Spanish....mmm...should have learnt some!

Fire breathers entertaining the traffic
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We caught the trolley from San Diego at some ridiculously early hour of the morning, to make our way towards the border. Whilst travelling we met with a lovely american couple, who told us stories of kidnapping and crime in Mexico when crossing the border. Nice. We got off the trolley and quite strangely literally walked across the border into Tijuana. A very odd experience, and suddenly we understood nobody and vice versa.

We avoided all the people trying to persuade us to take their cabs and made our way to a bus stop, where it turned out we had to get a cab anyway. So we did. we made our way to the airport, taking in some of the sights of Tijuana on the way. I have to say they were pretty grim, there is clearly a lot of poverty in Mexico, and the houses and shops were very run down with a lot of Shanty towns along the way.

Enjoying a well deserved cocktail.
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We arrived at the airport only to find that our flight had been cancelled but there was another one a few hours later, and only when we were getting on the plane did we realise that our new flight stopped somewhere on the way!

And so it was that we found ourselves in Guadalajara. They have a system at the airport where you pay in a n office for your cab, and they give you a ticket, which worked well for us, so after we rang our hostel and booked, we headed on our way.

Hostal Maria reminded me of some of the places that I had stayed in Spain. It was located around a tiny courtyard with a fountain, and many a couple kissing and a child playing. Despite the fact that the cab drivers last words were "Be careful in this area", it looked very nice, and the staff were lovely. After settling in we met a Mexican guy called david, who we first though worked in the hostel but it alter turned out, was just living there to deal with personal business. He was lovely and spoke very good English, and proved to be a key character for our time there. Our hostel had a lovely area to eat in, with a beautiful fountain and courtyard, it was very picturesque.

One of the many squares.
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After settling in, rick found out a bout a famous wrestling match that was to happen in town that night, and it came highly recommended by David, so we decided to go. we were all starving though, so food had to come first. After going for a 75p beer, we had a long look round for somewhere to eat. Sadly, the only thing we saw were street vendors and Princess wasn´t up for those, so the search continued. we finally found a restaurant attached to a hotel and ate our first mexican meal. It was with great trepidation that we ordered (badly) off a menu that we could not understand, and unfortunately the food was bland to say the least. More unfortunately for the boys, by the time we had finished, they had stopped letting people into the mucho libre fight. Oops.

Another fountain.
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After this, I headed home for the night and the others discovered our ne local ´La Vaca´ or the cow. I went to use the internet back at the hostel, but was informed (I think) that i couldn´t use it at night, so I went to get ready for bed. Then the lovely david offered me his laptop to use in my room and also provided me with a beer ( I didn´t have the heart to turn him down). I caught up on emails and then headed for bed, only to be woken in varying intervals by the others coming home with stories of hilarity!

Sightseeing.
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the next day we were all tired so we got up quite late and asked where was good to eat, we had a chinese recommended so we headed there. The woman who served us did not even understand the universal language of "·Coca cola", so we knew we were in trouble, but we ordered regardless. What we were presented with were the largest plates of food that I have ever seen! Seriously each one could feed an army for the total cost of about two english pounds. After eating our fill, we put the rest in boxes for dinner that night. Then we headed for a walk around the city. By no means is Guadaljara a beautiful city, but it has a lot of characters, we saw cathedrals, fountains and many more interesting buildings, and then we headed to check out the other hostel in town. it had a reputation as being a party hostel, but was booked for our entire stay anyway, so we moved on to buy a much needed spanish/English dictionary. It was in this bookshop that patrice told the man that she had a lonely planet book in English instead of asking him if he had one! the first of many hilarious mistakes made in Spanish! that night we ate reheated chinese, played Yahtzee and went to bed.

Socialising with our new friends. The people of Mexico are so friendly!
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The next day, we asked some advice from the people in our hostel and headed into town again. We saw more interesting buildings, walked around come of the many squares, and generally go to know our surroundings. After experiencing some culture we headed for Ripley´s Believe it or Not museum. It was a museum with displays of weird and wonderful things, including pictures of the tallest and fattest men in the world. At the end of the museum there was a section on Ancient Egypt with real mummies stored in glass cases, we walked through this with interest and as we reached the end, we waited for Mike and Patrice. mike was looking particularly closely at the final mummy of the museum, who unlike all the others was not stored behind glass. I was  slightly suspicious of this as during our visit, there had been various stunts designed to make you jump. Mike however was not. He was peering in, when the mummy sat up. His reaction was genuinelly one of the  most hilarious things I´ve ever seen. He jumped back into a karate chop stance ready to fight the mummy. It was brilliant. Patrice thought he was acting, but no Mikey is prepared to fight any dead being with his kung fu moves!

That evening, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal, so we found restaurant with good reviews and headed there. It was slightly tacky and touristy, but we had a great meal, and ven wtached our waiter freshly prepare our salsa at the table. I tried cactus, which sdaly wasn't as tasty as I had hoped for, and we headed home. Unfortunately Mike left his camera and did not realise until we were safely back in our favourite bar La Vacca. We returned in a cab, but sadly nobody had seen it. Nevertheless the night continued as we played pool with a load of locals, it's amazing how you can communicate without speaking the same language, although Mike tried hard by asking What's my name? which the locals found hilarious!

The next day was spent trying to retake the pictures that had been lost, and generally chilling out, as we were expecting a big party that evening due to the celebrations in Mexico. As it turned out, it staretd quite quietly, as we attended a party being held by a guy that the others had met. Weleft that and headed for La Vaca, where there was live music, sppeches and lots of dancing (not by us). Mike and Rick then headed back to the hostel to drag out David our new friend and also Minhe, who turned out to be studying in Mexico. She was lovely and spoke fluent sapnish and English, which understandaby impressed us all. Not only that but she was gorgeous and a fantastic dancer - some girls get all the luck. Ended up having a really good night which predictably we suffered for the next day.

The following day we headed for the bus station for the next leg of our trip, on an incredibly spacious and comfortable bus.

For more pictures; http://www.flickr.com/photos/miketong/sets/72157594296484551/