Shopping in Guadalajara

Lauri, as you know, has a gallery here in Ajijic, and she does most of her buying for the store in Guadalajara. She also takes clients to Guadalajara for shopping trips. She was taking Barbara today, as well as buying for the gallery, so she invited us to go along. 

Guadalajara is probably between  50-60 km (31-37 miles) from the Chapala area. Once on the highway, it is 2 lanes each direction. However, we go through several towns on the way, so the speed limit slows considerably. Where we were going was in the heart of Guadalajara, so it took us close to an hour to get there. 

One of the places we went was to a shopping area that would be like our "mall" in the States. Instead of stores, it is like an inside fleamarket with aisles and aisles of merchandise. This building was 3 stories tall and enormous! (Imagine "enormous" and double it! I honestly could have gotten lost without Lauri.) The aisles were very narrow and the vendors sat on stools next to their merchandise in booths. You could buy saddles and spurs next to leather shoes and boots. They had lace tableclothes and household goods. There were pharmacy products and clothes. There was all kinds of jewelry and even a food court. You name it and there was a booth.

We had lunch at one of the little food places. It was true Mexican food cooked right beside us. The waitress was also the cook. It was delicious.

 Lauri took us to the places where she gets wholesale discounts on her jewelry.  I bought sterling silver chains, a couple sterling silver rings and a couple other necklaces at Lauri's discount price.

This was an example of the hand work on one of the Mexican dresses.

Sue found a beautiful, hand embroidered shirt. Rich was such a sport. He was the purse tender and the hat bearer. He was extremely patient for spending a whole day of shopping with 4 women! (Nice bow on your hat, Rich!)

In another area, there were bronze statues made into chairs. The one Lauri and I are sitting on is of a man (you can see his little tiny head between us) and his shoulders and arms are distorted way out to make the chair. His arms are laying on his lap, which in this case is goosing both Lauri and me. There were 4 to 6 different benches and chairs. I should have gotten more pictures.

This is a street scene of Guadalajara. We were crossing a pedestrian bridge over to another shopping area when I snapped this picture. The mall we came from is to the right, but off the picture.

Just before we left, this horse and buggy was sitting on the street near the shopping mall. It was beautiful.