Gettin’ Carried Away

After spending a delightful morning touring the city of Guadalajara, we headed to Tlaquepaque for lunch. Once we were seated, the server brought over what I called a “mini coatrack,” which was actually for ladies purses (there were three of us, after all). Baffled at this unique courtesy, I hung my bag on the rack and enjoyed a yummy lunch.

Fast forward to my last night in Mexico, dining at the lovely Cafe des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta. Again, once we were seated, a “mini coatrack” was placed near our table. Because I like to take photos of, well, everything, I just plopped my bag on the floor to keep my bulky Canon Rebel near to me (and off of the table). Carolina, our guide, told me I had to give her my purse because it’s back luck to leave it on the floor. Confused, I said, “Excuse me?” Carolina replied, “It’s bad luck. They say if you leave your purse on the floor, you’ll lose all your money.” Far be it for me to defy this superstition, especially since I’m always terrified of losing money, credit cards, my passport, etc…

Once I returned home, it was back to business. On my way to work, I listened to my favorite radio program, Drex In The Morning on 103.5 KISS FM. Drex’s witty sidekick Mel T brought up the topic of superstitions, saying that in her Mexican-American family, it was bad luck if you didn’t touch a child once you complimented him or her. For example, if you were to look at a baby and say, “Look at that gorgeous head of hair,” you would have to touch the child’s hair to show an absence of envy/jealousy. Because if the hair fell out, you’d be in big trouble.

This is very intriguing to me. Has anyone else come across cultural superstitions on your travels? I’d love to hear some more!

Chapala is actually not one of the first places I visited in Mexico. However, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I left my camera cord at home, so I want to hold off on posting about some cities until I get my pictures uploaded on my computer. After a few days, I finally remembered that my iPhone takes pretty good photos, so I snapped this amazing shot of Lake Chapala earlier this afternoon.

While there are a lot of Mexican residents in Chapala, the city is also home to many American and Canadian retirees. Some of the B&B’s and hotels are even owned by foreigners. And speaking of hotels, Lake Chapala Inn, which overlooks the beautiful lake pictured above, costs about $45 a night. What. A. Steal.

I have to admit, the cobble-stoned streets of Chapala lose their charm after awhile, once you’ve been driving over the bumps for about 10 minutes or so. Walking is the way to go in this town; you’ll find quaint shops and affordable restaurants, but I think the lake is really the place to be.

In 1956 and 2003, due to a lack of rain, the people of Chapala feared the loss of this gorgeous body of water. Today, it stands about eight meters close to the shore and about 17-20 meters near the two islands out in the middle of the lake. City workers are renovating the beachfront, adding boardwalks and patching up old stonework. All the renovations are expected to be finished by December 2009. They have already come a long way, so I highly recommend visiting Chapala any time you like!

You read it right… Mexicanada. Surprise! I am in Guadalajara, Mexico. As I promised to do some blogging about my trip, I plan to do just that. However, I forgot my camera cord at home (egad!), so I will be telling you some great anecdotes until I am able to post some nice photos (along with Mexican recommendations) from my trip here this week.

You’re probably wondering… what the heck is Mexicanada? It’s a word I made up to describe a particular encounter I’ve had here in Guadalajara. I met a fellow journalist named Rick who is a Canadian national that has been to 39 U.S. states and 61 countries… and counting. Many of his tales are just mind-blowing, but nothing beats the old “parkade” story.

~* Photo courtesy of flyingserpent.net *~

While driving to one of the many destinations we’ve seen here in Guadalajara, a few of us were making conversation about Microsoft Word. Rick explained that he was annoyed with it not recognizing certain words, like parkade, for example. I thought he said “parquet” (as in flooring), and I told him that if you right click the word you can add it to the dictionary. Dorothy, a very inquisitive San Francisco journalist, heard him say “parkade,” called him out right away and asked “What the heck is a parkade?” Rick simply answered, “A place to park cars,” thinking we should know that already. We all started laughing, as we had never heard of that expression before. Our trip leader, Carolina, later admitted she had no idea what he was talking about at first, but didn’t want to say anything.

If you have read one of my older posts from February, you will know that I love languages. I think it’s kind of funny that I’ve come to Mexico, and I’ve learned a Canadian expression. Lesson learned: You never know what you’re going to learn when you are on a trip.