A Good Walk

A Good Walk

Visiting any city for the first time always requires dedicating a day or two exclusively to sight seeing. This is not always an easy task and requires some strategic planning if one wants to get the most out of the day. Depending on the size of the city will determine how many places within the metropolitan are one will actually get to visit. To make things easier here is a good walking route that you can take of the Historic Downtown Guadalajara area that may save you some time.

Begin a tour of downtown at the 16th-century cathedral on Avenida Alcalde between Avenida Hidalgo and Calle Morelos. Go out through the main doors and cross Avenida Alcalde to Plaza Guadalajara, dotted with benches beneath square-cut laurel trees. To your right (with your back toward the cathedral) across Avenida Hidalgo is the Palacio Municipal, or City Hall, a clever colonial-style fake: It was built in 1952 with an arched facade and interior patio so it would fit in with neighboring buildings. Inside is a colorful mural depicting the founding of Guadalajara. For a brief detour into the history of journalism and print, head east (left) around the corner from the Palacio to the new Museo del Periodismo y las Artes Gráficas at Avenida Alcalde 225, just north of Calle San Felipe; it’s located in a building long known as Casa de los Perros because of the two wrought-iron dogs (perros) guarding the roof.

Return to Avenidas Alcalde and Hidalgo and proceed one block east to Calle Liceo, where you’ll see the Museo Regional de Guadalajara. You’ll pass the Illustrious Jaliscans’ Rotunda de, a tree-shaded square whose central colonnaded rotunda covers a mausoleum containing the remains of 17 of the state of Jalisco’s favorite sons and daughters. Surrounding the square are brass sculptures representing those buried inside.

When you exit back onto Calle Liceo, you have two alternatives: Three blocks to your right is the Casa-Museo López Portillo. Around the corner to the left, on Avenida Hidalgo, are the Palacio Legislativo, a former customs house, tabacco warehouse, and inn that today houses Jalisco’s state legislature, followed by the Palacio de Justicia, built in 1588 as part of Guadalajara´s first convent and now the state courthouse. Across Avenida Hidalgo on your right sprawls the Plaza de la Liberación, at the east end of which rises the spectacular Teatro Degollado . Behind it begins the Plaza Tapatía, five-block-long pedestrian mall lined with shops, trees, and whimsical sculptures and frequented by mimes and street musicians. At the end of Plaza Tapatía, visit the Instituto Cultural Cabañas; then proceed back west through Plaza Tapatía to the modernistic Quetzalcóatl Fountain in the center. Turn left and walk down the stairs to the three-story Mercado Libertad (Shopping, below). Turn left again when you leave the market and cross the pedestrian bridge over Avenida Javier Mina to the Plaza de los Mariachis (Not nice or recommended after 7:00 p.m.).

Return to Plaza Tapatía by heading right to the intersection of Calzada Independencia Sur and Avenida Javier Mina, in front of the Iglesia de San Juan de Dios. Continue two blocks past the church and o pack up the stairs. Turn left and walk west four blocks (giving you the opportunity to see the stores on this side of the plaza) to Iglesia de San Agustín.

As you leave the church, turn left down Calle Morelos to Avenida Corona. Turn left again, walk half-block to the main entrance of the Palacio de Gobierno. Exit the Palacio de Gobierno back onto Avenida Corona (the way you came in) and cross the street to the Plaza de Armas, where you can rest on a wrought-iron bench, or imagine yourself a gracious don or doña as you stroll amid the trees and flower beds surrounding an ornately sculpted kiosk, a gift from France in 1910. You have now come full circle, with the cathedral to your right, on the north side or the plaza.