Shopping trip to Guadalajara

Recently Kelly and I and a couple of friends went to Guadalajara on a chartered bus that goes in once a month. This was our first trip, and there were actually two buses full of foreigners. The deal is that you pay for the trip in advance at the LCS (Lake Chapala Society), though you don't have to be a member there. The round trip is a reasonable 50 pesos per person, or about $4.50 US at current exchange rates. That money all goes to the local Red Cross, which is very active here.

The cost of chartering the buses is paid for by Walmart, and that was our destination. There are at least 5 Walmarts in Guadalajara, and this trip goes to one at a shopping mall called Plaza Mexico. There was a department store, aptly named "Suburbia" at the other end from Walmart, and numerous clothing stores, shoe stores, restaurants, snack bars, and whatnot in between. Not too thrilling, but practical.

I didn't take my camera along, but here is a link to a blog entry I wrote last year, about a mall in Queretaro, with quite a few pictures. That mall was more interesting architecturally than this one.

We left Ajijic around 10 and got to our destination something after 11; there may have been something interesting to see out the windows, but I was absorbed in conversation and whenever I glanced out, it was typical Mexican urban stuff. We didn't go through any quaint or charming areas.

Kelly and I first went over to an Office Max in another shopping center next door, and our most interesting find there was a set of one-foot panels of cork that we have put on our walls to create a photogallery with. Back in the first mall, we had lunch with our friends at an Italian coffee place, then went to Radio Shack. Just like Alamosa, Colorado, where we would do those sorts of things from Crestone.

I found a bookstore, and I bought a copy of El leon, la bruja, y el armario which is giving my Spanish a workout as I read it. This classic children's book by C.S. Lewis -- better known to you as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe -- is really a good reading level for me, giving my recognition of past-tense verbs a challenge. (Today I came across a copy in English in Ajijic, and bought it. I've read that up to where I got in the Spanish, and discovered I did miss a few key plot elements!)

WalMart is Mexican-owned, I think, though it hardly matters to a shopper as it's the same thing as in the US. We found vegetable seeds and some solar lights for our yard, things we hadn't found near Lake Chapala. Well, we'd found seeds, but this was a better selection.

Around 3, everyone piled on the bus and off we went, in time to kick back with a swim at home. I'd noticed a headline on one of the Guadalajara papers, announcing that the population of the city is now 6.8 million. It's the second-largest city in Mexico and quite a handy resource for us lakesiders.