Two Markets

It tastes -- and smells -- as good as it looks

On the agenda for the final day in Mexico City this trip: two markets. One for food. One for what is billed as "artisanal crafts."

The walk there was half of the fun.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, with an almost certain chance of afternoon thunderstorms. So what did I do? Slept in. But only after I got my breakfast pastries and coffee at El Globo. Then, when it was getting close to the time for the thunderstorms to roll in, I wandered the area.

I stumbled on this: 

I love a good clock tower in the middle of an intersection. So, of course, I loved the Reloj Chino de Bucareli. The Chinese Clock of Bucareli. The north-south street at this intersection is Bucareli.

To get to both of the two markets, I made a right turn at Reloj Chino and, soon enough, found a park with statues and fountains. Parque de la Ciudadela. Park of the Citadel.

I love a park with statues and fountains ALMOST as much as I like a good clock tower in the middle of intersection. It's close. But the clock tower will always win that battle due to the rarity factor. Every city of any consequence has a park with statuary. But how many of those cities have clock towers in their traffic intersections? Case closed.

This statue in the middle of the fountain is Ángel de los Aviadores.

Angel of the Aviators. Not sure why here in particular. But aviators are entitled to angels wherever they can find them.

And this is Morales.

Star attraction of the park.

Morales is looking decidedly less Botero-esque than he was in Cuernavaca. BTW, as the kids would text, I think this is called Park of the Citadel because it is adjacent to what used to be a military school. I think.

And the buzzing of the google maps on the phone means I have arrived at Market #1: Mercado de San Juan. The food market. 

It smelled awesome. Well, except for the fresh fish section. There actually was more floor space here devoted to meat than vegetables and I wasn't in the mood to photograph animal carcasses. Delicious though they may be. There even was a large Asian section. There also were a number of restaurants on the premises.

Labrador retriever approved.

I did not find what I was looking for here: Mexican vanilla. So on to the artisanal market it is.

Market #2: Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela.

Need a guitar?

While there was an over-abundance of stalls selling cheap souvenirs -- probably made in China and not locally -- there was some legitime artisanal crafts, such as the guitars. Lots (and lots) (and lots) of jewelry. Pottery and porcelain. There even was a shop selling those Mexican tile tin mirrors that I love. I almost pulled the trigger but worries over transport killed that idea. Next time. When I bring a bigger suitcase.

And when I left the second market, the skies clearly had darkened.

What time is it? The clock on the tower of the intersection says it is time for the skies to open up and for the afternoon thunderstorms to begin. The clock was right.

Guadalajara WILL Do, Part 3

 

Equestrian statute of José María Morelos in Parque Morelos

This is the final installment of the walking tour of the Centro Historico in Guadalajara. It was a long walk and the camera was snapping up lots of pictures on a beautiful sunny Friday.

The first stop was Plaza Tapatía, due west of Hospicio Cabañas.

It is a park, decent sized, sitting atop a major thoroughfare at the edge of the Centro Historico. Because it's high up, and the Hospicio Cabañas also was elevated, you can see the dome looking east from the Plaza:

And there was a statue of a snake.

Snake head, technically. Snakes figure prominently in Mexican history. Not sure if this snake represents Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god who frequently was represented by snakes. In Mexico City, you see a snake statue and you know: Quetzalcoatl. But we're not in Mexico City. Guadalajara was not Aztec country. And this serpent is not feathered, as Quetzalcoatl is depicted. 

So I think this snake is just a snake. You know, like Freud (reputedly) said about sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. So, yes, I think this snake is just a snake. Slithering out to devour the patrons of Plaza Tapatía.

The next stop was Parque Morelos. A bliss spot. It's not on the usual tourist trail of "must see" stops in the Centro Historico, but I saw the Morales statue when I walk too far north looking for the Hospicio Cabañas and decided to visit the park when I was back on the other side of the very busy road that separates Hospicio Cabañas from the rest of the Centro Historico.

It had the requisite busts of heros and other prominent people from the history of Mexico.

All lined up and on obelisk-y pyramids.

And here is another angle on the Morales equestrian statue.

This man is being honored, I am sure, for those extremely impressive sideburns.

And Parque Morales had concrete animals for the children to play on.

These are children playing on the concrete snake.

Again, I don't think this snake was Quetzalcoatl either. Again, not Mexico City. Not Aztec Country. No feathers.

Walking back to the Centro Historico to take in a few sights I missed on the trek over to Hospicio Cabañas. Of course, I could have taken a hansom cab:

The town is lousy with horse-drawn carriages.

No that is not a Ukrainian flag. The flag of the state of Jalisco is blue and yellow too. Side by side, not horizontal.

This is the Teatro Degollado.

You can tour the innards. Supposed to be spectacular. My feet are getting tired, so we'll save that for another day.

Finally, the last sight I wanted to visit on this walking tour: Templo de San Agustín:

It was closed. It's a working church so it's only open at scheduled mass times.

The line at La Chata was still huge.

It's always huge. The google reviews say the line moves fast. One of these nights I will put that theory to the test. But my feet are too sore at this point for line-standing.

I wanted no line and I wanted delicious local cuisine. So it was back to Los Dichos across the street from my hotel for another supper. And seeing that it is a Friday in Lent, supper was sea creatures.

Not fish, but camarones. Shrimp. Specifically, shrimp in a garlic sauce. I knew it was going to be good when, after I ordered this and I was waiting for my food, this wave of garlic smell washed over the restaurant. And the garlic sauce got all through the rice. So I ate garlic shrimp with garlic rice. All Lenten safe.