New grocery store opens in Mazatlan

Last week a new grocery store opened in Mazatlan. It was actually located in our Gran Plaza mall area but moved to another location across the street from Sam's Club. It's much bigger and brand new. Very, very nice. We are so excited! Beautiful produce and nice selection of meat and much, much more. Besides Sam's for large quantity items, we will be shopping here for our groceries.

Here are a few pictures we took this morning during our first shopping experience at Mega Foods. Please come grocery shopping with us! :)

Covered parking garage. Entrance to store.

Even a parking spot reserved for "future mamas"

An escalator takes you up to the store with your shopping cart.
Technology very new to Mazatlan.

Very roomy,bright and cheery.

Lots of windows to give light when you are shopping in the afternoons when they routinely turn the lights off to conserve energy.

Even has a small restaurant in the store.

Even a coffee shop.

Nice wide isles

With location signs in Spanish and English too. Very nice.

Beautiful, fresh produce.

Bakery

Great selection of wines

Dairy section

Meat section - Beef

Fish

And, of course, a must - The Tortilleria!

Even some pretty nice clothing.

Cosmetics

Some furniture

Some appliances

Electronics

Got our groceries and ready to check out.

Cash register screen - $400?? Wow! No that's in pesos. Was only $40.

Heading down the escalator to the garage with our groceries. We are ready for our guests that will be arriving tomorrow, Janet and Diane - Greg's cousins from Portland, Oregon.
Thanks for shopping with us.

Carnaval just around the corner.....

The Mazatalan Carnaval is this weekend. In case you don't remember, it's a huge party with lots of events and noise. It's like a Mardi Gras. In fact, the Carnaval here in Maz is the 3rd largest in the world, next to Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. The theme this year is "Legends of Long Ago". Here is a link to more information about Carnaval if you might be interested. http://www.carnavalmazatlan.net/-c2.php

They didn't put statues up on the malecon this year but something different that are very interesting looking. I have'nt taken pictures of them yet but they had some at the Plazuela in El Centro/Old Town. Here area few pictures we took last week. Carnaval really gets geared up on Friday and goes through next Wednesday. So look for more pictures on our blog next week.

Shopping in Tlaquepaque, Tonala & Lake Chapala

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the town of Tlaquepaque to start our shopping adventure. This town is home to over 300 shops and art galleries. For the most part, they're high-end, with jewellers, glass blowers, painters, ironworkers, and furniture makers exhibiting and selling their wares. Much of it is made in another suburb, Tonala, where an estimated 6,000 artisans reside. This is the other town we actually stayed in and where we shopped the Sunday market. Almost every house in that town has a workshop, and what's produced can be found throughout the country. Artwork lines the outdoor market, which runs for several blocks. Prices are lower and there is more room for negotiation in Tonala than in Tlaquepaque.

Here are a few photos of both of these very interesting towns. We were successful in finding a painting in Tonala for our living room. Also, a few other items that will work well for our condo in Yakima. Just incredible prices!



Fountain in the entry to the town of Tlaquepaque.



Cathedral in Tlaquepaque

Cathedral in Tonala

We toured a pottery factory in Tonala. They explained how the pottery go through to firings after they are painted. Just beauiful patterns.

Before and after shot of the pottery after fired twice. It was interesting how much smaller it got.

This is what happens to the pottery that doesn't come out quite perfect. Becomes part of the floor in the store.

How about a mosaic tiled cactus chair for your patio? You can find it in Tlaquepaque.

Lots of interesting decor on homes.

Meat for sale at the open market.

Veggies too.



Everything you can imagine for sale.





Not sure what this sign meant, but it was interesting to see.

Lots of music to entertain us while we shopped. The clothes the mariachi band wore had more of an Indian flare than in Mazatlan.

While I continued to shop the market in Tonala, Greg took the bus to Lake Chapala.

Lake Chapala is about a 30 minute drive from Tonala. Greg said the lake is about 7 times the size of Lake Chelan in Washington state. It's the largest natural lake in Mexico. It is a popular place for American and Canadian retirees. Here are a couple of videos Greg took of the lake and surroundings. A man playing a flute and another a guitar were performing on the boardwalk as Greg took the videos. Some really nice music. Enjoy.






More photos Greg took of the area around the lake.

Surprisingly, there was even a 7-Eleven store nearby.

Our trip to Guadalajara, Mexico

We left Mazatlan at 6:30 am and arrived in Guadalajara at 4:30 pm. It was a long 10 hours but they stopped along the way for food, drinks and to stretch our legs. Here is a picture of the bus we traveled on. The bus was very comfortable and new but just like much of the plumbing in Mexico, the restroom wasn't working but the bus was equipped with a dvd player. We watched 3 complete movies coming back.

