Guadalajara, Guadalajara... (its a song but you don´t really get that eh?!)

We had a nice few days in Guad but we were worried that the Angela syndrome was going to strike again! We´d arranged to meet some friends, Nacho and Esther (and their beautiful baby Justus) but once again had failed to establish their phone number or anything vaguely useful like that. Also we wanted to pay a visit to Oasis, the street children centre where Cal used to work but were having the same problem there...

We strolled and strolled through the squares, the parks, the streets, and discovered that on Sundays one of the main roads in the city centre is closed off for cycling, so lots of families on all shapes and sizes sailed past on their bikes, it was lovely and not unlike a Mary Poppins film.

We spent a lovely day browsing among the shops in Tonalá where we had a delicious Mexican home style full meal for about 1 pound fifty each! Mmm... Happily in the end we made contact with both Esther and Nacho and Oasis, after leaving a series of messages all over the city and cyberspace! We visited Nacho and Esther one evening, Nacho very kindly picked us up in their pick up truck, and his Mum (who was staying for a few days) had cooked a lovely meal - chilaquiles.

The next day we went to Oasis and spent an afternoon with the boys. Oasis is a permanent home to 8 boys now, aged from about 6 to about 15. It reminded Matt of being at work! Oasis is obviously working because the boys seemed much more relaxed and settled than their predecessors back in the day when Oasis was a night shelter. They didn´t seem to show any of the traits the old skool street boys used to, which can only be good. We also palmed off some of our clothes and shoes that we could no longer bear to carry, to Oasis. All in the name of charity eh!

Having practically become residents at the Hostal de María we decided we´d better make a move so we got ourselves together and headed for another bus- to Mexico City. The taxi driver who took us to the bus station kindly informed us that Mexico City was horrible, dirty, the people were rude and we´d wish we never left Guadalajara.

On that note, Mexico City here we come!