Downtown Guadalajara

Well I guess it's my turn to update the blog. I've been seriously ill all week with something in the spectrum of a stomach infection, salmonella poisoning, or some stomach virus and along with me it seems to have taken a toll on Nikki. I guess our little ventures out of the house when I get home from work are what keep her going. She's had a hard time being cooped up with sicky me all week. Luckily she is still in good health. Unfortunately, 6 days later, and about 10 lbs lighter and I'm still not feeling a whole lot better. We are hoping that it is just running it's course but if I'm not better by Monday I think I may have to bite the bullet and go see a doctor.
Also unfortunate is that this illness seems to have stemmed from a great weekend we had last weekend. The week before Valentine's day we took a day trip to the historic city center and had a lot of fun going through and athropological muesem for the region, seeing all the old building and wandering through this enormous market. We decided that for V-day we would get a hotel downtown and spend a couple of nights down there. We stayed at the Hotel de Mendoza(which unfortunately we didn't really get an pictures of) and it was nice. It has a great location right in the middle of the all the downtown plazas and mixed in with many of the beautiful historic buildings.

Nikki really liked taking pictures with these weird benches, chairs and sculptures.

She got a real kick out my pose for this one.

This was the Huge market. all the shops were just jam packed together and probably only 10 to 15 ft per shop one right after another. You could buy anything there from food to clothes to eletronicsto pirated dvds. We picked up a jersey for the local soccer team. It was 3 floors and easily covered 2 to 3 city blocks.

We stayed around the area on Friday night and found out that it was the 468 anniversary of the founding of Guadalajara. That's a lot of years! And the city was hosting some shows in the plazas right across the street from our hotel. So after some McDonald's for dinner(Nikki gets cravings for American cuisine) We walked around the plazas and stopping to listen for a moment and snap some pictures.

This was the roof our hotel above and below is the plaza across the street.

The Federal Palace on one side.

And the Degollado Theater on the other end.

And here's Nikki by the fountain on the front side of the Cathedral.

 

On Saturday we woke up and went to find something to eat. Then we set about trying to figure out what we were going to do for the day. We finally decided in visiting a park that Nikki had read about online in a north-western suburb called Zapopan. It was a fun park with a lot of interesting things to see. They had a beautiful Japonese garden that was populare for special event pictures.

Some pictures of the Japanese garden.

We got a kick out of these turtles.

NIkki and I in the cactus garden.

After kind of a long day of walking we were glad to get back to the hotel and rest. We finally went out to find something to eat and then walk around a little bit more downtown. Sunday we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel(which I think may have been the cause of my stomach troubles) then grabbed our stuff and headed home. We have an enjoyable weekend and found a few other things that we would like to do soon.

Here is the view of the catheral and Nikki on the hotel roof.

Nikki was really hoping we would be able to go out today but I'm still not feeling really well and I end up pretty out of breath and light headed after just a few blocks of walking. I'm afraid I'm really going to have to work hard to make up for this one.

The Zoo!!!

Okay one of my favorite places to go and see is the zoo.  I really love animals and what better place to see them.  So monday here was a holiday and we took that opportunity to go and see the zoo.  The weather was a little rainy, but sometimes that is the best weather to see the zoo. 

Our journey getting to the zoo was kinda fun.  Like most places we go here we don't know what bus to take so we kinda guessed what bus and we did pretty good because it lead us to about three blocks or so from the entrance.  Matt of course had to go and ask the driver if he would stop right by the zoo and he said if you get off here it is only this far.  I love walking through neighborhoods in this city so much fun.  Once we found the entrance it was kinda cheap to get in.  There were three options of what you could see.  You could just pay to walk around, pay to ride the train and walk around, pay to ride the train and walk around and go on the safari, and last was the premium package that allowed you to go everywhere and ride the train an unlimited amount of times.  The premium package was like ten bucks.

Okay here are the pictures.

This is the entrance.  I loved the monkey statues.

Flamingos were fun to watch walk all in a row.

An ostrich.  There were a lot of them on the Safari, but we didn't get a clear picture so here is the best shot we got.

I liked seeing herd of deer (native to India) it made me feel like I was home.

This reminded me of the iguanas when I went on my family cruise that were all over the ruins.

The most venomous snake in the world

Just loved the yellow coloring and it reminded me a little of Harry Potter.

The white tiger.  They didn't have the orange ones.

The Chimpanzee.  I forgot to get the gorillas.  Smart animals.

Thought this was funny that's all.

The best shot of the baby.

These were really cool.  Beautiful animals.  Which do you think it is Jaguar or Leopard?

He was a cute rhino

White Lion.  So cool.  Never seen them before.

I shook a tree branch to make her turn her head for this shot.

Lions.  Camara was dying so this was the best shot we got.

During the Safari it started to rain (and continued to rain all week long). We went on the safari and got to feed a giraffe.  Cool huh.  Matt and I took the opportunity to pet it too.  Coolest part for me for sure.

Matt's favorite animal.  It was on the Safari and we were on the wrong side of the bus thing.  So this is the best shot.

This was really cool.  We went into a caged area and the only thing seperating us from the kangaroos were side railing things.  We were so close, but they were all eating so none of them came close to us.

The only thing that we didn't really take pictures of was the aquariumhe hippos (this zoo has four of them) and zebras and all of the other things other zoos have.  I thought it was funny they had buffalo and Coyotes.  At the aquarium we had the chance to pet sting rays two different species of them.  It was really cool.  At the aquarium they also had a tunnel you walked through with water all around you it was really neat to see.  I love the zoo and am so excited to go to the San Diego Zoo in June.  Animals are amazing creation.  Another amazing day. 

The Park with an Aviary

After returning from Lake Chapala I had read about a pretty cool park, Parque Agua Azul.  It has an aviary in it with tropical birds.  It is right next to the old bus station (where the bus stopped from Chapala).  We decided to walk there before going home.  It cost us 5 pesos to get into the park.  I had never paid to go to a park before, but I guess since there are birds there paying is what has to happen.

It is a beautiful park.  It takes you out of the hustle and bustle of the city to a slowed down pace.  I loved it and matt did too.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. Saturday was our six month aniversary of being married (matt got me roses and everything while on the shore of Lake Chapala, could I ask for a better husband).  Here are some pictures we took at the park. 

All around the caged area were smaller cages filled with other birds.  The only different ones that were not in the big cage were a hawk, falcons, and an owl.  The picture we got of the owl was not that good and the hawk, but the following pictures are of the birds in the cages.

This one is of the Tuacon (spelling is wrong) it was not in the big cage.

We couldn't pass up this picture the parrots were playing tug-o-war.  And yelling at each other. So fun.

The following pictures are of the park itself.  I kinda regret we didn't take more pictures.  It was a really fun park. 

This was a cool flower that looked like a bird.

These birds are everywhere you go.

My attempt to be in forest of palm trees.

I think matts attempt was a little bit better.

This the end of the park adventure, but it was so much fun.  So if you are ever in Guadalajara and need something to do for just a couple of hours this park is great and I think a must see.  I would pay another 5 pesos to go and see it.