On the way there I got horribly lost but eventually found my way after asking several super-helpful Mexicans. Well actually, first, I thought I had found it as my map told me I was in the right place and I saw a bunch of tents and stuff that looked like it could be an art sale. So I walked into the parking lot in front of the Monumento de la Madre where, apparently, around 200 homeless people live. All the men made me feel very welcome in their little community by whistling and hollering every dirty word they could think of. I quickly realized my mistake and made a hasty exit. It was interesting that the moment I stepped over the curb out of the parking lot no one said a word to me or hassled me at all. It was like a separate world. On the other side of the monument was this beautiful park full of flowers and trees and some of the most incredible artwork I have ever seen. I went there intending to just look until I came across this little old man selling the most beautiful charcoal drawings. I couldn’t resist. I had to have one. And for only $90 I didn’t even try to barter with him. Then I went to Starbucks for a very much needed coffee fix where I forgot my $90 drawing on the table when I left. I was a couple blocks away when I realized I’d forgotten it and amazingly it was still there when I got back.
That night I decided to stay in Hotel Canada. I saw it and couldn’t resist (and it was quite a bit cheaper than Hotel Gillow). There was nothing Canadian about it besides the name… but it was really nice to have something familiar to hand. The next morning I explored the zócalo which included a massive cathedral stuffed with more gold than I had ever seen before in my life, some government buildings and the site that is believed to be where the Aztecs saw the eagle on the cactus with the serpent in its mouth and where they built a massive temple. Unfortunately, it was Monday and everything in Mexico is closed on Monday so I couldn’t go in the temple or even see the murals in the government buildings. I then decided I would walk back to the Alameda and walk down La Reforma to see all the monuments and cool buildings. On my way, a little Mexican guy was walking next to me and looks up and me and says, “Where are you from?!?! You’re sooo tall!!!” I’m a bit of a freak in Mexico and definitely stand out in a crowd. So this guy proceeded to follow me around for the next two hours talking at me in Spanish. He wanted to show me Chapultepec Forest but when we got there it was closed. (Who closes an entire forest?) So anyway, we walked back down La Reforma and then when I got back to the Alameda I crossed the street thinking he would follow me but he didn’t. He didn’t say goodbye or anything. He just walked on the opposite side of the street from me for a while and then disappeared. It was so bizarre.
