Guadalajara 3

(This part is a bit redundant from our last post but oh well)
Leaving Paul and Alexa's house took basically all morning as we woke up to find ourselves in a rain puddle on the tile floor of the roof.  Luckily there was a couple hours of good sunshine to help dry the tents before setting out.  We finally said our goodbyes to everyone early afternoon and made our way towards lunch since we had only been snacking all morning.  We ate at this wonderful cafe, ordered spiced coffee, meals and dessert.  Bryan, Maggie and Justin were our company and ended up being a lovely final meal before parting ways..Bryan and Maggie are off to Mexico City to stay with friends and Justin is spending some time in Guadalajara learning spanish.

From lunch we went over to Torry's (who has a place to himself for a little while) and met up with Peter, Paul, Sara and Pedro.  Pedro was in the middle of making a delicious Portugese soup with cheese, potatos, eggs, and a new kind of leafy green similiar to spinach.  Thanks Pedro! While we were there we used the internet to try and find a place to stay that night.  None of our couch requests were answered within good time so we ended up going to a the cheapest hotel we could find.  But as usual we made many wrong turns before finding the place.  Pedro and Sara came later that night as well and stayed in the room next to us (on the second floor too).  The room was in the middle of the hotel so it was nice and warm which dried out my bags from riding in the rain.

The next day we had to pick up our package at ups about 5km away and then we had arranged to stay on a couch that night.  Gres's house was about 7km away from where we picked up the package.  Normally thats a reasonable distance to bike but the sky had decided to start dumping on us and never really stopped.  The streets and sewers could not handle the amount of water so roads became rivers and lakes and we were biking through it. We left the hotel around 1 and spent a couple hours making wrong turns in the vague direction of ups.  We kept bringing our tablet out to show us where we were on the map but that became hard to do with all the rain.  Finally making it to ups, we were fronted with a wonderful extra charge of 1788 pesos to get our package that the ups guy said were mostly Mexican fees for importing goods.  Our package was only worth $215 too....just brutal.  Nonetheless we coughed up the money and received our Christmas presents.

The ride to our hosts's house was the absolute worst.  We made a major wrong turn taking us south instead of west.  The reason we were making so many wrong turns was because there are crazy complicated roundabouts, poor signage, it was pouring rain and anytime we stopped at an intersection some vehicle would drench us by driving through a puddle err..lake.  Normally we don't make that many wrong turns.  The highway we took south was super busy with barely any shoulder and because of this I nearly got hit by a semi, he came within 6 inches of me. All I could think of as I saw how close his wheels were was 'stay in a straight line.'  After that we stopped at a much needed fast food chicken restaurant for a bite before rerouting ourselves.

Flooded streets...this wasn't even the worst

Rigel looking dashing in his poncho :P

By that time it was starting to get dark and we realized we would be riding in the dark soon.  Instead of taking the more major roads we decided on a few secondary simpliar roads.  Our adventure for this leg of the ride (still raining I might add) didn't lie in wrong turns but in traversing an intersection.  Rigel stopped short seeing what was ahead but it was too late for me.  I didn't understand why Rigel stopped until I passed him hearing 'Just Keep Going!' The whole intersection was an ocean.  As I pedalled through it, it just kept getting deeper and deeper until I was pedalling through a foot and a half of water surrounded by cars doing the same.  The feeling of the water entering my shoes won't leave my mind.  The bottom of my rear panniers got soaked as well.  Rigel having stopped went off the road to the 'sidewalk' which was mostly old train tracks and crossed without too much trouble.  Until that point I was worried about getting wet but after that I didn't really care because all I could think about was 'I'll be in a warm house soon and I can change into dry clothes and everything will be better'.

Drinking a crazy delicious drink at a mariachi restaurant

 An hour or so later around 7:30 we finally arrived at the house.  We were greeted by a wonderful family that helped us dry off and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate, dinner and a hot shower.  They sure took care of us.  They gave us our own room and we spread out all our wet things to dry and went to sleep.  We stayed with them for two nights until the rain slowed down and our shoes dried (with the help of an infrared heater).  On Sunday we were ready to bike to Lake Chapala with Dave and Uschi.

Christmas!

