Woke ~8am & slowly got up & ready for the day. Kids did their schoolwork, & then we went out for breakfast, at a cheap place, just around the corner from the hotel - eggs & ham or chorizo or bacon, & frijoles, plus coffee or freshly squeezed OJ for M$40 each. After eating, we crossed the road to a bookshop, where the kids spent some of their Xmas money. The laundrette that we wanted to use was closed, & on enquiring at the hotel, we discovered that they wanted to charge ~M$20 per item! After putting the (still dirty) clothes bag back in our room, we walked back to the nearest plaza, & rode in a horse drawn carriage (M$200) for ~45 minutes, around the central district of Guadalajara, with running commentary provided by our driver.

On returning to the Templo de San Fransisco, we walked back to the cathedral, then east along C.Morelos, through a large street market with numerous stalls of locally made arts & crafts, & a few street performers (M thought she saw a moving statue!). Turning south at the Instituto Cultural de Cabanas, we reached the Mercado San Juan de Dios, a huge covered market (nice to be in the shade for a while!) where D played a couple of very cheap, locally made, guitars, & M bought some pink sandals for the Christening. After nosing around for an hour, we headed west, back through the central plaza, then along Av. Hildago to try to find the Mercado Corona. This was a much smaller covered market which didn't take long to look around, but on the street outside, there was a group of people sat, weaving shoes & sandals. After some discussion, we realised that it was a class, where you could make your own pair of sandals for M$150, or have them made for you, for M$250. The teacher said that it would take an hour or so, & L chose a style & requested a pair to be made. We were told to return after 10am tomorrow morning, when they would be ready. We walked back to the street market, for J to buy an obsidian arrow head necklace, M some felt turtles, & L a pair of silver earrings.

We walked back towards the hotel, & bought strawberry & vanilla ice creams, dipped in chocolate, before stopping at the guitar shop, again, for D to sample a couple more guitars. L took the kids back to the hotel, while D spent ~30 minutes playing, & trying to communicate with the (very patient0 young lad in the shop! After weighing up the pros & cons (& prices) of a couple of nice semi acoustics, D returned to the hotel, via the 7-11 to buy water & beer. After relaxing in the room for a while, we decided to eat at the restaurant (conveniently located) a couple of doors further up the street from the music shop. After a conversation detailing our burgeoning boredom with Mexican cuisine, ironically, the meal was excellent, & we were forced to retract our comments, & apologise!

We returned to the music shop, & D finally chose the white slim bodied electro acoustic Washburn, with light blue trim! We managed to get a few pesos knocked off the cost, as we also bought a flight case. We returned to the hotel, birthday present in hand, for a couple of beers, & for D to play with his new toy!