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 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.
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