Since the last time I wrote, a lot has changed! I finally moved to Dallas in November of 2017 to live with my husband and honestly, every day feels like a dream. Its probably because I dreamed about this everyday for the last few years or because my husband is oh-so-dreamy, I don’t know 😉 Life is different, life is great. But the one thing that will remain constant for as long as I am in America is worrying about my “VISA”. Its not exceptionally bad, but Indians do have it harder than citizens of many other countries. This time around, my company wanted me to travel to France, but I couldn’t get a Schengen Visa since my US visa had expired and to get my US visa stamped, I had to go to Mexico and since my US visa had expired, I had to get a Mexican Visa and to get a Mexican Visa, I had to travel to Houston! Sigh!! 3 visas, 4 trips and endless documents later, I got a trip to Paris (no complaints there)! Well, this post is purely dedicated to how I got my US visa stamped in Guadalajara, Mexico and made a fun trip out of it with my husband, explored the vibrant city and did some pretty dumb and fascinating things.
- The Guadalajara Cathedral
If your US visa has expired, you WILL need a visa to go to Mexico! We had to hunt for a visa appointment at the Mexican consulates in Dallas and Houston and finally drove down to Houston to get a Mexican Visa. It took a couple of hours but the requirements are a little too specific and different for every Mexican Consulate. So be wary of the list of documents. Also, to book your US visa appointment in Mexico, you will have to get someone to pay your visa fees for you in a Mexican bank. There are many services that do it, but I cannot vouch for any of them because I got my colleague to help me out.
Guadalajara
Ofcourse, the main concern was language. We tried to get by with very little Spanish, using words from Justin Beiber’s Despacito. But later, I downloaded an app – SayHi! to help us converse with the locals; it sure helped us seem a lot less moronic. A lot of people mistook us for Mexicans and didn’t quite believe us when we told them that we didn’t know any Spanish. Later, someone told us that most people would think that we were Mexicans living in the US, acting pricey and denouncing the Mexican culture, you know, just like those friends who, after having lived for 22 years in India and 2 years in the US, act like they were born with an American accent and refuse to speak their native tongue. He suggested that we clearly specify that we were Indians which justified our lack of knowledge in Spanish.
This trip was very different from my previous one to Cancun because Cancun is so touristy, expensive and crowded!
I loved Guadalajara mainly because I got to see the unique Mexican life and witness the beauty of it all. Everyone was so remarkably sweet and helpful that I felt right at home and almost cried when I had to leave. Everything reminded me of home, Bangalore – the old colonial homes, colorful homes, street vendors, street food, cheery faces, ample trees lining the streets, two-wheelers and just about everyone I met could have easily been one of my aunts or uncles or cousins.
Another concern that I had was the food, being a vegetarian and all. But again, everyone was so very sweet that even if they had nothing on the menu, they would whip something up for me quickly.
Well, I’m going to try and list our itinerary of our time in Guadalajara. Hope it helps someone, anyone, at least 1 person, plan a trip to Guadalajara.
Day 1, Day 2: Chapultepec
We booked a hotel as close to the consulate as possible, only because our appointments were as early as 7am. The hotel turned out to be exceptional, with great service, food and location – Hotel Love It Consulado. As the name suggests (yes, I went with this hotel despite the name), it was one of those romantic rooms, with open showers and baths and no locks! Romantic AF! The first couple of days were spent soaking in the Mexican life, walking around and finding great restaurants to pop into. We noticed that even on weekdays people were out and about and partying until late into the night, unlike us oldies, who hit the sack by 10pm. Can I please be Mexican?
The hotel is located in Chapultepec area that houses tonnes of restaurants and bars, a few historic monuments and beautiful architecture like the one in the picture below. We strolled around in Chapultepec quite a bit and also visited Mercado Libertad (largest indoor market) and Casa ITESO Clavigero.
- Casa ITESO Clavigero
US visa stamping. Same old stuff with the documents and loads of questions ranging from “Why did you come to Guadalajara” to “Is your employer treating you right”. It was pretty straightforward but the main part was the wait for our passports. I had my appointments on Monday(Biometric) and Tuesday(Interview) and got my passport back on Friday, whereas my husband who had his interview on Wednesday got his passport back only on the Monday after.
