A quick trip to the second biggest city in Mexico - Guadalajara

GUADALAJARA, Jalisco, Mexico - The planned sojourn was a fairly quick one, just a couple of days in Guadalajara, a city Admiral Fox has been pining to visit for years. Each year, we plan a trip, and then events in Arroyo Seco or in Nuevo Vallarta take precedence.

But in this case, this was just a business trip, which included paying a visit to our Guadalajara-based attorney, Santiago Gonzalez Luna. Santiago represents us in our Tenacatita land battle.

Soooo, much to her chagrin, Adm. Fox decided to stay in Nuevo Vallarta with Hector, N.Y. amigos Karen and Mike Schamel. From the sound of things, the food was a lot better here. I ate dinner at an Applebee's Restaurant in Guadalajara.

I am not kidding.

Michael and Santiago

Santiago's law firm has been helping us try to recover our beachfront Tenacatita lot, taken by the Rodenas Corporation August 4, 2010. Since then, we haven't been able to even return to the area to check it out. Former property owners are stopped at the gates on the state highway, which is being guarded by Rodenas special police.

And Santiago's news? Well, things move slowly in the Mexican judicial system, a problem exacerbated by the fact that official documents travel by snail mail. Mexican snail mail.

So the good news is, the case is still in process. The bad news is, for how long, only the snails carrying the official legal documents can guess.

This was my first visit to Guadalajara and its reputation as being huge and somewhat complicated to get around in very well-deserved. Still, thanks to helpful taxi drivers, I was able to zip hither and yon (more hither than yon) without getting gouged in taxi fares.

At least I don't think I was gouged.

One surprising thing about the city was the high number of English speakers. (Note the sentence structure here. I did not say, the number of high English speakers. I did stay overnight close to a university campus, though, so that's difficult to assess.)

So where are my photos? In my head, I am afraid. I barely pulled my camera out as I zipped about.

Next trip, when the Admiral goes, too, lots of photos. Maybe even a rockumentary.