Jai says it was my idea, and I thought it was his. Never mind who thought of it first…the idea of a Mexico road trip appealed to both of us. We both wanted to explore more of our new home country, and Jai had a cute little green car that got good mileage, and we both had some uncommitted time in early September, so why not?
Our initial plan was a 10-day road trip from Puerto Vallarta to Oaxaca and back, but as the time approached we realized that was more ambitious than we really wanted to be, so we decided on Puerto Vallarta-Guadalajara-San Miguel de Allende-Mexico City instead, with a stop at Lake Chapala on the way back to PV. Instead of 10 days, more like 7.
The map above shows the first leg (the first day) of our journey, from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara.
We left on the morning of Monday Sept. 12. The photos above show us just outside Puerto Vallarta, and at our first meal break near Sayulita.
We were headed first to Guadalajara, or more specifically, a place called Tlaquepaque, which is famous for its charming shops, restaurants, and artisans. (You can see me having a beer there at left.) Jai had found a place called The Hacienda which was right in Tlaquepaque. We arrived in good time (it’s about 5 hours from PVR to Guadalajara), and met the proprietress, a sweet woman with a husky voice named Lourdes.
There was no parking anywhere, so imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when Lourdes opened up the gate and motioned for Jai to pull right into the tiny courtyard of the hotel. That’s also where we were served a great breakfast the next morning.
That evening we strolled through Tlaquepaque’s pedestrian mall, which is pleasant and picturesque, and later met friends of Jai’s (Vicente and Alberto) for a late-night dinner at a terrific restaurant called Rio San Pedro. (Below: Myself, Alberto, Vicente.)
Vicente asked what I do for a living and I told him. He got out his phone and brought up my website and began looking at my art. Evidently it spoke to him, because we could hardly pry him away from the phone for the next hour. I love when that happens! It was a great evening with fabulous food and wonderful company.
Unfortunately I got not much sleep that night because the room was stuffy–no windows–and I was under attack by the mosquitoes.
But the place made up for it by being extremely picturesque. Every corner was a photo waiting to happen. So the next morning after breakfast on the patio, and before we packed and headed out on the next leg of our trip, I asked Jai if he would take some photos of me.
Being a photographer and an artist, and always being the one with the camera, means I often don’t have much to choose from imagewise when I put together bios, blog posts, or anything that tells my collectors a bit more about myself and my life.
I was lucky to have a traveling companion with a good eye, so I took full advantage of the moment and the setting and handed my camera to Jai. He shot around 60 photos (and put up with my directing every step of the way), and got some good ones.
At one point my favorite Hacienda staff member, a dachschund named Harry, sauntered into frame and plopped himself down in the perfect spot. That became my favorite shot of the day.
After breakfast and photo-taking, we loaded everything into the car and set off for part 2 of our road trip: the journey to San Miguel de Allende.