January 3rd 2024 – Tlaquepaque, México

December the 22nd we relocated from Mascota to Tlaquepaque in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. It was an easy day’s ride on gradually bigger roads as we approached the city.

We had booked 11 nights in a shared apartment a few minutes walk from Guadalajara Language Center where we had signed up for a Spanish course.

School didn’t start until December the 26th. It allowed me time to service the bikes.

The local Honda dealer supplied me with oil and oil filters. We had bought chains and sprockets with us from Texas. I prefer to use a  digital caliper when installing the master link. Fortunately @Kiko, living south of the city by Lago de Chapala, had one I could borrow.

We met up with him at a restaurant on the south fringe of the metropolitan area. Besides the caliper he also bought a new buckle for Katrine’s luggage. She had reached out to Mosko Moto when the buckle broke a couple of weeks earlier. All they had asked was where to send a replacement buckle. A friend had connected us to Kiko who then let us use his address for delivery. Not only did Mosko Moto send Katrine a new buckle free of charge, they also made sure it wouldn’t get stuck in customs.

This is the second time on this trip alone that Mosko Moto have demonstrated customer support above and beyond. This combined with the quality and functionality of their products makes me appreciate our choice of luggage.

We invited Kiko for coffee at the restaurant before heading back into town. It was interesting to hear the perspective on things from an expat who had lived 20 years in Mexico.

The Honda dealer hadn’t been able to provide us with chemicals to clean and oil the foam air filter so we picked that up at an AutoZone on our way back.

I wanted clean bikes to work on. The local carwash handled that for less than US$5 per bike. This was the first time ever that someone has washed my motorcycle for me. I told the manager to be careful with the pressure washer around bearings and stuff. He conveyed that to the guy washing the bikes, who then turned up the music and set to work in a way that forced me to look away. After about an hour the bikes were cleaner than they had ever been.

I worked on the bikes for the next couple of days. When we booked our accommodation I made sure it had a space for that. The gated driveway was perfect.

We stayed in an old 2 story house with 5 rooms, 2 shared bathrooms, shared common areas including a fully equipped kitchen, free laundry facilities and a rooftop terrace. Most of the time during our stay only one of the other rooms was occupied. Our roommates Rodolfo and Delfina, a Mexican couple our age who had lived in the US since they were teenagers, were home to visit the family for Christmas. They were super nice but rarely “home”. Most mornings they got picked up by family members and didn’t return until late in the evening. One evening they returned from a wedding with leftover wedding cake for Katrine and me. We enjoyed the few opportunities we had to sit down and share stories.

The 24th Katrine spent all day listening to Christmas music and  cooking dinner while I wrenched on the bikes just outside. It was super cozy.

In the evening after dinner we put on our finest and strolled downtown. Katrine wanted to attend a catholic  Christmas mass at the local church. We showed up early to get a seat. The church was jam-packed during the sermon. It was an interesting experience.

After a few  relaxing and enjoyable days around Christmas it was time for school.

An online pretest had placed Katrine and me in the same class – a class that to begin with consisted of just the two of us. At the school we met up with Fin again. He had decided to take Spanish lessons as well. From the second day onwards he joined Katrine’s and my class.

It was hard work, but the teachers were good and in only a week we improved our language skills immensely.

When not attending classes we often spend time with Fin and some of the other students.

We did a lot of local  exploring. The neighborhood turned out to have some nice gyms. We spent a couple of evenings at a cool old school pool hall down the street. It was easy to feel at home in Tlaquepaque and time flew by.

One afternoon Wouter, the guy running both the language school and the house we were staying in (along with 8 other properties), invited Katrine and me to join him on a hike to some hot springs in the mountains just outside of the city. Hannes, a fellow student from Germany, joined us. It was a great experience.

Fin has a thing with making video interviews of people he meets during his journey. He invited Katrine and me over to make one with us. I prefer to be behind rather than in front of a camera, but agreed to participate. I’m looking forward to watching the final product.

On the last day of the year Hannes, Katrine and I headed out on bicycles to have a closer look at Guadalajara.

Some of the main thoroughfares and connecting streets all over the city had been closed to motorized vehicles between 8 am and 2 pm so it was easy and fun to pedal around. It was done to promote physical activities. Along the routes there were several places where you could try out different activities for free – the bikes we were riding were also free to rent.

Time flew and we had to race back to return the bikes in time.

In the evening Katrine and I went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We got a table on the roof with a view over the city.

Initially we had planned to roam the streets around midnight and participate in the festivities. We had received an invitation from some of the locals down the street who had prepared fireworks every evening all week while bbqing and consuming considerable amounts of beer. I’m sure it would have been fun, but other locals had advised us to stay off the street around midnight. The combination of fireworks, guns fired into the air and alcohol has a tendency to result in injury.

We decided to play it safe and returned home around 11 pm.

Being at home allowed us to observe some of the Mexican New Year’s Eve traditions we had learned of – these are the most common ones:.

  • Count down from twelve to zero while eating a grape and make a wish for each number.
  • Wear red underwear if you wish for love in the year to come – if you rather want money wear yellow.
  • Put a bowl of rice and a bowl of lentils on the dining table all day to absorb bad karma.
  • Bring an empty suitcase out into the street during the countdown if you wish to travel more.
  • Get under the dining table during the countdown if you are single and want to find a partner in the year to come.
  • Empty a bucket of water on your doorstep at midnight and sweep it into the street to wash away bad vibes.

On the first day of the new year it was time to take the bikes for a spin to evaluate the work I had done on them. Tequila was about an hour away. It was a great morning ride.. The usually buzzling streets of Guadalajara were deserted and the city almost eerily quiet.

Agave fields surrounded us as we approached Tequila. It turned out to be a charming town where everything was about the drink that have made the town famous. It was very touristic. After enjoying a  crepe with Nutella, banana and strawberry while doing a round of the central square we got back on the bikes.

Next stop was lago de Chapala to return the digital caliper I had borrowed. I let the GPS decide the route while staying away from motorways and toll roads. It got creative and steered us along old farm roads with dirt and cobblestones for the first part of the ride.

We met up with Kiko in San Juan Cosalá and chatted for a while before returning to the city.

We should have moved on January the 2nd but we have been so busy having fun that we haven’t had time to do half of what we had planned for the holidays. To catch up just a little bit we extended our stay for a couple of days. It will be a little sad to say goodbye to what has been our home for almost 2 weeks. We have gotten to know and appreciate the neighborhood and some of the people around us.

The family living right across the street greets us every time they see us. They have especially been keeping a sharp eye on me when I worked on the bikes in the driveway. Today they invited us in as we were leaving for a last visit to the gym. They are one of only five families in Mexico producing a specific kind of traditional Mexican furnitures. The son that now runs the business is 4th generation. Everything is handmade from natural materials like agave, sugarcane and cedar grown in the area. It was interesting to see and a pleasure to be able to communicate in Spanish.

Tomorrow we’ll set sail and are looking forward to being on the move again.