Farewell to Guadalajara

I spent just under two weeks in Guadalajara, staying with friends. It was a great introduction to life in Mexico and gave me an insight into how the locals actually live that would have been invisible as a regular tourist.


My greatest discovery was just how good Mexican food is. I’m usually reluctant to try food off the street, but with a bit of local knowledge, I felt safe trying all the local specialities. The food I always thought of as “Mexican” is really “Tex-Mex” – a version of Mexican food from Texas. The most obvious difference is the humble taco. I’m used to tacos being a large, hard corn shell filled with meat cheese and lots of salsa. In Mexico, it’s altogether different. The taco here, is a rather small, soft tortilla circle. Some yummy fillings are placed on top, then the sides are rolled up and in your mouth it goes. The whole thing takes two bites and it’s gone. It’s delicious!

With a bit of local knowledge, I also went to a lot of really nice restaurants. Most tourists would tend to hang around the central historical part of town. All the good restaurants, however, are out in the suburbs. One of the finest restaurants in town is “San Coyote”. It’s an amazing place. The whole building is themed to a traditional Mexican style. It’s extremely well done and the whole place oozes charm and sophistication. Their trade mark is the salsa. A man comes to your table with a bit tray of ingredients and asks you what you want in your salsa. He then mashes it all up by hand in front of you. Talk about fresh! They also have Mariachi bands playing with dancing girls!


Another restaurant not to miss is Latina. This is the exact opposite of San Coyote. Whereas San Coyote tries to be super cool, Latina tries to be so uncool and kitsch that it actually goes full circle and becomes cool. When I was there, the table next to me apparently had some very famous Mexican singer eating. His name translates to “big eyebrows” in English. Very odd.

I was also invited to a lot of parties when I was in Guadalajara. The locals know how to have a good time and want to make sure you’re having fun too. These parties were very swish affairs. All catered, all with lots of food and drink – just the thing you need to have fun! Even though my Spanish is pretty bad and their English was just as bad, we managed to communicate and have a laugh. On the other hand, it could be that anything sounds funny at 3am when you’ve had a few too many drinks.

I had an amazing time in Guadalajara and want to thank all my new friends for showing me such a good time! It’s an amazing place to visit and I’m sure I’ll be back!