Things to do
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Guadalajara Cathedral
Twin yellow-tiled spires over the centre are younger than the church beneath them: an earthquake brought the originals down and the replacements went up in a neo-Gothic that matches nothing else here. Inside hang a Murillo Assumption and, in a glass case, the body of a child martyr venerated locally. Four plazas surround the block in the shape of a cross, so the building is seen from every side.
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Hospicio Cabañas
Manuel Tolsá laid out this almshouse in 1805 as a single storey of arcades around twenty three courtyards, built low so that orphans and the infirm could move without stairs. In the former chapel Orozco painted the conquest and the machine age across walls and vault, with a figure consumed by flame in the dome. Benches allow a view of it lying back. Closed on Mondays.
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Tequila
Blue agave covers the hills around this town below its own volcano, a planted landscape with a UNESCO listing, and the distilleries in the centre have been working the plant for centuries. Tours cover the ovens, the mills and a tasting. A tourist train runs out from Guadalajara and takes most of the day; driving is faster but leaves the question of who tastes.
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Tlaquepaque
Southeast of the centre, a former village absorbed by the city and kept as its craft quarter: pedestrian streets of ceramics workshops, blown glass and galleries in old town houses. El Parián, a block of cantinas built around a bandstand, has mariachi groups playing to the tables through the afternoon. Weekends are busiest. A taxi takes twenty minutes and the light rail stops nearby.
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Mercado Libertad
Three concrete levels beside the old town, opened in the late nineteen fifties and packed with leather boots, hats, herbal remedies and mariachi trim. The eating is upstairs: goat birria, and tortas ahogadas drowned in a chile sauce that locals order dry on one side. Haggling is expected in the stalls. The Plaza de los Mariachis, where bands wait to be hired, adjoins it.