Barranca de Huentitán, Forest Los Colomos, Cabañas Museum, Regional Museum, City Museum, Jalisco State Government Palace
From La Paz, I got on a flight to Guadalajara. After struggling to find the bus to the city, I decided to just take an uber. The first hostel I checked into was quite awful, and when I had the option I moved into another hostel, which was further away from the center. It was a significant improvement, but I wouldn’t call it great by any means. After taking some time to get used to the situation I found myself in, I finally felt like I could have a look around.
Going a bit outside of the city, I made my way to a hiking trail in Barranca de Huentitán, which was a lot more complicated than it should have been. For a start, I couldn’t find anyone in the hostel to tell me how to actually get to where I want to go, despite the fact that the hostel had an organized tour to the very same location. I tried to go there by myself, with the help of Google, and after about forty minutes I found myself back at the hostel. After doing a bit more research, I opted to use the Moovit app, and hoped it would get me to the right place. Eventually, nearly two hours after I planned to, I was finally at the beginning of the trail.
It started by going down a paved path, with many stalls all around, selling various things. After a few minutes of walking down the path, it had split and there was no clear sign I could see. I just picked one that I’ve seen other people cross, and made my way toward an unknown destination.
I walked on the dirt path for a few minutes more, until I reached abandoned cable car tracks that went down quite steeply. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I could see people all the way at the bottom of the tracks. There were also people going up, maybe hoping to get a better view, but I just crossed to the other side of the track, where I could see more people and the dirt path continued.
What I’ve seen on the other side made me stop in my tracks. Once there was a gap in the trees, the view in front of me was impressive. Everything I could see felt big, on a massive scale, and I stayed there for a few minutes to take it all in. In that moment, I felt like that view alone was worth the pain of trying to get there.
When I was done admiring the view, I kept going along the trail, which then started to go up between the trees. The view was blocked for a few minutes, but then it started to pop up between the trees occasionally as I kept going up, following a trail of footprints more than an actual track. I got up as high as I could until I came across a fence, and then what looked like a cell tower. At that point I made my way back down, and up the cable car tracks until I got to another section of the fence. But as I could see people far down below me, and according to google somewhere down the trail there was a bridge, I started to make my way over there.
Pretty quickly I figured out it was not a smart thing to do. The track went very steep, and I resorted to side stepping, crouching, and sliding down carefully and slowly. Along the way, I figured it was probably easier (and safer) to go up the tracks rather than down, but it was too late for that at this point. It was a great physical challenge, and it took quite a while, but eventually I was at a less steep section of the track and could walk normally again.
From there, I walked down some stairs, and when they ended it was a twisty pebble stone road, going down and down without an end in sight. Somewhere along that road I started to feel a bit bored, but I was still curious to see what I could actually find at the end of the trail. And I wasn’t the only one. It was a popular trail, and there were quite a few other people, mainly local, walking along it, playing their music for all to hear. It was possibly the loudest hiking experience I ever had.
I kept going along the trail, walking down until the road finally leveled, and I found myself at an observation point, although it was not the end of the trail. After taking a quick look around, I kept walking. There was nothing special to me about this trail, and even though it was a relief when I did eventually get to the bottom, it was about making it to the end of the trail, and not much more than that.
On level ground, I still had to walk a while longer before I could actually see the bridge, and then cross it for no reason other than being able to say that I did so. It was a nice bridge, but not an impressive one.
With that, it was time to make my way back up. Not only it wasn’t interesting, but I was also tired, and a bit disappointed with the bridge. I went along the twisty path, up the stairs, and eventually I made my way back to the starting point. From there, I tried and failed to catch a bus, and as it was getting dark, I opted to take an uber back to the hostel.
The following day, I got on another bus, and after a bit of a walk, I found myself in Bosque Los Colomos, a forest with several walking paths, exercise options, and a couple of gardens. I started walking around in the forest, which was pretty decent, with quite a few trees all around. There wasn’t much else to look at, though, and I started to feel bored again, so I made my way toward the Japanese Garden. Along the way, I’ve seen quite a few squirrels, and some of them got pretty close to me.
The garden itself was a lot greener and felt more alive than the rest of the park. However, it was pretty small, and it didn’t take more than a few minutes to go around it. It also didn’t help that quite a few people were taking wedding photographs in the garden, blocking certain paths until they were satisfied.
I made my way out of the forest, which took a while, and then to the bus stop. I got on the bus, which turned out to be either the wrong bus, or the right bus but with a different route. I then had to take another bus, which brought me within walking distance of the station, and then I could make it back to the hostel.
At that point, I was frustrated with the public transport, and disappointed with the attractions. Before giving up, I made my way to the historic center of Guadalajara on a Tuesday, as some of the museums were free on that day. Once more, I struggled to get on public transport before making it to the first destination of the day, Cabañas Museum.
While initially I was under the impression that it was some kind of old historic building, that might have been used as a hospital at one point, when I got there it seemed to be more of an art gallery than anything else. Over time I developed deeper and deeper hatred toward modern “art”, and even though the exhibits weren’t exactly modern, they still didn’t make much sense to me, and after a quick look around I moved on. I didn’t even bother trying to read the signs. The only point that had some interest to me was the central building which was painted with actual art, but even that didn’t require much time to look at.
The next stop along the more cultural trail was the Regional Museum, which was about the general history of Jalisco. It started with a section about prehistoric animals, which was quite interesting, although there were definitely some things I missed due to the language barrier. There was also a mention of some stones, which I was a bit confused by.
The next part was about people, or more so about the things they made, and the changes of material from clay to ceramics and porcelain. There were mentions of various people and businesses that originated in Europe, although I did pay much attention to that part. There were also stairs which led to another floor, but I wasn’t sure if it’s allowed to go up, and I didn’t want to cause any problems. Instead, I just left the building and headed over to another museum.
The City Museum was another attraction which was free on Tuesday. There were a few rooms and a couple of floors in there, and I found myself impressed by it. Every room and gallery had quite a few items on display, ranging from clothes to weapons, documents, and more. There were also many signs full of information and pictures from different parts and time periods, showing different aspects of the city throughout its history.
Unfortunately, I started to feel tired by the time I got to the museum. I didn’t pay much attention to a lot of the things I read, and I didn’t read everything. So at the end I didn’t understand much, but I did feel like it was a proper museum that was worth the visit while I was in the city.
The last attraction in Guadalajara that I wanted to have a look at was Jalisco State Government Palace. It was in the same area at the museums, and after a little bit of walking I was in front of it. Not sure if I could get in, I only saw it from the outside, which wasn’t all that interesting. Instead, I just spent some time in the nearby square before taking on the struggle of using public transport in order to get back to the hostel. Overall, a pretty disappointing stop, which could easily be missed without any regrets.