Visit to Tonala

It finally quit raining Sunday evening. So Monday we wanted to check out the way out of town to Guanajuato and go to Tonala. As it turns out we will not be going to Guanajuato after all and we got lost going to Tonala! Drove around and around trying to find the main stree where all the stores are in Tonala. We knew we were close when we passed this place. So asked someone. Turns our we were one street and two turns away. The days to go to Tonala are really Sunday - it rained - or Thursday - we thought we'd be gone by then. Mondays lots of the stores are closed.
 We found a public parking garage for Willie. Now the street parking has parking meters! And there was no spaces anyway. Started walking around. One of the first places we passed. A lot of inexpensive "stuff" - the glass mosaics always interest me though. Really easy to do. 

 This store was all glass items and shiny silver looking items. Some kind of different and pretty. 

 And of course the upholstered hi heel. Is it a chair? or just decoration? 

 Blown glass teardrops in all sizes and colors.

We went to watch the glass blowers but no one was working. A couple of the kilns were hot so we thought maybe they were at lunch. We came back just before we left and still no one working. Off on Monday maybe?

 A couple of the few things that caught my eye. This was a big stained glass piece. About five feet tall. Picture doesn't do it justice. Very nice work. 

 And these pieces. Colored glass in very tiny pieces - mosaic style - on Plexiglas maybe. Or fused in a kiln?

 Liked this too. It is mainly made of spark plugs. And other metal parts - bolts, washers etc. 

 "Decorator" stuff. colorful but useless. 

Between almost every little shop was a food stand of some kind. The building behind it is a house. The proprietor was sitting in her living room watching out the window for customers. 

 This place had some beautiful hand carved wood furniture. But she shook her finger at me when I tried to take some pictures. 

 And these are?---Toilet seat covers - maybe. My best guess. Though the flowers on the white ones were 3-D so they'd be strickly for looks. No sitting on them if the cover was closed. 

 Rolls of colorful gauze to make window curtains or for four poster beds or patios.

 Some interesting looking chairs.

Bill headed for lunch. Yep that's a KFC. 

 Some more upholstery shops. This doesn't look comfortable. 

 Neither does this one, but it's different. It is a hand - little hard to tell in the pic. The thumb and forefinger are touching. 

 We didn't go the older section where the handicrafts are. And were kind of disappointed in the area we went too. Seems to be more stuff and less art. On our again convoluted way out we passed this. Didn't know there were 7/11s here. 

 Also saw this car. I sure wouldn't want to drive something this small in the traffic in Guadalajara. I'd feel like a raisin in a cattle stampede.  

And so we come to today. It is Wednesday and the day we are supposed to leave Guadalajara to go further inland. Well our plans have changed - again. Going inland to Guanajuato and then to Queretaro then to Texas would be fewer miles and less money in tolls and gasoline then returning to Mazatlan and going home through Arizona. Sounds like a no brainier right. The big decision changer is the drive from Queretaro to Texas - it is well over 600 miles and there are no campgrounds or gated Pemex that we could fit into the whole way. And neither Bill nor I want to make that long of a one day drive. So - Mazatlan here we come. But not today. We've decided to spend one more day here in Guadalajara. We spent most of yesterday downtown and remembered why we like this city so much. 

And why didn't I post yesterday? Well I got up early - well before it was light out and was checking out things on the Internet. Then I got cold so I crawled back in bed around 8:00 and fell asleep and slept till NOON! After I woke up we decided to go into downtown and didn't get home until 8:00. 

Have lots of pictures from downtown yesterday. Need to sort them out to share them.