The building above epitomizes Guadalajara style to me, where so many modern or semi-modern structures, no matter the architectural idiom, protrude slightly outward at the second floor, sometimes again at the third and fourth, sometimes dramatically at corners. It's strange because it's so prevalent, like a mainstream design trend that sprung up locally at some point and just stayed.
This city feels more genetically similar to Los Angeles than to Mexico City. It is flat and wide like a lot of L.A., and car-oriented like L.A. is, too. Public transit is limited to two light subway lines, a bunch of out-of-date buses, and a Metrobus-like system that everyone seems to have a different complaint about. Taxis are expensive. So basically, without a car or a driver, it's difficult to get around. Worse so than in L.A., surprisingly.
They don't say "bistec" like in D.F. but "asada" like in the North. It's not "bolillo" here it's "birote." People seem more or less ... comfortable. You don't see strangers with that wild look of desperation in their eyes like you do in the big city. It feels less provincial than its reputation tells you. In downtown we ran into a tucked-away block populated by several subtle lesbian-friendly bars, with teenage girls holding hands and kissing on the sidewalk outside in the daytime.
And it's true what they say. The people of Guadalajara are generally hot. Effortlessly attractive -- good faces, good bodies -- regardless of where they landed on the class or mestizo scale.
I keep wondering, Why is that?