And then it was time to hit the road for another adventure in Guadalajara, at my age I sometimes need a little external stimulus to blow the clogs out of my arteries and if GDL doesn’t do it for you – you ain’t getting the message.

Actually this was a quest to find a “Superama” store, but let’s step back a bit. When I arrived here in paradise last Oct there was one “large” store for grocery etc. shopping called Soriana and two smaller ones, the Lake area was pristine, it was “WalMartless” – ah, how quickly things change.

Almost immediately the big news for several months was the building of a Bodega Aurrera, which is a smaller WalMart owned store for working class smaller towns, like Joco at the west end of the Lake, so I only narrowly beat the “rush”. It opened late in the year and I go there once in a while, really nothing special.

Next the rumors persisted that a “WalMart” (of some breed) would be built at a site about a mile from me and shazaam, a week ago the heavy equipment showed up to strip the land of it’s natural vegetation and bring progress to our doorstep?

It’s still undefined as to what version of WalMart this will be, but at the moment it’s centering on being a Superama which is an upscale grocery store carrying imported food items etc. and possibly a Sam’s next door. Of course the community is divided as it will bring traffic problems (especially when the snowbirds are here) but, others see it as great – I’m neutral, however the news that a Burger King is being built across the Carretera does peak my interest. I can just imagine saying “Whopper con queso, sin cebolla, sin patatas, sin Coke, por favor” which should get me a Whopper with cheese, no onions, no fries, no Coke please.

The bottomline is that I barely beat the invasion of paradise; the same plague I lived through in Lakeway.

Being a bit fidgety, and needing to get out of the compound, I decided I’d go to GDL and find a Superama so I’d be prepared to be excited or bored as the next 5 months click by toward opening - so the day began with great anticipation, coffee and a Bran Frut bar.

Driving up over the pass I looked over my shoulder at the Lake and it was pretty clear, some of the usual haze, but the smoke of the “burning time” seems to have mostly abated which is nice although the smoke was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I don’t know if the road over the hill to GDL has a name, maybe we should give it one, you know like Wolf Creek Pass in CO, or Donner Pass etc. this could be Pedro’s Pass. Actually this road up over the hump is considerably less impressive, so maybe we’ll just let the “pass, pass”.

Careening along the Guadalajara Hwy (that’s what it is called when you’re heading toward GDL, when coming home it’s the Chapala Hwy – makes sense to me) at about 100 (kph which is a bit over 60) I was enjoying the morning and listening to loud music. I tend to do that when I’m alone, guess it’s an old rock & roll hangover. Anyway, I find loud music also helps mask my screams of panic as I negotiate the cloverleaf’s and roads of the city, nothing worse than a white knuckle, big eyed, screaming old gringo – the first cloverleaf onto the Periferico was no disappointment; a pickup and I entered the loop side by side behind a large truck which was pretty much in the middle, varying from left to right. When we reached the main road and it widened, it was a free-for-all, the pickup cut left to shoot around the truck while I did the same on the right side and we did a “bread-and-butter” on the truck – now we’re living and I can feel those clogged arteries clearing as we drive.

I headed for the big Soriana and Home Depot in Zapopan to pick up some things not available at the Lake, then I headed for the Superama. I had printed out a couple of pages of Google maps of the general area and enlarged them to show street names. This is actually an overly optimistic exercise for several reasons, first the street names aren’t easy ones like 1^st avenue or Washington Blvd etc. they are Mexican war heroes etc. with names like Lopez Mateos Sur and others that don’t just roll off your tongue or stick in your mind all that easily. Next you’re delusional if you think there will be a street sign when and where you need it. Also I’m a one man comedy act driving, navigating and sightseeing all at once while dodging trucks, buses, cars of all sizes bent on getting one car further ahead by driving on any and all lanes (and if it’s paved, it’s a lane) and motorbikes which have no problem making lanes between cars assuming the cars see them and won’t zig or zag, drift or turn at an fatal time.

I headed toward my goal and of course, almost immediately, missed my turn (I realize now as I look back). After driving for some time I sensed that I had driven off the maps I had printed and was now pretty much “on my own” relying on the car compass and my good nature to get me somewhere. The quest was now an adventure of exploration as I motored along. I mean, what could go wrong? – GDL is only the 2^nd largest city in MX with something like 4.5M people all in a hurry to get somewhere. I figured if I go S long enough I’ll hit the Periferico, I can get home from there, head west and again eventually you hit the Periferico – don’t head E as you’ll hit Centro (where I’ve never been) and N? – who knows?

