Last day in Mexico: Tlaquepaque

I don't know about you, but whenever I think about the word Tlaquepaque, I get the rap song "Laffy Taffy" stuck in my head. And since we bought a magnet at Tlaquepaque, I see it on our fridge multiple times a day, so I think of this song a lot. You're welcome. Learn about Tlaquepaque after the jump

I started the morning determined to get my paws on some pozole. Well, I started it with excellent coffee at a great cafe under our hotel (we moved from the AirBnB to a cute hotel for the last night because the AirBnB was grungy). 

I had spotted a place on the Zocalo that was called Los 7 Pozoles (it's a chain), so I knew for a fact that I would be able to order it before noon. I went with the white pozole. It was sort of bland - chicken broth-based. I should have known that might be the case. Should have tried red or green. 

Here's another view of the cathedral while I was in the neighborhood.

We took a lyft to the neighborhood of Tlaquepaque, which used to be its own city, but is now part of Guadalajara due to sprawl. It turned out to mostly be a shopping area. Perfect for our last day after we checked out, since the flight left around 8 pm. This dude was in the visitor's center, with the Katrinas and day of the dead stuff.

I didn't get more tejuino, but there were vendors. And it seems like the scoop of lime sorbet is kind of standard.

We ate a terrible lunch, at a giant place that seemed to cater to the (mostly Mexican) tourists. The revelation was the tamarind michelada. No tomato, just beer and tamarind refresco, and then that stick is a tamarind candy around a straw. This is BRILLIANT. I much preferred it to you standard salty michelada.

 The park near the main church had a beautiful hibiscus garden.

 Aren't those long-tailed grackles a trip? Their squawks are so exotic. They sound like parrots, but then they just look like ugly ol' grackles with longer tails.

 Tlaquepaque had a lot of crafts and souvenirs, and also furniture stores where the Real Housewives of Guadalajara would probably shop (is that a show?) It also had a free cute lil ceramics museum in a historic villa. Here's the courtyard

More cute courtyard tree painting

Smiller had discovered that one of the best Mexican brews we tried (brewed in Colima) was for sale at the janky wine bar at our hotel, so we had one of these on the roof before we headed for the airport.

I'm so glad I got to go to Guadalajara and hope to go back for a long weekend in the next few years. I didn't get to do the canyon hike that I wanted to do, so that's a reason to go back right there!