Once we got to the house we were greeted by many familiar faces; Uschi and Dave, Justin, Torry, Paul, Peter, Paul and Alexa, and our newest aquaintance, Steve. Later that night and the next day Maggie, Bryan, Sara and Pedro arrived.  Sara and Pedro have been travelling through the states and then down the Baja since May and flew to the US from their home in Portugal.  Aside from the cyclists taking over the house, many members of Alexa's family were there too.

Amazon did an amazing job, delivering our christmas items promptly without additional charge

The house was basically a small mansion.  It is about 300 years old, or so I was led to believe and has been in a constant state of renovation since tthe family acquired it in a state of disrepair more than a decade ago. It is a two story with ceilings that go on forever, elaborate doorways, many bathrooms, large dining and sitting rooms, and two courtyards that connect the house. The second floor hosts the master bedroom, a sitting room and a rooftop terrace. The terrace is what we took over. Eight tents in total with once being a six person.

View from the inside door of one of the many giant churches

Our first day we walked around the market and gazed up at giant beautiful churches and cathedrals. We walked through one of them which housed one of Orozco's giant murals. That night we went out for quesadillas then spent some time with tequila and sharing our stories from the past couple weeks.  Friends of the family joined in so it became more of a party by the end of it.  And we had to make a second trip for more tequila.  

Rigel, left, Justin, centre, before an enormous Orozco mural on the ceiling

Christmas Eve we were told to take lots of naps and just relax becuase the party and dinner didn't start until 10pm.  So thats about what we did. It also started to rain off and on throughout the day.

Before yet another ornate church the Guadalajara's city centre area

In the evening we started into the tequila again, socializing and having a great time.  Lots more family and friends showed up to fill up the house.  When the rain started you had to start finding a better spot to sit as the bar and some hallways filled with water.  Delicious appetizers came out then a couple hours later the feast began.  The food was absolutely amazing! Roast ham, turkey, and chicken with three pasta dishes, wild rice with mushrooms, bread, three types of salads and ceviche crowded the dining room table.  For dessert warm pecan pie with ice cream, chocolate cake, and shortbread rounded out our bellies.

The dinner spread

After dinner Dave brought out his sitar and played for us.  The music was so relaxing; a perfect end to the wonderful evening.  

Dave entertains with the sitar

Christmas day began sunny and hot forcing me from my tent by 9am. The plan for today was to relax, recover and clean up.  Rigel and I looked at our maps and started planning a route for the rest of Mexico which has us splitting up with Bryan and Maggie as they are going to Mexico City and we to the coast.  Dave, Uschi, Pedro and Sara are planning on cycling down the coast so I see them keeping a foot in our story.  

Later in the day, avoiding the rain as much as I could I started the task of altering my saddle to make it more comfortable; cutting a hole in the middle of it. It was a little difficult cutting through leather with a serrated knife and a thin exacto knife but I managed with only a couple mistakes which I will have to fix later.  The reward for this risk being a wider range of sitting positions on my bike without crowding out soft tissues and causing eventual harm to myself.

On Boxing day Paul, Alexa and her immediate family were leaving to go back home to Minniapolis (Paul and Alexa are going to Mexico city to study and work) so the cycling gang had to clear out.  Unfortunetly the weather was not cooporating so it took much longer as everything was soaked.  Luckily mid morning we got a sunny patch in the sky so we could dry our tents out a bit.  Finally by 1pm we were on the way out.  Rigel and I still had not received our package from Jenson's yet so we gave some money to the Grandpa (who lives there full time) and went out for breakfast.  At the restaurant we saw the UPS truck drive by so Rigel raced back to the house (only 2 blocks away) but was about 5 minutes too late. The package came when everyone had stepped out and was gone again.  After much hastle we were able to redirect the address and have it sit at the UPS store for us  to pick up the next day.  After breakfast we wandered over to Torry's (who is staying a few blocks away) to spend the afternoon with good friends and wifi but especially out of the rain. Pedro cooked a delicious soup while we searched for somewhere to stay the evening. Our stay was also coloured by the stress of the ups situation as we took advantage of Pedro's and Torry's spanish language expertise and phone access.  

Having selected a hotel (the one Pedro and Sarah looked up with a reasonable price) we headed out for the night.  The next day in town to hold hopefully a different couch to stay on, a package, and more friends.