Guadalajara: El Viaje de Mis Sueños

Last week, my uncle came out to visit my family and I for Sundance. For most of the year, my uncle lives in D.C., but his husband lives in Guadalajara, Mexico during the winter and they own an apartment there, so he inevitably visits frequently. As he was telling me about the city and his apartment and the people there, I thought it sounded really neat, so I decided to focus this next post on Guadalajara!

Everyone knows that soccer is a huge thing in Mexico, kind of like American football is here. Even though I'm not big into watching sports (except for when it comes to volleyball), I'd definitely want to go to a soccer game to get a feel for the game and the culture surrounding it in Mexico. Jalisco Stadium (or Estadio Jalisco in Spanish) is a huge soccer stadium in Guadalajara; it holds more than 55,000 people and has hosted two FIFA world cups. Just watching videos of the energetic crowd at games at the Jalisco Stadium makes me want to go, even though everyone in the crowd looks really sweaty!

An excited crowd at a soccer game in Mexico.
Image courtesy of: World Soccer Traditions

As I mentioned earlier in one of my blog posts, I LOVE to visit churches. I don't know what it is, but no matter what the type of church, they all just seem gorgeous to me. I especially love Catholic churches; they're so elaborate and have those high, decorated ceilings that make you feel tiny when you look up at them. About 80 percent of Mexico is Catholic, and as Mexico's third largest city, Guadalajara is home to a lot of very famous, very old Catholic churches. Probably the most well-known of these is the Expiatory Temple. From the looks of TripAdvisor pictures, it's a beaut.

The Expiatory Temple in Guadalajara.
Image Courtesy of: Tuchman Travel Guide

Another really fun-sounding thing in Guadalajara is shopping at the street markets. Guadalajara is home to some huge street markets selling a lot of really neat handicrafts and delicious food. Some of these markets are so big that they have to shut down entire neighborhoods to traffic! I probably wouldn't buy any of the pottery or arts there, even though are probably amazing, because 1. how would you fit that in your suitcase? and 2. I'm broke. Really broke. However, I would definitely want to go to check out some of the products and get some good people watching in.

Cool-looking pottery for sale at the Tonalá street market.
Image courtesy of: Destination360

Finally, I would want to visit one of these fancy movie theaters they have in Guadalajara that my uncle was telling me about. Guadalajara has these theaters that are pretty much the first class version of a movie theater. You sit in these huge plush chairs, and people serve you meals and drinks while you are watching a film. My kind of movie theater! In Mexican currency, tickets to these theaters are pretty expensive, but since the U.S. dollar is worth about fifteen times more than the Mexican peso, it actually wouldn't break the bank.