The next morning after waking up we started our day enjoying our ridiculous Intercontinental Guadalajara breakfast, a nice selection to satisfy tastes from anywhere in the world – selection of cold cuts for the Germans, pastries for any continental visitors, eggs and sausages for the norteamericanos, granola, yogurt, and tropical fruit.  We then went to check out the neighbourhood of Tlaquepaque on the outskirts of Guadalajara, known for its relaxed atmosphere, restaurants, and artisanal craft shops.

The town was definitely pretty cool – the buildings were all in colonial style and mostly well restored, and many of the streets were closed to traffic and instead filled with cafes and craft vendors.  It gave the impression of being a touristy place, but more focused towards Mexican tourists, particularly day visitors from Guadalajara.  We enjoyed a nice meal at a café – Jono and I both had different variations of mole, a chicken dish served in a cocoa-based sauce – and a big bowl of very good ice cream that was quite cheap by any standards.  This is also where Natalie and Lindsey left and headed home, and we continued across in the direction of Mexico City.

We originally planned to come to Mexico City on Friday night, but due a government program to fight traffic and pollution, cars are prohibited from driving in Mexico one day per week depending on their license plate number (Hoy No Circula).  The last number on our license plate is a 0 so we were not able to drive in the city on Friday until 10pm.  This being Mexico we were wondering if this meant that some sort of payment had to be made if we get caught, but we have heard that they impound cars and make you pay a hefty fine, so we decided to delay our visit until Saturday morning.

Friday night we stayed instead at Zitacuaro, a town of no specific interest to tourists that happened to be on the route to Mexico City and was where we got to as night started to fall in Michoacán, where we had been advised by many people to definitely not drive at night.  The highlight of the evening in this town was a great street food market near the Zocalo (town square).  As requisite in all Mexican towns, there was also a Bar Revolucion in our hotel, although we didn’t check this one out…

Another interesting thing about this area of Michoacán is that it is at a relatively high altitude, so the climate is quite cool compared with the coastal areas of Mexico and it felt a lot like a September in Canada.  The forests on the drive were mostly pine,  and there are a number of lakes in the area where some Mexico City residents have summer homes.