Our Honeymoon in Mexico
December 24 - 31, 2000

The day after our wedding ceremony in McAllen, Texas, we drove up to San Antonio and flew down to Guadalajara, Mexico. Back in the mid 1980's Paula's mother was in the foreign service and was U.S. Vice Consul at the American consulate in Guadalajara, and Paula had fond memories of Guadalajara from visits during that time. We stayed in a lovely inn, La Nueva Posada, in the village of Ajijic, on the shores of Lake Chapala about a half hour south of Guadalajara.
Ajijic is a small, quiet town of cobblestone streets full of American expatriate retirees. It was very quiet indeed as we walked around town on Christmas day.
The town of Chapala is a few kilometers up the shoreline of Lake Chapala from Ajijic.
Guadalajara was mostly a disappointment: it was not the city Paula remembered from 15 years before. One exception was the Instituto Cultural de Cabanas. In addition to the major works of art that it contains, it is comprised of a wonderful maze of courtyards.
A few other images of the cental historical district of Guadalajara.
Growing metropolitan Guadalajara has swallowed up of the town of Tlaquepaque, which has transformed itself into a center of art boutiques, many selling nothing kitsch junk but some containing some wonderfully artistic work. Lots of interesting doorways caught Larry's eye.
We had planned to spend the entire week around Guadalajara, but the weather was poor and we exhausted the interesting thing to do in a few days, so we drove about 400 km. east up into the mountains to visit the Sanctuario de Mariposas, in El Rosario, where millions of monarch butterflies from all over North America migrate to each year.
On the way back from Rosario to Guadalajara we spent the night in the old colonial city of Morelia. Morelia was clean with very little pollution, and was filled with beautiful architecture.