After much planning, lots of good-byes and chasing a multitude of details we are actually on the road. Sitting here in our hostel listening to Spanish-speaking voices it now seems that we have really begun the adventure.

Arriving at the airport was a bit of a culture shock. Not being able to speak the language to communicate with the cab driver reminded us right away that we are not in California anymore!

We spent our first two nights in a hostel in the Chapultepec District of Guadalajara. Hostels are very basic accommodations but Hostel Hospedarte (hospitality) is clean with very friendly staff.

Last Sunday we moved over to Hostel Vilasanta where we are staying for the next two weeks. We decided to use these rented bikes to move instead of a taxi so here we are all packed up. Hostel Vilasanta is great… we will probably spend the rest of our trip measuring how good our accommodations are based on Hostel Vilasanta. It is lovely with very friendly and helpful staff.

We started our Spanish language classes last Monday. It is immersion training so the first day we were blown away by the teacher doing all the teaching in Spanish. As the week went on we caught on better. Hopefully by the end of next week we will be better able to communicate.  I am seeing some improvement already.

On each Saturday we have taken a bus tour. Last Saturday we took a tour to Lake Chapala. The ride up there was beautiful and the small town is quaint. But there is no activity on the lake. They refer to it as a “dead” lake as it is too polluted to swim in or fish from.

This Saturday we took a tequila tour. We learned all about how tequila is made by touring an organic tequila distillery. It is similar to taking a winery tour. We got to do tequila tasting and the toured the  of town of Tequila.

With no car we find ourselves doing miles of walking as we explore Guadalajara. We have seen much of the historic center of town. Guadalajara is a very large and modern city with buses, restaurants, museums and any other amenity we might wish for. Although it is tempting to stay here because it is so nice and easy, we know we have to get moving so we have purchased bus tickets to leave for Guanajuato on Monday, August 17th.