Day 3: Tlaquepaque
On Wednesday, we decided to move to another boutique hotel in Tlaquepaque to be swayed by colorful houses and art. The hotel we stayed at was an exquisite tribute to the vibrancy of this neighborhood – La Villa del Ensueno. DO check it out if you’re in the neighbourhood, breakfast and drinks included in the price.
- La Villa del Ensueno
We walked down the main street of Tlaquepaque – Calle Independencia, bought a lot of cutesy art decor, ate great food and took tonnes of pictures. My husband quietly moaned when he realized that it was going to be one of those “2000-odd-photos trips”. We also visited the Regional Ceramics Museum, El Refugio Cultural Center and JardÃn Hidalgo.
- Calle Independencia, Tlaquepaque
In the evening we took a cab to the historic center, where we visited the Guadalajara Cathedral.
Day 4: Tequila
Ever since I found out that Tequila derives its name from a town named Tequila, I knew I wanted to go there. There’s a very expensive train – Jose Cuervo Express from Guadalajara to Tequila and it sure looks fun. But it operates only on weekends and did I mention how expensive it is? We initially wanted to book a tour from Guadalajara but never got around to do it. So we decided to wing it and take a local bus from Guadalajara to Tequila, which took us about 2 hours. We had read that we could find plenty of distillery tours after reaching Tequila and it did not disappoint. We reached at around noon and as soon as we walked to the center, we found an English tour to Gran Orendain distillery in one of those cool Tequila bottle shaped buses for only $13/person!
- Tequila Tour Bus
We walked around the town before the tour, grabbed lunch and hopped on the tour at around 2 pm. On the tour, we learnt a lot about the Tequila making process and blah blah blah. What we were really there for was the tequila tasting (easily about 10 shots). The best part though was finding a couple after the tour who were really friendly and sweet. The girl, like me, really wanted to go the agave fields (after having seen it on Instagram, like me). She managed to find a cab driver who was willing to drive us to a couple of agave fields and we had such great fun. So kids, it helps to know the language (like her, to convince locals to do things for you) and it also helps to be extremely talkative (like me, to get free rides to agave fields).
- Agave Fields, Tequila
Day 5: Guadalajara
The morning went by in brooding over my husband’s passport, which wouldn’t be collectible until Monday. In the evening, we ventured out to discover the nightlife in La Minerva area.
Day 6: Drive to Puetro Vallarta
After having realized that my husband’s passport wouldn’t be available until Monday, we decided to go to Puerto Vallarta, which is ideally about 5 hours away. I’m not sure why we did it, but we decided to rent a car and drive down there. In hindsight, it was a really bad idea because a bus would have been far less strenuous and safer. We rented a car from Alamo for $30/night and started our journey thinking about how cool and awesome we were to be courageous enough to drive in Mexico. Oh well, that didn’t last long. We had to drive around 4 or 5 mountains is a very old car and witness multiple army vehicles, helicopter and personnel on our way. We have all seen Narcos, we know what went on in and around Guadalajara not so long ago! We were pretty close to wetting our pants when we reached Puerto Vallarta and only then did we realize that we had “Avoid Tolls” feature on in Google Maps! Ofcourse there was a shorter, saner, safer route!!! Sigh. We quickly found a hotel by the beach and settled in after a stroll around the beach under the moonlight. The hotel – Hotel Conchas Chinas was perfectly located in Playa Conchas Chinas, away from the “hotel” zone and all the crowd. It had an access to the beach, but the beach itself was rather unconventional, in the sense that it was not ideal for a swim.
- View from the Hotel’s beach
Day 7: Puerto Vallarta and back
We spent the morning on the beach and later walked around the Malecon, Mercado Rio Cuale and Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral. We started our drive back to Guadalajara at around 5pm, with NO Avoid Tolls feature this time around. We left Puerto Vallarta knowing we would have to definitely come back to explore the beautiful and exotic beach town!
- Mercado Rio Cuale, Puerto Vallarta
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