Mosquitoes are eating Jodie alive in Guadalajara

Shortly after this picture was taken, the gorilla launched itself at the window right in front of us. Clearly animals want a bit of Jodie love too.
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We left the lovely Tlaquepaque this morning, jumped on a collectivo and now we're in Hostel Del Maria, just down the street from the Centro Historico district of massive Guadalajara.  It's a really nice hostel with free internet which is how I managed to update the blog y'see!

Had another interrupted snooze in Donde... due to the Mariachi men, but we did discuss lots of nice things like tattoos and guitarrons.  We played cards lots too, and went to a cafe/bar where there was a live band playing classic hits like "Long Train Runnin'" by the Doobie Brothers and "Crossroads" by Cream.

OVER AND OUT!

Jodie with a Barillo of Corona for $40 which is 4 dollars which is about 2.10 GBP. Possibly the greatest thing we have ever seen.
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Back in the biggest of the Gs (glenrothes wee g, Glasgow big G, Guadalajara Biggest G) and I like it better than our last visit.  Wandering around outside of the main centre, there's quite a likeable area around our hostel with wee restaurants and taco stands.  The people seem friendly too; stares are followed by smiles and friendly greetings (Buenos Tardes) so it's all good so far!  We've been on the internet for a couple of hours trying to get everything updated and now we're done I think we're gonna have a wander around and see what there is for us to get up to!  I probably won't write again for another week or two, but for the benefit of our families, we're doing fine, money's fine and we're eating well.  We've been using factor 40 suntan lotion (I'm still as white as I was when I left, but my feet are a lot dirtier) and Jodie's still extremely pretty.  He's been wearing his hair up differently because of the heat.  ANd he's been ravaged by mosquitoes so we're gonna go find SOME INSECT REPELLENT THAT ACTUALLY WORKS!

Our expert Spanish led us to the vauge translation of "you will be molested by Komodo Dragons and Kangaroos if you go this way". Needless to say, we went that way.
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Love you all, hope you had a good birthday maw kerr...I'll bring you back an amazing birthday present next year...how about some deep fried grasshoppers?!)

Also, is anyone actually reading this?  Leave a comment if you are, then we can comment back and it'll be like a conversation on tinternet!

OVER AND OUT! xxxxxxx

7th June Twas a good day!  Got up early enough for the free breakfast (cereal, toast, fruit juice blablabla) and decided to head to Guadalajara zoo an Planetarium.  Jumped on the 62 collectivo for the princely sum of 10 pesos and hopped off where we guessed we should.  The zoo was a 10 minute walk from the main highway, and entry was only 68 pesos each; this included a safari too ooooooooooh! So the zoo is MASSIVE and has the typical stuff like lions and tigers and bears oh my.  It also had a polar bear.  In a Mexican zoo.  In Mexican heat.  Poor thing was just lying behind a big rock in the shade...felt quite bad for it really.  We wandered around to see the Gorillas; one of them actually launched itself at the window we were standing at.  Either it doesn't like Gringos or it mistook Jodie for a gorilla (hair-wise).  That was quite cool.  This place is TEEMING with squirrels; they appear to be like vermin here...they were EVERYWHERE!  In every enclosure, on the paths, in the grass.  And they're quite brass-necked in comparison to the ones at home.  We also saw loads more lizards and weird beasties which we're becoming quite immune to.  The safari was a good laugh; we were taken round a track in this hardcore safari type vehicle where we saw ostriches (ugly, ugly things), zebras, buffalo, gazelles and giraffes.  We got to feed the giraffe carrots.  That was quite strange...and it slabbered all over our hands hahahaha!  Jodie reached straight for the anti-bacterial hand stuff...I pretended I didn't want any, but used it a little bit later. <P>Anyhoo, the zoo takes forever to wander round; this becomes obvious when you get to the back of the zoo to discover that you're no longer in the city but in forest with canyons and valleys and rivers.  That was quite bizarre; on the bus it looks like Guadalajara just goes on and on, so we really didn't expect to see that!  Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go to the Planetarium, so we jumped back on a bus and went in search of insect repellent which we found in a supermarket (Soriana).  We also picked up some tasty morsels for din dins like fresh veg and CAKE.  Yes, cake.  The cakes are AMAZING here. Made it back to the hostel and bumped into some guys we'd met the night before (Vincent and Hugo from ROI and Keegan from Melbourne) so we sat around watching pirate films (10,000 BC and the new Indiana Jones film) and drinking beer.  There was a 10 hour thunderstorm last night too...I have never seen anything like it in me life!  There was lightning every couple of seconds, and the rain was LASHING down.  The thunder shook the buildings and set off car alarms...incredible!  I nearly peed myself on several occasions (you know how much I like the storms).  Tried to take some photos, but I think the voltage is weird here as our batteries aren't charging to their full potential, so managed to get photos of the charged sky instead.

A hippo for Becca. He was having muchos fun with a twig.
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8th June

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NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL won Roland Garros again...didn't get to watch it, but I read about it on Google so my strange tennis fascination has been quenched, for now.  6-1, 6-3, 6-0 I hope he wins Wimbledon!  Donna, you'd better watch it in work...make that horrible comms woman put it on!!  And can you text me if you find out the results before me?  We've decided to stay another night in the biggest G as we found a better fan for our room so had a better sleep.  We're going to spend longer in each place rather than rushing everything, so we'll be here 'til tomorrow, then possibly of to Ajijic or a place by Uruapan (Paracho) which is apparently the home of luthiers and concerts.  Jodie desperately wants a Guitarron...I'm saving myself for India.

Jodie in front of his favourite animal, the Donkey.
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Anyhoo, today we were big, fat pies and had an incredibly Mexican pizza buffet.  Yes.  Jodie also bought new sunglasses as he sat on his aviators (pre-pizza so it's not related to pie-ness).  We've made some observations since being here...*Most Mexican people put chilli on EVERYTHING.  Chilli sauce on crisps, fruit, popcorn - EVERYTHING!  *None of the shops EVER have change.  They always have to go across the road to the bank, or stop a taxi driver. * There are HUNDREDS of printing shops (posters/leaflets). *The petrol reeks.  It smells like pure, unrefined Diesel and it makes me want to vom. *Loads of old people work here; selling kites on the beach, flans in the street and women in Hotel Hidalgo. *There are lots of buskers with no musical talent whatsoever, and even more with talent. *People sell stuff EVERYWHERE; on the Metro (Subway), on the buses, on top of pyramids.  That's it so far, but I'm sure we'll come up with more.

This lion had a rather fetching head of 80s hair.
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Had a great night in the hostel drinking beers with Andrea, Keegan, Vincent, Hugo, Mark and Steven.  Steven was a character (shady).  He used to be in the army (US) and he's now a primary school teacher...nice combination of careers.  He came out with some really profound thoughts that we'd like to share with you all:

"You know a woman loves you when she smells you like a cat smells a baby".  Like a cat smells a baby?

"I like to pee in the rain rather than in a bathroom".  Which he did shortly afterwards in torrential rain with his top off.

Bizarre back of zoo area complete with valleys, canyons and mountains!
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Thanks to Andrea, we might be in the Phillipines for Christmas...apparently it's a very overlooked part of the world considering how close it is to Thailand, etc, so we're going to try and make it there for a wee while!