Alarm set early again, so that we could catch the 9.30am bus back to Guadalajara. Finished packing, & took all our bags downstairs, & ate breakfast, with half an eye on the clock. At quarter to 9, we packed the car, & Susana & Mark drove us to the bus station, where we bought tickets for the 10am Omnibus de Mexico bus, as the ETN bus was later, M$100 more expensive per person, & did not have the half price children's fares.

We said goodbye to Susana & Mark, & a short while later we were loading our bags into the bus, & boarding. The 5 hour journey passed without incident, & once at Guadalajara bus station, we bought a M$65 taxi ticket to Tlaquepaque, an "artistic" suburb, a few km south east of the city centre. The first hotel that we looked at was a little too expensive, so after asking at the tourist information booth, we walked a couple of blocks further east, to the Hotel Mi Viejo Refugio, where we got a small room for M$450 - one huge bed, & space for the kids to sleep on the floor, & free wifi! The shared bathroom was a short walk along the corridor, but there didn't seem to be many (any?) other guests staying at the hotel.

There was a small restaurant kitchen downstairs, & we asked the ladies there if they had anything prepared to eat, & were served chicken & veg soup (DL&J), and a bowl of rice for M, with a lovely lime juice drink. After eating, we walked along the pedestrianised C.Independencia, looking at the market stalls as we went. There were numerous arts & crafts shops along the way, as well as a number of statues & art installations, on the street. At the end of the pedestrianised area, we turned around, & walked back along C.Morelos to the central square (Jardin Hildago), & then decided that it was time to find coffee. A short walk long C.Juarez took us to an Oaxacan café, where they made their own chocolate! The kids' chocomilk was delicious, but the coffees were a bit overpriced! We continued our stroll, but soon decided that it was time for tea, & found a small restaurant, whose whitewashed walls were covered in handwritten quotes & sayings, that we had fun translating, & occasionally mistranslating, for our own amusement! We ate our burgers (chicken, prawn & beef), & returned to the hotel, via the OXXO for water & chocolate flavoured stout Bohemia!

Once in our room, we started to settle down for the evening, with the kids writing their diaries, while D checked emails. There was a message marked *Urgent*, asking us to contact the house in Zacatecas asap, so we used Skype to phone Mark, who told us the sad & shocking news that L's mum had died suddenly, this morning.