Guadalajara is a recognized craft center, partly because so many craftsmen are at work in surrounding communities. If you're visiting Guadalajara, reserve a little time for Casa de las Artesanias de Jalisco. Located at the north end of Parque Agua Azul in a state operated building, this center both displays and sells regional handicrafts. Here you can see examples of the varying crafts made in each village and begin to discern articles of quality and those that are particularly unique and well made.
About 5 miles southeast of the center of Guadalajara, between Highway 80 and Highway 35, is the well known craft center with the fun topronounce name of Tlaquepaque (tlockaypockay). Once known only for pottery not all of it good local craftsmen have now branched out into furniture, textiles, glass, and other crafts. The Regional Museum of Ceramics on Avenida Independencia, located in an elegant colonial house, has a collection of pottery from the Valley of Atemajac, including barro deolor (odoriferous earthenware) and the unique petatillo pottery. Typical of this region, petatillo is recognized by its distinctive, almost oriental, designs of stylized animals against a background of tile red slip with white crosshatching. Don't miss the glass factories on Avenida Independencia where you can not only buy glass objects but also watch glass blowers at work. Endless gift shops and boutiques line the main street.
Craft towns around Guadalajara
Mexico produces a tremendous amount of exuberant folk art, consisting mainly of handicraft objects designed for household use. The folk art you see in boutiques and souvenir shops derives from the time when each village produced practically everything it needed.
Notably rich in handicrafts is the region around Guadalajara. These craft towns each have their own craftsmen making pottery, baskets, sarapes, or toys for sale to local people in local markets. By visiting these craft towns you'll gain an appreciation for their various styles. Meeting the artist himself also makes a purchase memorable.
About 2 miles south on Highway 80 and about 3 miles north is Tonala, which produces some of Mexico's most unusual pottery and stoneware. In addition to more practical pieces, its artisans produce many beautifully decorated, handburnished birds and animals, and sculptured objects. Small boys often linger around the town plaza, flagging down tourists in hopes of being hired for a few pesos as a guide to one of several ceramic factories.
If you follow Highway 15 south of Guadalajara and continue for 35 miles, you approach Lake Chapala at Jocotepec. This lakeside town is noted for the weaving of sarapes in traditional styles with geometric designs and small flowers in pastel colors on an off white background, and in contemporary designs featuring birds and flowers in happy patterns typical of the state of Jalisco. For information on individual shops, inquire at the Hotel La Quinta, located about a mile off Highway 15 toward Ajijic. Also known for their weaving are the people of Ajijic, an even smaller community 12 miles farther northeast on the same road. Numerous artists and writers, many of them American, have settled in this quaint, picturesque fishing village on the edge of Lake Chapala. Several boutiques and gift shops in town display high quality, handwoven cloth and embroidered clothing. Two studios specialize in refined weaving done on hand looms: Helen Kirtland's Studio and Neill James' Studio, both located near Posada Ajijic.
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Capital of the state of Jalisco, Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city and a favorite of many American tourists who find the unique blend of modern and traditional architecture, as well as the tree shaded residential streets, temperate climate, and cosmopolitan atmosphere a contrast to most of Mexico.
If you have the time and want to explore a place where the best of Mexico is expressed, plan a long stay in Guadalajara. You're not likely to get bored with a place where horse drawn cabs and caravans of laden burros share the right of way with the latest model limousines and sport cars; where street widening (needed to transform a country town into a brisk metropolis) was done only on one side of the street so that only half the ancient buildings had to be removed; where people who hardly gave a passing glance to the erection of an architecturally superior department store pay tireless tribute to the architecturally grotesque cathedral; where the siesta is a jealously cherished ritual that shuts down businesses for 2 hours every working day causing four daily commuter traffic rushes.
Guadalajara's partial conversion to a sleek metropolis has been attained at some sacrifice of Mexican mellowness, and as you begin to feel at home there may be moments on Avenida 16 de Septiembre or Juarez when you'll have to remind yourself that you're a thousand miles below the border. But Guadalajara still has much that is "old" Mexico, and a very evident enthusiasm for new things has not displaced affection for the old.
Getting around
A slight handicap in learning your way around Guadalajara (and many other Mexican cities) is the division of the city into different sectors so that most street names change as the streets pass from one sector to another.
Guadalajara has four sectors the boundaries are Avenida Morelos, Calzada Independencia, and Avenida Gigantes. Thus Avenida 16 de Septiembre suddenly becomes Avenida Alcalde when it crosses Avenida Morelos near the cathedral; Avenida Juarez becomes Avenida Javier Mina before it gets to the Mercado Libertad; and going the other way, Avenida Juarez becomes Avenida Vallarta where it passes the university.
Even if you're self reliant and arrive in your own car, it is a good idea to hire a guide from the government tourist office located in an old convent on Avenida Juarez or through a travel agency for a preview tour of Guadalajara. If you go out for half a day or longer in the city or to visit nearby points of interest, you may want to choose a package itinerary with guide, car, meals, and hotels from the choices offered by a Guadalajara travel agency (or set it up in advance with a travel agent at home).
'Taxicabs are plentiful; rates are fixed by a government ordinance.
You won't get much Guadalajaran lore out of the preoccupied driver of a calandria as you clip clop around town, but you might enjoy the experience. These horse drawn antiques complete with blackliveried drivers once were the private conveyances of well to do families. When some vehicles went into public service, their drivers put on yellow armbands to indicate the calandrias were for hire. The armbands must have reminded someone of a yellow shouldered lark because the carriages have long been known as calandrias (larks or buntings).
For more extensive sightseeing you may wish to join one of the bus tours available in Guadalajara.
Morning and afternoon tours last about 4 hours each (with time for shopping) and include the famous pottery suburb of Tlaquepaque in the northern part of the city, as well as the state Arts and Crafts Center (Casa de las Artesanias). The morning and afternoon tours have different itineraries, so you may wish to go on both.