A Trip To Mexico

By William Cullin & Family.

My sister, Stephanie Garcia (Cullin) as many of you will know her, now lives with her husband and family in Guadalajara, Mexico, and this is my brief report of a long awaited holiday in the Sun with them

We speak regularly to each other over the Internet, and had arranged that my wife Jane, my son Alex, daughter Anna, and I would visit them this summer.

             All the details finalised we set off on the long journey flying from London Gatwick via Houston Texas. In Texas we had a 4-hour wait between flights, this gave us time to freshen up and have a look round the shops in the airport.

We landed in Guadalajara at around 11:00 at night to be greeted by the entire family, all nine of us managing to fit into their car, which luckily was a nice big Dodge Ram Charger…. With air conditioning!!

The next day it was decided that, as Steph’s eldest son Jack was due to go away to complete some engineering work in a town that was a few hours drive away, we would go with him and stay in a hotel for a week and do some sightseeing.

We left the house at about 7:30 at night so as not to drive in the midday sun and I thought we had reached our destination at midnight. But Jack had wanted us to see Queretaro on the way to San Juan Del Rio, as it was a beautiful town to see at night with all the lights illuminating the places of interest. A very high aqueduct overshadowed the centre of the town, it spanned the full length of the valley from one side to the other, and the main road ran either side of it.

            Don Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana financed the aqueduct, built in 1726, as well as the construction of many beautiful colonial buildings including convents and churches that still stand today.

After our little midnight sightseeing we continued to San Juan Del Rio (St John of the river)… It was now 1:15 a.m. and after winding in and out of the maze of one-way streets we pulled up on a deserted road. Across the street all I could see was a pickup truck with half a dozen pairs of legs hanging out, looking like some of the locals were trying to get some sleep. Jack went and knocked on a large wooden door, I expected “Lurch” to answer, but a young woman opened it and let us in. Inside it very spacious and cool, we booked in and went off to our rooms through a court yard with flower beds and a swimming pool, the rooms were set out on two levels overlooking the court yard.

We set of early once more to drive a few hours to the town of “Tula” where there was an archaeological site. The Toltecs had built a city there with Pyramids, Palaces, Ball courts, Altars, and a main plaza. The whole place was built on a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside. they had a museum with some artefacts found on the site and it was a very interesting day out.

On another day we thought it would be a good idea to take a guided bus tour to see if there was anything we had missed on our wanderings…. The tour did not show much else of interest except it took us around the main churches that looked to have been there since time began and showed us the houses of famous people that had helped in the gaining of Mexican independence.

Near the end of the week it was time to set off back to Steph’s house in Guadalajara, it was planned that we were not going to take the direct route back as there was one or two places we could visit. One very spectacular place was a town called Juanajuato, situated in a deep bowl valley and overlooked by mountains, one of which we had driven down in full view of the town. The town itself was very busy with traffic and tourists from the surrounding states, there were some modern hotels and plenty to see. Most of the small towns that we came across had their old churches and houses of famous local dignitaries. The styles were all of Spanish design, since it was Spanish ruled until independence. Independence was a theme that was greatly celebrated no matter where you went. Nearing the centre of the town the road ahead split up, one part went through the rest of the town and another went down into the ground, I commented “ Well it looks like we are going into the sewers “, It was barely wide enough for cars… but had lighting… although very dim!

             After a few more hours drive we did eventually make it back to Steph’s house in Guadalajara, although it was now getting late at night…. 11:30 I think it was. On the last bit of “Motorway!” we did have to come off to find more fuel as we were getting low, I did not fancy the idea of running out, other traffic for help was few and far between and it was not advised to flag someone down in the middle of nowhere.

Now that we were back in the City, we were able to nip out during the day and do more sightseeing and still be back in time for tea.

On the Saturday before we were due to fly back home to England, preparations had been made for the big Mariachi festival. Bands from all over Mexico turned up, there were parades through the City streets on floats.

The place was packed solid and later that evening in the main plaza where a stage had been constructed all 55 bands played their music one after another. The Mayor of the City and other officials made speeches of welcome and praise to all the visiting bands. I now know of something worse than the saying, “ Packed like Sardines in a tin”!!

On the next day, Sunday, it was time for us to leave Sunny Mexico and return to the wonderful dampness of home. All together it must have taken about 11-12 hours flying and 4 hours driving home from the airport.

We had a wonderful and unforgettable time in the sun and returned home bringing the good wishes of Stephanie to be passed on to all Old Michaelian's and “particularly those who remember me”.