Quadalajara |
Bridge in Quadalajara |
Cathedral in Quadalajara |
Garden in Quadalajara |
In Quadalajara |
|
|
Editor's Note: Jennifer Shire is a 19 year-old University of Regina Student attending this semester in Colima Mexico, this past weekend she and a bunch of her American and Canadian fellow students went on a trip to Quadalajara and on to San Miguel where Jennifer, a high school middle distance runner, figure skating instructor and all round athlete, decided to get involved in a "running of the Bulls". Her account of her adventures appears as it came in e-mail to her father. I have raided a few tourist web sites to give you some pictures of the area. The links on this site are the sources for the pictures. |
San Miguel Allende's famous Cathedral |
|
In San Miguel |
Date: 09/28 5:17 PM
Received: 09/28 7:24 PM
From: Jen, pi0075@campus.col.itesm.mx
To: allan, allan@ftlcomm.com
Ok we left at 3:00 in the morning on Friday for Guadalajara.
When we got there I felt like we were in Canada because I needed a parka. It was
so cold! Guadalarajara is actually a very beautiful city. I did see the bad part
before, I guess those were the shanty towns. Our taxi driver took us the scenic route
and we saw the really nice part of Guadalajara. It's probably the nicest city I have
ever seen. We took a cab to this hotel called Fiesta
Americana. Very nice, about 300 dollars a night. We met our tour bus
there.
We had two bus drivers, one only had one eye and the other smelled like tequila.
Our bus ride to San Miguel
was about six hours long, so our travelling time with stops and everything was about
twelve hours. Our hotel in San
Miguel was so nice. It was very Mexican, I loved it but it's about two-hundred
a night too. If you take package deals like we did it's not as expensive. San Miguel is also very
nice. It's build on a mini mountain and this huge famous cathedral in the downtown.
Friday night we went to a disco called the Mamamia. It was all right but they didn't
play the greatest music.
The bulls on Saturday were supposed to be released at 12:00 so we went at 10:00.
Everyone is supposed to wear white shirts, jeans and a red bandana. I bought one
for ten pesos that said San Miguel '98 on it. Before the bulls were released they
had the queen parade around for about thirty minutes and wasted our time because
the bulls weren't released until 2:00. Where they ran was around the centro in a
big square.
We were camped up where the bulls were being released on the steps of the cathedral.
People are crazy. They brought the trucks out and they were only about fifty meters
from us and I started to get a little worried. The men on the truck started throwing
these red socks in the air. They had red powder in them and it got all over you.
Then I starting looking around and I realized I was the only girl around. There was
no way I could get out though. We were packed in there. In the paper the next day
I read that there were 13,000 people. It was like being in the mosh pit at Edgefest
again except ten times worse.
Me, Mark and Justin went running and the rest stayed on the steps. We were standing
farther back to the edge of the street to begin with. It was terrible because all
the people in the middle ran back there and squished us. They released 11 bulls in
all and they evenually were in the square all at the same time. We decided to get
closer because we couldn't even see them coming we were so squished. (Is mom breathing
OK?) We went to the middle of the street and I saw that some of them were young and
just steer size but others were so big. They started running in packs and then things
got bad. Since I was closer now I could see people getting hurt and run over. They
were running really close to us now and we had met these guys from Mexico City and
they had done this before and were running out and touching them. The one guy took
me with him and I hit one on the butt. Everyone cheers if you get to touch one and
since I was the only girl everyone was kind of laughing and cheering for me to go
again but once was enough and I'm not as stupid as Danny. (Danny is Jennifer's
cousin who is a rodeo bull rider)
After, we went to the bull
fight. Everyone in the stadium was drunk or close to it and the opposite
sides were screaming at each other. I know every Spanish swear word now. The matadors
came out and crossed themselves. For each fight there is the main matador and then
he has two or three others with him. After they play with the bull for a while, two
men on horses come out with spears. They spear the bulls in the back a whole bunch
of times. They treat the horses really bad because the matadors lead the bull to
the them and they ram the horses. (Jamee would not like this at all). (Jamee is
a Danny's wife and a rodeo barrel racer)
I think they spear them so many times to make the spot easier to put the stick things
in later. Then they play with him more and the matadors stick the thinks with the
blades in them in the bulls back two at a time. There's six in all. The bulls are bleeding really bad
by this time. Now the matador starts doing tricks kind of like going on his knees
and turning around and stuff. After he gets a sword and the crowd is silent and Mariachi
start playing. He stands in front of th bull with the sword up and stares at him
and then runs and drives it down in the bulls back. The bull dies a few minutes later
and is dragged out by donkeys. The matador walks around the stadium then and people
throw hats and roses at him. I didn't have my camera because I left it with this
girl when I went running and she wasn't sitting with me, so I'll have to get pictures
from someone else.
