The Longest Day

(6/22/22) Last day in Guadalajara & it was a doozy 😵

The day started off well as we drove out to visit the pre-Hispanic Guachimontones ruins in the Tequila Valley (yes, that tequila). These ancient ruins from the Teuchitlán Culture (300 BCE to 450/500 CE) consist of temple mounds (some still buried under vegetation) surrounded by a ring of houses, with a few ball courts thrown in. The central mounds are stacks of concentric circles (like a 3-D bull's eye), where - it's hypothesized - that a tall wooden post was centered, atop which priests would balance themselves in religious ceremonies. Something similar to but very much pre-dating the Palo Volador that originated in Mesoamerica around 600-1000 CE. (If you haven't seen the Mexican 'Dance of the Flyers', look it up - it's impressive!) Even more interesting were the burial remains found under the mounds, but sadly none were on display - only a replica. 😕 The priest in the sky supposedly represented the 'heavens', while the mounds - mirroring the surrounding mountains -represented the earth and the tombs represented the underworld.  

La Iguana Mound

La Iguana with Volcan Tequila in the background

El Azquelito

El Gran Guachi, not yet unearthed

The ball courts were the equivalent of 'trial by combat' (sans weapons) in ancient Mexico, where players could only hit the ball with their hips & the court was shaped like a capital "I", with the top & bottom being the goal areas. Kind of a precursor to soccer but they couldn't even use their feet.

We headed into the town of Tequila for a quick lunch - no tequila tastings, as we had to get back to Guadalajara for dinner reservations & a mariachi show (way more interesting!) - but they did have a lively stream of alcohol-themed buses as part of the distillery tours. 

The drive through the Tequila countryside was beautiful - we even got to the top of a hill where we could look down on the entire ruins. The valley was lush with beautiful blue agave fields. One of which we stopped at to hike down the side of a cliff for a bit to get a better view. It was at this point, I noticed chunks of obsidian scattering the ground and had the regrettable idea to strike two of them together to form a sharp edge...just like they did in pre-Hispanic times. Needless to say, I kind of butchered my thumb in the process 😬...and yet that was not the worst part of the day.

After stopping at a pharmacy to clean my wounds, we were sitting at a red light - not moving - when we were backed into by a car pulling out of the parking lot next to the intersection. OF COURSE. Renting a car in Mexico is always an 'adventure' for us. No one was hurt but the driver's side of our rental was smashed pretty good. The lady who ran into us was in a very large SUV - my guess is she couldn't see our tiny car behind her...though her granddaughter, who was with her, did disclose that we weren't the first car she had recently run into. 😳 It took a couple hours but the rental place finally sent someone over to assess the damage & file the report. We missed out on dinner & mariachis but - silver lining, I suppose - we decided to cancel our rental & get something a bit better. Ugh, fucking hate renting cars.