Tizapan, Jalisco – Mexico

Boat in the chapala Lake

Trip to Tizapan, Jalisco

This is on my ongoing blogs about my trips here in Jalisco and Mexico.

Last weekend for Easter we went to Tizapan, in the south of Jalisco.
It is very well located on the south side of the Chapala lake and surrounded by fields very usable for
Agriculture.

The city is a fairly large village with more then 60.000 inhabitants and all ages well represented.
This is normally a problem in the smaller villages here in Mexico, where the young men in general go up
north to find a job. Up north means to the United States.

The village is living from agriculture and fishing. There is a little bit of development of tourism and so
the people are looking at you if you are a western, like: what are you doing here???
So when we arrived in Tizapan with the Bus service Jalisco del sur, we went in the evening to the small
square, what makes up the heart of the village.

There was a buzzing crowd present where they where enjoying their social talks, eating and watching
people scroll by.
Furthermore all types of people from the city where present and strolling around..
Then when the night got later, we went back home, because the next we would go to a Swimming pool.

A Swimming pool over here is more that the kids can play in the swimming pool while the parents are preparing
their food, what they’ve taken with them. Often as well there a place where you can put the meat on the
barbecue or fish and have some nice grilled meat and or fish.
As well along there where 3 pools, just to chill and do nothing. Furthermore we where very lucky that
there where just a few people in the pool, because normally during Easter there are many people
everywhere.

Of course I took the opportunity to actually get some tan, but not getting burned during our siesta,
what is always necessary.
In the evening we went back to the small square, as well to try the local ice cream, which is delicious
and take some more pictures.

The next day we went to Chapala.
I unfortunately think that the city is overrated for it’s popularity. It is a nice city with a nice lake front
and boulevard, but nothing to spectacular. Maybe it was that they are still busy constructing all kind of
things, but it didn’t impress.

Furthermore it’s almost impossible to get a breakfast and if you get into a restaurant, the service is very
lame. Hint, it’s next to the main church.

As well, the smaller island in the lake, where you can get a boat, is nothing to special. The
problem is that it have been touched by men, and that results in a very dirty, destroyed island. The
nature once was beautiful probably, but at the moment you can find more coke bottles and cans then
stones. And this is a shame, because they could make it a really nice island.

On the way back we passed a few very nice little villages where the people are really open and nice.
This was the final trip for our holiday and we took the bus back into Guadalajara. We were very lucky
with the traffic, because the Easter holiday traffic was getting on its way but it was still manageable.

In the end, it was a really nice holiday trip, short but interesting. As well interesting to see another part
of the Jalisco and moreover spent some time at the lake with the water.

For the pic’s, I would like to refer to my web site http://www.jaapwillem.com where you can find the media
and so on from this trip.

Traditional Dancing Zapopan, Jalisco

Last weekend we went to Zapopan, Jalisco and we saw some groups performing local traditional dances.

I’ve inserted the video from that on the top, but the main question actually stayed in our minds: Is it still traditional dancing?

Definitely it is not a dance of the modern times, but neither it is a type of dance what they used to do before the Spanish invaded Mexico.

They say it is a dance from before the Spanish invasion here, but a few things don’t match:

The Dance are performed in front of an Cathedral or temple how they would like to call it.
This is definitely not a normal place to perform the dance from before the times that the Spanish invaded. Normally they would do it on a marketplace, but now it is performed on the small square in front of a catholic place.

Second is related to the first, how is it possible that the dances are supervised by a saint, since the catholic religion have been introduced in Latin America by the Spanish.

These are the two main parts, what I think is that the dances are not any more like they used to be performed, but they are sponsored by the Catholic and Local authorities to keep the tourists happy and the local people.

That is like everything, if you put a image that it’s from the older days, are humans more receptive to that idea, even when it’s not even like it used to be?

Anyway those are a few thoughts about this thing and about how you could analyse certain things what are happening around here.

Soon I’ll publish a few more thoughts, as well on the local things what are happening here and one of the main reasons we´ll soon be heading to Europe.

Colotlan, jalisco (mexico)

So at the end I’ll not be staying for much longer here in Guadalajara.

I like the city but on the other hand I’m quite happy as well to return to Europe.

But before I’m heading back I’ll write down a few things in several blog posts about my experiences here in Mexico and guadalajara in special.

The first blog post will be about my experience outside guadalajara, actually during my trip to colotlan, in north Jalisco.

It is a relative large city what does serve as well as the center of the region.
It is best known for their leather horse riding products. Furthermore there is a large campus of the guadalajara university. As well the reason why I’m here.

So while my fiancée is teaching I came along to discover a bit of the city.
One of my first impresions was that’s it have a small city center with roughly 2 main squares. Of course on one main square there is the principle cathedral located. On the main square you can find the city councel and the police etc.
It have a well a cute little open air theatre dome with small benches around it.

Around here you have small shops where you can find almost everything what is necesary for the region.
Clothing shops, butchers, bakeries, shoe shops, restaurants, banks and even small Internet shops.

On Saturdays you can find as well a small market on the streets while there is as well a larger indoor market just a few squares to the north side.
In this open air market the most important products are clothing and food products.
In the indoor market you can find some good food shops, although you might have some issues with your stomach later on.

As well throughout the city you can find leather shops the city is renowned for. The quality from the leather saddles and other horse riding products are high, with many of them hand made. The prices varies by products but expect to pay a good price for the high quality products.