27th July 2005   

Mainland Mexico: Mazatlan to Taxco

After an 18 hour boat trip from Baha California to mainland Mexico we headed straight for the city of Guadalajara, with a population of 4 mill, Mexico's second largest city (Mexico city = 18 mill!). Given our now predictable encounters with friendly but overall ineffective local mechanics, our first destination was the local Toyota service centre.

TOYOTA GUADALAJARA

As if we were pulling up in a spanking new Ferrari at Monza, crowds of technicians, salesman and other customers flocked round our muddy mess of a truck.  We had phoned in beforehand to make an appointment to fix the recurring gear oil leak but on arrival were told that they were busy and it would be looked at in the morning. The next morning they were busy and the day after that was sunday so on monday their head technician, Paco 'Fallas' (translated as 'Jim'll fix it') gave it his full attention and we haven't leaked a drop of oil since.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paco Fallas, legendary mechanic

 

Given the amount of time we spent at the garage it's probably worthy of further comment.  Despite appearances, Toyota Guadalajara is not like your Toyota garage down the road...

The sales staff are all clean cut, beautiful girls (MG not allowed to take photos).  Every time a car is sold a bell rings and the whole Team claps. And the cars are not necessarily what they seem.  Our car was suspended in between another landcruiser and a camry. The landcruiser looked a little heavy set, and closer inspection revealed windows about 2cm thick - knocking on them produced no sound.  The doors were lined with lead and opening and closing them required real effort. 

The mechanic beckoned us over to the engine and grinned as he pointed out the bullet proof lining around its vital organs, the brake fluid container, the battery other parts we could not identify... it was owned by a medium time local drugs dealer.  The camry was brought in by a customer who had purchased the vehicle second hand but couldn't get the aircon to work.

Removing the dashboard revealed all the tubing has been ripped out by its previous owner, in order to make room for a secret drug stash.  Doubt the owner will be asking for his money back...

We were so pleased to have finally resolved the leak and be back on the road and giving our farewells and receiving our 'buen viaje's and our 'que le vaya bien's and shaking hands and patting backs that MG got a little carried away  with goodbye tipping and managed to tip our next two days budget away.

 

GUADALAJARA

Despite the exhaust fumes, the historic centre of Guadalajara had a bunch of interesting colonial buildings, museums and churches. At night the streets were crowded with sound clashes from live music being played in basements and clubs. We spent a day wandering around the city doing the tourist trail. Highlights for us were the enormous indoor market selling anything and everything under the sun, the worlds largest jewellery shop (4 storey department store littered with machine gun toting security guards) and a concert held by the Guadalajara Philharmonic Orchestra playing Rachmaninoff's 2nd, and Beethoven's 7th.

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a central square in guadalajara

 

 

Taxco

Goodbye Guadalajara traffic, hello over-priced and so completely empty toll roads to Taxco. The roads in Mexico have continued to impress and this 8 hour stretch was no exception.  We maintained a steady 80 mph with the occasional confluence of wind, gravity and excitement on the accelerator edged us up to 85 mph.  Gracias mama matilde for the ipod on which we have an estimated 6318 tunes.  Wired up to the car stereo, it has received heavy use albeit in concentrated form, most quickly explained in the following Venn diagram:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or, [mg likes] ∩ [e-j likes] ≡ coldplay

Taxco is a small ex silver mining town which although no longer produces silver, still hosts the countries best silver workshops and boasts over 300 silver shops.  It is beautifully set in the mountains and its steep windy cobbled streets would feel more at home in the mediterranean than current day mexico.  Some of the work is outstanding but there is only so much silver you can look at before you start going mad and although mg hit that point considerably earlier than e-j, within 24 hours we were back on the road.

 

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taxco by day

 

 

 

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