Guadalajara is a technology hub in Mexico. It is also the capital city of Jalisco state of Mexico. To get to Guadalajara from Portland, there is only 1 direct flight each day. The flight is a read eye flight departing around 11:30pm and arrives at Guadalajara at about 5:30am. The flight time is about 4.5 hours.
When we went to Guadalajara this time, we did not take the direct flight. Instead of taking direct flight, we flew to Phoenix first with American Airline, then flew to Guadalajara. The layover time is only an hour, but that is enough because the flight to Guadalajara is at the same terminal. As long as the first flight is not delayed, there is definitely enough time to catch onto the second flight. When we got to Guadalajara, the weather is absolutely sunny compared to Portland's cloudy and rainy weather!
We did not rent a car this time. We took a local taxi to the hotel instead. The taxi is really old and crappy. It did not even have AC turned on and still charged us more than 200 pesos. Later on we just called Uber to get to other places. Uber cars are definitely better and offered a lot more stuff such as candy and bottled water. This time we stayed at Hotel Riu Plaza. It is quite a nice hotel and many Americans choose to stay at this hotel when they come to Guadalajara. It also offers complimentary breakfast, which is an absolute plus!
We visited Guadalajara in November and of course also attend Mexico's celebration of day of the dead. It is like the Halloween in North America, but there isn't any trick or treat. Along the street, we can see many unique decorations of dead people dressed up in colorful clothing. Many restaurants also put up a lot of decorations of dead people. Another things that is different is that Mexico's day of the dead is a national holiday! Everyone is off work on this very day! Wouldn't it be awesome if we don't have to work on Halloween?
Next we also visited Guadalajara Plaza. There are museums and big churches around the plaza and this is where most tourists are at. Around the plaza, there are many signs that talks about the history of Guadalajara. In front of the Guadalajara museum, there is a sculpture that is said to be the tallest sculpture in North America. It did not look that impressive to me however, but it could be appealing to other people. The church is also a big attraction. It is very well maintained with beautiful stain glass windows. Based on the appearance of the church, it has been over hundred of years. Thus it is a place that it is worth a visit.
In addition, we went to the famous Lake Chapala. It is a large lake with many tourists. Many people here rented a boat to go onto the lake and went fishing. We simply had a good walk along the lake shore and checked around the merchants along the lake shore. There are many merchants there that offer unique craftsmanship on sculptures. The lake shore at Lake Chapala is also a nice place to walk around with palm trees and flowers along the side. At night, there will be night market vendors along the lake shore.
Lastly, we also visited the tree pyramid. Tree pyramid is an unique culture at Guadalajara. The tree pyramid is not as big as Chichen Itza pyramid at Cancun. The tree pyramid is more like a small hill with jagged edge, but it is still interesting to visit. There are many tree pyramids in the area but most of them are still buried under the earth. Only few tree pyramid have been dug out for people to see.
In general, Guadalajara is an interesting place but should not take more than 3 days to visit. One thing I don't like is that the public washroom at many tourist area costs money! Even the paper towel costs money! So make sure you bring some changes with you at all times!
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