There were six bull fights. I can't believe they killed six bulls. I tried to explain
to the Mexican man beside me that this would never happen in Canada. He said these
bulls are born and raised for this. The first matador was the best. He kneeled down
with his back to the bull and he bent down to look the bull in the eye about an inch
away. Nothing happened to him ever. The others though who tried to kneel were bucked
away by the bull. A man at the door gave me the poster from the fight. I got sun
burned really bad on Saturday because I was in the sun during the hottest part of
the day.
Saturday night me and four other girls and Mark went to the downtown to this disco
that was supposed to be really good. Cover at all the bars Saturday night was 200
pesos about 40 dollars. We didn't go. We just went to the centro because it was a
like a big party and there was lots of Mariachi. Krist and Mark went off in search
of some beer and the rest of us stayed on this bench. I didn't think I would ever
say this, but I really wish guys would leave me alone. All of us there were blonde
and we get enough whistles and honks in Colima everyday, but that was nothing. I
have never been so harassed in my life. We were a circus attraction. I was honestly
looking around me for something to start beating them off with. Mark finally came
back and we told him what happened. He went and sat on a bench farther away to see
if it would happen again. We were approached by eighteen guys in twenty-six minutes.
They were crude, obnoxious, drunk and really annoying. They really wouldn't have
hurt us, but they all just wanted to meet and talk to the Blonde Barbie Girls. There
honestly was a line of guys waiting to talk to us. So we ended up going home pretty
early.
About 7:30 on Sun. morning we were awakened by screaming out in our hotel pool. We
couldn't sleep anyway so me, Jenny, and Emily went out to the pool to swim before
breakfast. There were about fifteen wasted guys in the pool. Two of them were ones
from the night before.. They hadn't slept yet and they had just taken off their clothes
and jumped in the pool. They were really funny. We went shopping later in the morning
and mom and Auntie Linda would go nuts here. The really nice things are the furniture,
but there is no way to get it back. I found a really nice candle set that would have
been a good gift for Auntie Linda but I'm still getting them a hammock. The candles
are all made in Guadalajara so we figure when we go that we'll go to the factory
and get some there. We went to the cathedral to look around inside but they were
having mass. I bought a beautiful rosary for Laura. After the service, indiginous
dancers were dancing to a cross monument outside. We had to go back to the hotel
though because our bus was leaving at 2:00.
Our bus didn't leave at 2:00. We were packed and waiting outside and I had a bad
feeling in my stomach. I went in to the front desk and found out the bus left an
hour ago. San Miguel is about 10 hours away from Colima and we missed our bus. Luckily
the front dest manager was helpful and we found a bus to Guadalajara. When we got
to Guadalajara we just caught the last bus to Colima. We got home last night around
1:30. I did not sleep well because it was raining really hard and Lika was barking
because she's afraid of the thunder. Unknown to me, mom let her in. After a big crack,
she managed to knock my door open and jump right on top of me at about 3:30 in the
morning. This dog has a serious death wish. I screamed because I was sleeping and
didn't know what had happened and woke everyone up.. Michelle thought this was real
funny. Yah, ha ha ha.
My culrure teacher has friends that are archaeologists and he's going to ask if there's
any room for some help. He's also asking his mom who runs a culture program if they
need any help tutoring English. He's really nice, he was giving me information on
the good archaeological schools here and sights that I should go see.
Love Jen