Sunday in Guadalajara, Part 2

There's a naughty child running loose in the Fountain of Naughty Children.
More on that later.

So we left off Part 1 with a giant head in the middle of the street. 

It's not just any giant head, it's "Escultura Cabeza Gigante," or "Giant Head Sculpture." And it's quite the photo spot.

Here is the view looking southward down the mostly-pedestrian Avenida Fray Antonio Alcade:

Google Maps officialyl calls this Giant Head: "Escultura Cabeza Gigante (Árbol Adentro de José Fors)," Giant Head Sculpture (Tree Inside by José Fors). Yes, there was a tree at the top of the head. If you need to ask why there's a tree atop the head, ask instead why the giant head?

Things continued to stay interesting as I walked northward on Avenida Fray Antonio Alcade. I was walking toward an interesting church tower and happened upon a pink carousel:

 

This is the Carrusel Monumental de Guadalajara. It's apparently permanent here in Parque La Reforma:

That's the interesting church tower off to the left of the Monumental Carousel.

Off to the left of the tower is a smaller church.

El Divino Redentor.

It's Presbyterian. Moving along ...

A metal bull. 

The church with the high thin tower is Santuario de San José de Gracia.

It's Sunday. Mass was going on. But I snapped a picture of the church insides from the church's outside, which I think is OK.

Again, didn't want to interrupt the mass. El Santuario de San José de Gracia makes a nice backdrop for what I am guessing is quinceañera photography.

The tell-tale sign that it is quinceañera photography and not wedding photography is this: no groom.

I returned to the area of the Cathedral, heading for the state museum, where I stopped to listen to a blind trumpeter playing a very respectable version of the Cuban jazz standard "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White". I tipped because (a) I like the song, and (b) the trumpet part ain't easy.

On to the Regional Museum of Guadalajara.

The museum had artifacts from the local indigenous cultures:

Always pottery. Always anthropomorphic pottery.

Seeing the building was worth the price of admission.

The price of admission was, again, gratis, which is one of my favorite words in Spanish,

I do like the central courtyards in these old, repurposed structures.

They old extinct animal bones.

I believe this is a mastodon. Could be a mammoth. Do I know the difference? I'm not a biologist, as the saying goes.

More indigenous artifacts:

In that last set, the one on the left really looks like a hipster with that bored "too cool for school" facial expression. I guess the indigenous cultures of long ago too were cursed with hipsters. 

Time to exit the small Regional Museum of Guadalajara and time to enter ...

Plazueta de los Mariachis. No wonder I did not find it on Friday. It's not a "plaza," but a mini-plaza. A "plazueta."

It did have a giant stylized trumpet player.

And a mariachi on a horse.

And the bust of a famous mariachi.

And that was it. I was told there would be strolling mariachi bands here. There wasn't. Dis. A. Pointing. I wanted mariachi music.

So as I am strolling back to the cathedral area, I again happen upon the notorious Fuente De Los Niños Traviesos: Fountain of the Naughty Children.

And the naughtiness is not limited to the statuary children.

Thankfully, the flesh-and-blood naughty child is with one of the children who has a respectable source of water: a frog. Soon, however, a non-naughty adult pulled the naughty child out of the fountain area and order was restored to the universe.

And just up from the Fountain of the Naughty Children is the Monumento A Beatriz Hernández: Monument to Beatriz Hernández.

I don't know who Beatriz Hernández is, but she must've done something heroic. Purple tree (got to find out what these purple trees are) and Cathedral in the background.

I then noticed this interesting building.

Templo de Santa Maria de Gracia. The dome is a bit weather-beaten, but I liked the statuary at the roof line:

Are they saints? Apostles? Prophets? I don't know. I need to find out. But I've walking in the hot sun and it's time to take a break for the afternoon.

Guadalajara WILL Do, Part 1

Wooden foot on the perimeter of the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres.
Why? Does there ever need to be a reason for a giant wooden foot cut off mid-shin?

I am on a three-day, four-night mini-vacation to Guadalajara. Why? Because Guadalajara was there for visiting. And this has been an exhausting stretch given everything happening. I couldn't wait to the maxi-vacation in a little more than a month, so mini-vacation south of the border down Mexico way.

I am staying in the Centro Historico of Guadalajara. This is Avenida Ramón Corona in front of my hotel. In most places I've visited in Latin America, the central historical core can be a no-go zone, especially at night. Not so Guadalajara. The Centro Historico is packed with tourist sites, restaurants and nightlife.  This is where to stay.

Today was the day to take a long walking loop to see all the major sights in the Centro Historico. First stop: Los Dos Templos. Even my rudimentary Spanish can translate that without Google translator.

The Two Temples.

This is catty-corner -- yes it is CATTY corner -- not kitty corner -- what type of whatever would use a phrase "kitty corner" -- catty-corner from my hotel (southwest if you are keeping track of your catties and your corners).

This is the first of two:

And this is the second of two:

The second of two might be smaller, but look who's hanging right outside El Segundo:

Juan Pablo Segundo! Or, as we know him, St. John Paul II. I'm finding him everywhere I vacation, it seems. And deservedly so.

Time to continue walking north on Avenida Ramón Corona, where there is the first of many ... many ... hansom cab sightings today.

Historical cores and hansom cabs seem to go together like ... what's the old song say -- like a horse and a carriage.

This is the view of Guadalajara Cathedral from Guadalajara Plaza.

Lots happening in Guadalajara Plaza:

Por ejemplo: a giant rattan head wearing a rattan sombero.

There was something athletic going on on the other side of the rattan man in the rattan sombrero. I did not check it out because how could it be more interesting than a rattan man in a rattan sombrero?

Guadalajara's main cathedral was very nice. Let's have a look-see inside:

That's all the look-seeing we are going to do because a mass was just starting up and it's rude to be shutterbugging when the mass is happening.

But, as promised, more hansom cabs. The Centro Historico is lousy with horse-drawn carriages. 

Here they are parked outside the Cathedral. Technically, this is on the north side of Plaza de la Liberación, which is in between the Cathedral and Teatro Degollado.

But first, a detour north of the cathedral to Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres, the Rotunda of Illustrious Jaliscans.

This is Ignacio Vallarta. He is so illustrious that Puerto Vallarta was named for him.

Many Illustrious Jaliscans hang here. Jalisciense is the Spanish-language demonym for someone from the State of Jalisco, where Guadalajara serves as the capital. I'm not sure of the proper English-language demonym, so I just made up Jaliscan.

There were two dozen or more Illustrious Jaliscans here. Let's meet just a few:

And the Rotonda de los Jaliscenses Ilustres makes a great place for a school field trip:

Back to the Plaza de la Liberación for more of this walking tour of the Centro Historico:

I believe this is a statue of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla right here on the Plaza:

He is an important figure in the Liberation of Mexico. Or so I am presuming. Why else would his statue be in a prominent place on Plaza de la Liberación. But this is just a semi-educated guess.

More statuary!

This is on the back side of Teatro Degollado, I believe.

This next photo is foreshadowing the next destination on this walking tour of Centro Historico. But because the walk was long and the number of photos enormous, I am splitting this into three parts.

And we will conclude Part 1 of 3 with the Fuente De Los Niños Traviesos, the Fountain of Naughty Children.

I'm not sure why all the children got labelled as "naughty" when only one is engaging in the act of peeing. And everybody all over the world loves fountains featuring peeing children.