On the highway to Guadalajara there were many, many blue tequila agave fields. These plants are part of the lily family, which is native to Mexico. This isn't a really good shot as we were trying to take the picture out the window of the bus as we were traveling but you can get an idea. The town of Tequila is located 37 miles from Guadalajara. Tequila is famous for one thing "Tequila". We understand there are many distilleries there that you can tour and enjoy tequila tasting. The Jose Cuervo Distillery, which opened in 1795, is the oldest distillery and produces 74,000 liters of tequila annually. We didn't get a chance to tour this town but plan to take a trip soon.

When we arrived in Guadalajara, we checked into our hotel which was actually in Tonala a suburb of Guadalajara. We walked the streets and had dinner and then to bed early to get rest for the history walking tour and shopping the next day.

Here are a few interesting things we learned about Guadalajara during the tour.

Guadalajara's sister city is Portland, Oregon. Their city flower was at one time the gardenia but now it's the rose. We thought that was interesting because, as we know, Portland is the "city of roses". Guadalajara is a 450 year old city of 5 million people, about the same population of the state of Washington. Incredible, huh. The name Guadalajara comes from the Arabic or Moorish word, "Wad-al-jidara" which means "river of stones". It's the second largest city in Mexico next to Mexico City.

Here are some of the popular attractions in the city centre that we saw during the tour. I know you are probably thinking, "come on now, let's get on with the shopping", I was thinking that too but this tour was very interesting. So please be patient with us as we share the tour with you.

Below is a video of how the crosswalks work in downtown Guadalajara. We hadn't seen this before so we thought it was pretty interesting.

Below is a Rotunda known as "Monument to the Illustrious Men". It was erected in 1952 and is lined with 17 columns and surrounded by 19 bronze statues of Guadalajara's favorite men of the arts, science and literature, and under the rotunda are the urns of 98 men; all of whom made the city a better place to live. Until recently, the rotunda only held male remains. The first woman, a teacher named Irene Robledo Garcia, was also laid to rest here just 6 months ago.

This is the Government Palace that was completed in 1774 and is also well known as the place where Padre Miguel Hidalgo (1753-1811) abolished slavery in Mexico. The palace is home to several murals by Jose Orozco (1883-1949). One of his more notable murals covers about 400 meters (1,312 ft) and it shows the priest Miguel Hidalgo carrying a fiery torch and depicts the Mexican Revolution. The photo below just can't do justice to how huge this mural was and how every inch of the mural tells a piece of the story of the revolution. The bell you see below the clock on the palace rings on the birthdate of each of these famous people buried in the rotunda mentioned above.

"The Social Struggle" mural by Jose Orozco who lived 1883 - 1949.

The main plaza in downtown Guadalajara is the site of the city's most famous landmark. The Cathedral was started in 1571 and required more than a century to complete. The yellow-tiled twin steeples of the cathedral were rebuilt during the early part of the 19th century after being destroyed during an earthquake. Inside the cathedral are figures of many saints, eleven alters and it is also the final resting place for the recently assassinated Cardinal Posadas. These pictures show different views of the cathedral. This cathedral is the most beautiful we have seen so far in Mexico.

The Cathedral is also home to the "Virgin of Innocence" located in a small chapel on the left as you enter. The story about this relic dates back to a time when large Catholic churches needed some sacred artifact to make it a holy place. Churches in Europe already had more than one John the Baptist head, duplicates of Apostle bones, and enough pieces of the "true" cross to fill a small forest. Lacking an established relic or remains of a dead Saint, they needed something else . . . So, the Roman Catholic Church came up with the bones of a young girl in 1786 . . . The bones were sent to Guadalajara with a story about a young Christian girl who died while protecting her virginity in the 3rd century. Presto, a Martyr with a story that would make all love and adore this new addition to the Roman Church's list of pseudo-saints murdered by the Romans. Whether or not the story of how the girl who died 1300 years before her bones were pronounced holy was ever true is beside the fact. The fact is that if you say it long enough, history turns the story into tradition, and tradition becomes a historical fact which has no room for the truth. So no, there is no proof whatsoever to back up the story . . . but the faithful BELIEVE the bones to be those of a young girl which TRADITION says was killed while protecting her virginity.

This monument was a gift from the French. When it was given to the city, the ladies sculpted around the monument were, in French style, not clothed. Being a conservative people, the Guadalajarans put clothes on them, as you see in the second picture. It's an interesting monument. Each of the ladies are holding a different musical instruments.

Hang in there - just a couple more interesting history photos and we'll be going shopping.

Below is a photo of the building that was an orphanage for 500 years. It is now, however, an art institute. The tour guide said it's so huge you can get lost in it. It has something like 15 courtyard/patios within it's walls. Quite an interesting building. Wish we could have gone inside but didn't have time. The other pic below, with Greg and I in it, was some sort of a government building behind us. There were many, many historical and architectural photo shots to take in Guadalajara but I am sure you are ready for us to move on. The tour was well worth the time we spent walking around the city centre of Guadalajara.