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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Ajijic
Cobbled lanes run down to a lakeside promenade in this village on the north shore of Lake Chapala, the largest freshwater lake in Mexico, about an hour south of the city. Murals cover walls around the plaza, and the pier looks across shallow water to the hills of the far shore. Regional buses toward Chapala leave from the old central bus station; the waterline drops through the dry months.
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Guachimontones
Circular stepped pyramids, each ringed by platforms around a central altar, crown a hill above Teuchitlán, about an hour west of the city. The round plan belongs to a culture found only in this part of western Mexico, and the site forms part of the agave landscape listed by UNESCO. A visitor centre explains the rings before the hill walk. It opens Thursday to Sunday, and the slope has little shade.
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Hotel Francés
Lodging has stood on this site behind the government palace since 1610, and the present building went up in the nineteenth century around a central courtyard. Its old elevator is among the earliest in the city, and the building is a listed historic monument. Rooms keep a period character, and some face busy streets. The cathedral, the theatre and the Hospicio Cabañas are all within walking distance.
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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.
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Palacio de Gobierno de Jalisco
Orozco painted Miguel Hidalgo with a torch raised above scenes of war across the whole vault of the main staircase in this state government building. Hidalgo lodged in the palace in 1810 and issued his decree abolishing slavery from Guadalajara that December. More Orozco murals fill the old congress chamber upstairs. Entry is free.
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Teatro Degollado
A row of Corinthian columns fronts the opera house on the plaza behind the cathedral, with Apollo and the muses carved in the pediment above. Inside, tiers of red and gold boxes rise to a ceiling painted with a scene from Dante's Divine Comedy. The Jalisco Philharmonic gives its concerts here, and the University of Guadalajara folk ballet stages its seasons in the hall.
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Templo Expiatorio del Santísimo Sacramento
Grey stone pinnacles and a rose window front a neo-Gothic church that took most of a century to finish, begun in 1897 and finished in 1972. Tall stained glass windows colour the nave. In the tower, a clock sends miniature figures of the twelve apostles out whenever its carillon plays, watched from the plaza below. Masses run through the day, so visits pause during services.
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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.
