Our excursions

So since we´ve been here for a week in Tlaquepaque, we´ve had the chance to go out on a couple trips around the area. Last Wednesday (the 4th), we headed out to both Chapala and Ajijic, both smaller areas within Jalisco, for the afternoon after classes ended at 1:30. Jill, the organizer, along with her fiancè Danny, Jessie, myself, and many other students in the program hopped in the rented van driven by the young yet very talented Miquel (who has since driven us to two other locations). Jill made sandwiches (which were amazingly good), and after we all downed them in record time, we arrived in Chapala.
We didn´t have much time or space to explore the city properly, but Chapala has a lovely beach area with a small plaza and an excellent walking area. There was a bit of construction going on near the docks, so due to the noise Jessie decided to spend most of the time napping on a bench near a central fountain. After an hour or so of leisurely relaxation, we hopped back in with Miguel and ended up in Ajijic, another small town where, honestly, I can´t even remember what we did. There was, however, a great resort-ish area with a restaurant, lots of awesome buildings and native-looking structures (for example, a sauna in the top of a faux-ancient giant wooden head). Lots of stairs, too. We all retired to the restaurant for a few drinks and just chilled. It was nice, relaxing, and mostly uneventful in a good way. We got a chance to talk with our fellow students and have a small change of scenery and pace.

The next day after classes, we all boarded up with Miguel again, this time to Guachimontones, an archelogical site showing the Teuchitlàn tradition, which is, according to Wikipedia "a complex society that existed from as early as 300 BCE until perhaps 900 CE." We went to a small museum first which explained a bit of the history of the culture, watched a short movie (where I started and completed much of my homework for the night) about the restoration of the sie, and then headed out to actually see the stepped pyramids. The area is relatively small, and not exactly grandoise, but very very beautiful (with a great view of the city below) and extremely telling of the culture. There were a couple restored pyramids, with the largest one being about 60 feet high, and our guide had a lot of information. One thing that really stood out was the Mesoamerican ballcourt, where the losers of the game were sacrificed. Funsies. We asked a bit about this, and apparently (Jessie correct me if I´m wrong), there are two types of games.
1) A personal challenge, between friends or enemies, wherein the challenger and challengee each bring their own team (however the judge makes the ultimate decision of who can play), they all duke it out, and the winner gets to say "lo, take this loser and cut off all [or only some, if he´s nice] of his limbs, and spread them far and wide so that he may forever remember how he has lost to me."
And 2) The time of the sacrifice has come, the players volunteer themselves, and the winners are sacrificed. Willingly. Like, they play harder so that they may be the chosen ones. So at least they´re ready for that one.

Saturday we went to Tequilla, which rocked hard (Jessie will tell you all about it).
And our most recent trip has been to take a Tapatio Bus Tour around Guadalajara on Sunday. It´s a double decker bus with an open top, where tickets cost about $110 pesos (roughly $8 USD) and we receive an orange wristband which allows us to get on and off at any of the designated stops. Buses come every 30 minutes or so, so the tour can last anywhere between 2 hours or all day. The interesting thing at the beginning of the day for us was that, being Sunday, the local road to Guadalajara, where the bus normally picks people up, was closed off for bikes. Apparently this happens every Sunday. Which rocks, but damn it, that was our bus street. So we asked around (the locals are exceedingly friendly and used to tourists), walked about, finally found the bus, and enjoyed the scenery. Photos forthcoming of that.
We got off at two seperate points, and by the time we wanted to get back on at the end, the Tapatio buses had stopped running. We ended up again asking la gente de la calle y la ciudad for help, they accomadated us con mucho gusto, and we made our way back without event. Oh, except the first city bus broke down in the middle of the street without warning, so we all had to transfer over to another, which was fun.

The next trips planned are (maybe) a Mexican wrestling event in Guadalajara on Tuesday, a small historical walking tour of Tlaquepaque on Wednesday, and a weekend trip to Guanajuato and/or Queretaro as Jessie has said.

Thanks for the time! Love to all :)
-Jay