La Guelaguetza - Guadalajara - Home

I woke up bright and early to get out to the Guelaguetza Popular an hour or so after it was meant to officially start (never show up to anything on time in Mexico or you will be the only one there). I had to ask a bunch of people how to get there and eventually had to take the bus. I had no idea where I was meant to get off the bus so I was praying that the rest of the passengers on the bus were heading to the same place. Luckily there was a nice woman sitting near me who must have seen that I had no clue where I was going and told me when to get off the bus. So I walked along with her and the rest of the crowd passing a million little vendors on the way until I got to this huge soccer field with a big stage in the middle surrounded by chairs. The first of the dancers were already on stage. It was a really awesome good time and as I discovered later on it was very illegal for me to be there as foreigners are not permitted to partake in protests in Mexico. Anyway, at the end of every dance the dancers throw some item of food into the crowd like onions or tostadas or tomatoes. It was really funny. I was so very confused and the blistering heat of the day was not helping things. I only ended up staying for a few hours before I couldn't take the heat anymore. On my way out, I went up to where I saw a group of people gathered thinking that it might be where the bus stop was. I was wrong. There was a bus there alright but it had been stopped sideways so that it blocked off the whole street and there was a group of man with scarves wrapped around their faces setting off fire works and yelling things at the crowd. I didn't stick around to find out what was going on. I got my buns outta there pronto!

The reason that I was able to attend both the Guelaguetza popular and oficial is that the official one is so well attended that they have two (one in the morning and one in the evening). Now were I not the silly uninformed tourist that I was I would have gone straight from the Guelaguetza popular to wait in line at the Guelagutza Oficial. However I thought it would be a better idea to have a nice lunch and a little nap before I headed off to the second event. When I got to the auditorium I met massive crowds and ridiculous numbers of police and was told to turn around and go home because all the gates were closed and they weren't letting anyone else in. I was very disappointed but thought that I might as well walk all the way around and see what I could see. When I got to the very top/back of the auditorium they opened the gates and slowly started letting in a few people at a time. After nearly getting trampled by people trying to get in I finally got through the gates. The auditorium was huge and the located on the top of a big hill so the view out over the town was amazing. The dancing was great and they had a huge live band. I managed to get myself into a pretty good spot for viewing (mind you I was still about as far away as one could get from the stage). There was a group of young girls in front of me who were so nice. They made sure that I could see and every time I went to take a picture they were sure to be out of my way. Between each of the dances there were guys standing on the tops of the walls who would throw sombreros and tee-shirts to the crowd. The girls caught a couple hats and gave one to me. It truly made my day. Later on I passed on that smile when a little street girl came up to me and asked if she could wear it. I gave her the hat and watched some fireworks with her for a bit both of us with huge smile on our faces. She reminded me of my boys I had left behind in Ciudad Guzman and I got a little teary-eyed thinking of them.

After the show, I met up with Kira again and we went for dinner and margaritas. The next morning I had a flight back to Guadalajara and so we had to say our goodbyes. It was pretty sad as we had become pretty good friends over the past few days. The next morning I caught my flight and my dear friend Fernando came to pick me up at the airport. It was really great to see him again. So we went back to his house and I got myself organized for my flight back home the next day. Fernando's great uncle had passed away while I had been travelling and the funeral was that night so Memo had offered to take me to a soccer match that just happened to be a friendly between the Tecos vs the Boca Juniors who are one of the top teams in Argentina. The game was not all that great and ended in a 1-1 draw but it was so cool to see those players live and to finally go to a proper Mexican soccer match. My trip to Mexico was almost complete. After the game we met up with Fernando again and stuffed our faces with tacos... well I did anyway... these were my last Mexican tacos. I had to take advantage. After tacos we went out for some drinking and karaoke at the boys' favourite bar and ended the night in the playground outside Memo's house. I said some very sad goodbyes to Memo and Ricardo and went back to Fernando's place for a few hours sleep before I had to be at the airport for my flight home.

By an amazing stroke of luck. Jess' flight back into Guadalajara arrived about an hour or so before I was meant to board. So I got to see Jess again which was absolutely amazing but sad because we had to say goodbye all over again. I learned that at the Guadalajara airport they feel the need to hand search every single passengers luggage which was enfuriating because I had very carefully packed three bottles of booze so that they wouldn't get broken. Anyway, saying goodbye to Jess and Fernando was the worst. I cried from that moment all the way to Los Angeles. I cried for all the amazing friends I'd made and for my boys and for the food. Oh how I do miss the food! Getting on the plane to LA they also felt the need to search my carry on luggage and the wouldn't let me take on the unopened bottle of water I had just bought when I was already through security. And then they proceeded to pat me down and even made me take off my shoes so they could check them too. I was really truly hating on Mexican airlines by the time I got on that flight. It really didn't help the whole crying thing. And then I lost my luggage tags. Thank God they didn't lose my bags.

American customs were a breeze after the nightmare that was Mexico and I now consider myself somewhat of an expert at LAX since this was the fourth time I'd been through there in the last year. However, I had a seven hour layover there. After I had thoroughly gone through every shop and still had about five hours to kill I took to my usual passtime of people watching and enjoying a long drawn out meal. When I finally boarded my flight to Calgary I was so excited to get home. It was really starting to sink in that I would sleep in my own comfy bed that night. In Calgary I didn't have much of a layover at all and finally at around 12:30am on July 24th I was home! Mum, Dad and Alexis were there to meet me and I had never been so happy to see their faces.