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Aside from Bakersfield, CA, one of my favorite places in the western hemisphere is Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.  I recently flew there from LAX and drove back to Bakersfield in 3 days and 2 nights, driving the majority of time in day light hours.

I've often thought of retiring there and enjoying the cultura which is in my blood.  My mother was born there, some of my primos still live there, my wife Alma was born and raised there and the best restaurants, clubs and fiestas I've ever been to happen there on any given day or night.

If you have not been there, especially if you're Latino, you're missing a lot.  I've been to Guadalajara a couple dozen times and first drove down there in 1982 in a 1977 GMC pickup with camper shell.  With me was my mother, "Cuca", who I had promised that I would someday take her to visit her birth town, my mother in law, my son, Joseph and my daughter, Sandra.

So this first story is about my first driving trip there.  It was an experience I will never forget and I thought I'd summarize it a little and put it in writing before telling you about my most recent trip.

I'll never forget this trip where I put over 4000 miles on my GMC in 2 weeks.  Of course, the trip there consisted of stops in El, Paso, Texas where I met my Texan cousins on my father's side.  From there we headed to San Antonio, Texas where we went up to the top of the World Olympic Tower (or needle) and the Alamo.  My mother had a comadre in San Antonio so we didn't have a problem finding a place to stay.

The next day we drove to Corpus Christie where we jumped into the Gulf of Mexico and swam in very warm water.  From there we headed to Loredo, TX where we crossed the border and were held back about 3 hours on the Mexican side while the Mexican border agents waited for their "mordida" before letting us head into Mexico.  I remember doing something stupid and that was confronting the Capitan and telling him that I was not going to give him a cent so he can either release us and let us head back to USA or allow us to head to Guadalajara.  So we headed south to Monterrey, Mexico where we spent the night.

Again my mother had another comadre there and we had a place to stay.  Because of lack of space in the residence, I slept outside in the camper shell...at least I tried to sleep because the city was so noisy due to all the factories working at night.

It was good good to continue south out of the city then next morning after having a great breakfast with papas con huevos, fresh frijoles and fresh tortillas.  I knew that we were looking at a 10 hour drive and I'll never forget the heavy smog all over the city that morning.  I remember driving on a 6 lane road and coming up to a red light.  On the other side of the intersection, I saw that there were only 3 lanes.  I was trying to calculate how all the traffic was going to merge into the 3 lanes when the light turned green.  I knew one saying that I had picked up in school, "When in Rome, do as the Romans".  So when the light turned green, it was a free far all and I made it into the center lane with no problem.  We were home free.

A long, long day of driving but enjoying the Mexican country.  We had heard of Zacatecas with it's rich red land and knew that Antonio Aguilar, was raised there.  We were hungry and thirsty so we stopped to eat at a local restaurant.  I'll never forget this experience either and I won't go into it, only because I had a wrong drive ahead.

It was 10:00 p.m. and very dark when we started crossing the mountains that led into the Guadalajara valley.  The rain was torturous and loose rocks were rolling off the hills unto the roadway.  It was tricky avoiding all the big boulders on the road but after getting sideswiped by a couple of boulders, we made it safely into the city Guadalajara.  The rain continued and all the streets were flooded.

With only an address and phone number for my primos, we decided to make a phone call.  Primo Salvador arrived shortly after and escorted us to his residence in Zapopan, where we felt relieved that we had finally arrived.  The next morning, was very special because we met relatives we have never met before and the song's verse, "Guadalajara, Guadalajara........hueles a pura tierra mojada", kept going through my mind.

 Stay tuned for Part II