Actually the area was looking pretty nice, I’ve always assumed there were some really nice areas of GDL, but had never stumbled into one – until now. The winding streets were nicely paved and they even painted the topes for better “target acquisition”. GDL is like anyplace in MX you really don’t see the houses. NOB we’re used to driving in cities with big houses on tree lined boulevards, manicured lawns and sweeping drives. Here the houses are more like “row houses” on small lots etc. and behind walls. Now I could tell this was a really nice area because the walls were all nicely painted and maintained with nice gates and you ‘gotta know if the outside walls look that nice, what’s behind them is really really nice! Plus there were nice center medians neatly groomed with palms etc., so this was living good in the neighborhood.

I came upon a sign point left to “Zapopan Centro” – I hung a left and motored on. Centro shows it’s a very old city with the required twin spired Catholic Church and town square, all nicely maintained and obviously very prosperous. Things were going along pretty well until I hit a long stop light and a Zesta Gas truck pulled up behind me. For the uninitiated, propane trucks prowl the streets looking for customers, much like the Good Humor trucks of summertime NOB. You just flag one down and get your gas, simple. They are also annoyingly like Good Humor as they have a loud speaker playing a jingle “Zesta Zesta Zesta Gas” etc. and repeating over and over again, the drivers must be brain dead after a day or two because it was only stuck behind me at the light for a few minutes preaching “Zesta Zesta etc.” yet, last night it reverberated through my dreams like one of those songs that gets stuck going round and round in your brain driving you nuts.

I rounded another corner taking me back S and like a miracle a sign saying “Mexico (City) Chapala appeared, this was too easy – right? I began following the general direction and out of the corner of my eye saw a shopping center called “Patria Plaza” so I did a returno to scope it out. It turned out to be nothing special until I rounded the back corner and there was a Super WalMart. I needed to stop at one anyway so turned in. This one has a nice underground parking area and I invested some pesos, chucked my treasure in the back of the Jeep and rolled out to continue the adventure.

I was basically in NW GDL and heading S or SE on the roads prescribed by the signs and a bit nervous as I sensed I was near GDL Cento which I’ve not explored yet. However, the roads were good and traffic was nothing unusual (see homicidal maniacs other). I tried to catch the names of the main streets I was on to look up later and see where I had been, but didn’t do very well.

At one point I ended up between two “doble semirremolque” auto haulers. That is the designation painted on the back of double trailer semi’s so you’ll know that to pass them is going to be twice as far. The occasional sign “Mexico Chapala” continued to give me a warm fuzzy feeling as I bumped along. At one point however I either missed a sign or something and about 4 lanes of traffic suddenly decided to turn right? – being more-or-less in the middle I decided to go with the group decision as the two transports were part of this gaggle. I’m here to tell you, 4 or 5 lanes of traffic suddenly turning right onto a more or less 3-4 lane boulevard makes the guys at NASCAR Daytona going into the corners 3 wide look like a snooze – but we sorted ourselves out and continued. Eventually I popped out onto the Chapala (heading toward the Lake) Hwy just N of the Periferico and all the “fun” was over. Basically I had driven from NW GDL across the city to the SE side the hard way, but it really wasn’t all that bad.

As I was driving along heading home I came upon a little truck carrying at least 200 unfinished chairs stacked all over it in typical MX fashion (they know how to load a truck). I took a pic and sent it to some friends in an Email titled “Jose says:” – with the text; “This is mucho better than the burro, he could only carry 100 at a time and he didn't go very fast - so he put the "burro" in the "burrito".

It was nice to get back over “the Pass” and to home where it’s nice and quiet and cooler, but as I came over the hill I was remedied of another “quest of knowledge” that I need to study up on and that’s (sounds like) gwamoochales?

About a week ago I noticed the guys who run the dump truck filling the lot next door standing on top of the truck with a long pole and wire hook on the end snagging something out of a tree over there. I couldn’t see what it was so the fruit or nut is something small but apparently of great “interest” to the local folks because since then I’ve seen kids from 8 to 80 all over the area with snag poles picking whatever a “gwamoochales” is wherever they grow including a car pulled off the side of the road on the pass snagging this prize from a roadside tree.

I asked my gardener Pedro and he said they were “gwamoochales” and I could see by the look in his eyes they are great (whatever they are) and he and Lupe had their pole as well. Your gardener is a great local repository of information, they are often “resident” with the house you rent and have been there for years and being native they know “stuff” like what is an “ice cream tree” or where to get cohetes (aerial bombs for celebration). They take great pride in their work and helping gringos understand the “understandable” and they also know the lluvia (rain) will come starting Junio decimocuarto (June  14^th) after the festival in San Antonio – when we will, no doubt, need much cohetes!

The quest for a “Superama” viewing is still strong, maybe next week.