# A Walk in the Park



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Today. I rode with my wife to Guadalajara* from Lake Chapala to visit SRE (Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores) in the Palacio Federal downtown near the city´s landmark cathedral for some business of her´s and, as I was sort of left in limbo for an indeterminate period awaiting the completion of her business and was becoming exceedingly bored just sitting there in the mezzanine of the federal building drinking bad coffee, I decided to stroll across the small municipal park across the street in search of a taco at one of the outdoor taco satnds on the other side of the park and, keep in mind that I am an anglo of mixed British-Scottish heritage who looks like the very depiction of a 70 year old foreign white boy and when crossing that small municipal park from Guadalajara´s Federal Building in the city´s epicentre, policed by countless cops and undercover thugs, I had six well-dressed young men all offer independently to sell me drugs which they referred to in perfect English as "medicines". This open market of drug sales from meth to cocaine to you name it taking place in the heart of Guadalajara at 11:00AM in plain sight. Christ, I was just looking for a beer and a street taco and could find neither. Had I been seeking meth, I would have found heaven but meth is not good for 70 year olds. I don´t cae what these creeps sell but I would like to walk across a park in front of Guadalajara´s Federal Building in the heart of the city without being accosted by people selling anyhing.

This sort of open drug sellimg and backwoods killing of drug suppliers/moonshiners took me back to 1950s Alabama where I was raised. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

* Guadalajara is a derivative of the Arabic phrase (phonetically speaking of ) "wad.al-hayara" meaning "River that runs through the valley of stones." The name comes from Spain after centuries of Arab occupation and is quite beautiful.. Many U.S. and Canadian expats like to refer to Guadalajara as "Guad" which is the equivilant of the sound of a toilet filled with execrement flushing and on its way to Lake Chapala to further pollute our envieonment. A total lack of respect for language.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Could have titled your post " Walking the Dawg"


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Hound Dog said:


> Today. I rode with my wife to Guadalajara* from Lake Chapala to visit SRE (Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores) in the Palacio Federal downtown near the city´s landmark cathedral for some business of her´s and, as I was sort of left in limbo for an indeterminate period awaiting the completion of her business and was becoming exceedingly bored just sitting there in the mezzanine of the federal building drinking bad coffee, I decided to stroll across the small municipal park across the street in search of a taco at one of the outdoor taco satnds on the other side of the park and, keep in mind that I am an anglo of mixed British-Scottish heritage who looks like the very depiction of a 70 year old foreign white boy and when crossing that small municipal park from Guadalajara´s Federal Building in the city´s epicentre, policed by countless cops and undercover thugs, I had six well-dressed young men all offer independently to sell me drugs which they referred to in perfect English as "medicines". This open market of drug sales from meth to cocaine to you name it taking place in the heart of Guadalajara at 11:00AM in plain sight. Christ, I was just looking for a beer and a street taco and could find neither. Had I been seeking meth, I would have found heaven but meth is not good for 70 year olds. I don´t cae what these creeps sell but I would like to walk across a park in front of Guadalajara´s Federal Building in the heart of the city without being accosted by people selling anyhing.
> 
> This sort of open drug sellimg and backwoods killing of drug suppliers/moonshiners took me back to 1950s Alabama where I was raised. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
> 
> * Guadalajara is a derivative of the Arabic phrase (phonetically speaking of ) "wad.al-hayara" meaning "River that runs through the valley of stones." The name comes from Spain after centuries of Arab occupation and is quite beautiful.. Many U.S. and Canadian expats like to refer to Guadalajara as "Guad" which is the equivilant of the sound of a toilet filled with execrement flushing and on its way to Lake Chapala to further pollute our envieonment. A total lack of respect for language.


I fully agree with you on all accounts!

Once I have some time, I'd like to tell you about what happens in the streets behind the white house!


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=GARYJ65;1251865]I fully agree with you on all accounts!

Once I have some time, I'd like to tell you about what happens in the streets behind the white house![/QUOTE]_

If you are speaking od the U.S. White House, amigo, I used to live in D.C. around Dupont Circle way back in the 1960s and left there to move to Downtown Oakland, California, a violent and unpredictable town so I guess I should have done my research before cloosing these places. The places I live in in Mexico these days, whether at Lake Chapala, Guadalajara or Chiapas, are highly civilized in comparison and far less dangerous.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Hound Dog said:


> I decided to stroll across the small municipal park across the street in search of a taco at one of the outdoor taco satnds on the other side of the park and, keep in mind that I am an anglo of mixed British-Scottish heritage who looks like the very depiction of a 70 year old foreign white boy and when crossing that small municipal park from Guadalajara´s Federal Building in the city´s epicentre, policed by countless cops and undercover thugs, I had six well-dressed young men all offer independently to sell me drugs which they referred to in perfect English as "medicines".


Maybe you misunderstood their intentions, and all they were doing was asking if you needed some Cialis. :ranger:


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Longford said:



Maybe you misunderstood their intentions, and all they were doing was asking if you needed some Cialis. :ranger:

Click to expand...

_Which comment reminds me of Willy Nelson´s recent statement, "Well, I just turned 73 and I´ve outlived my d*ck."

The asterisk was my way of minimizing the possibilty that I might offend someone by referring to a sexual organ half the people on the planet carry around with them at all times but find unworthy of comment even though it is an appurtenance the lack of which would have precluded the existence of us all. 

That reminds me of an old Rodney Dangerfield joke; " When I was a kid, we were so poor that, had I not been a boy, I´d have had nothing to play with."


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

That could well be, Longford, as my wife and I spent some 40 minutes in that same park just last week, also at mid-day, waiting for our ride back to Chapala after being fingerprinted at the Immigration offices. Not one person even spoke to us. Maybe being well over 70 put us in another category.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

RVGRINGO said:


> That could well be, Longford, as my wife and I spent some 40 minutes in that same park just last week, also at mid-day, waiting for our ride back to Chapala after being fingerprinted at the Immigration offices. Not one person even spoke to us. Maybe being well over 70 put us in another category.


Or because you were with your wife. Alone maybe they would have asked you.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


RVGRINGO said:



That could well be, Longford, as my wife and I spent some 40 minutes in that same park just last week, also at mid-day, waiting for our ride back to Chapala after being fingerprinted at the Immigration offices. Not one person even spoke to us. Maybe being well over 70 put us in another category. 

Click to expand...

_I don´t understand it, RV. Here I am in my 72nd year and people are trying to sell me drugs. When I was 27 and hanging out in San Francisco´s Haight Ashbury, I found it hard to score drugs at a time and in a place where they were readily available and I was quite amenable to their ingestion but now that I no longer desire to ingest poisonous chemicals, they are freely offered to me repeatedly in the shadow of Guadalajara´s Federal Building. Maybe I need to buy some new blue jeans and some shirts without tatters so I look at least partially respectable. I´ll bet the ride you were waiting for in the park would have refused to pick me up out of fear of even slowing down.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


AlanMexicali said:



Or because you were with your wife. Alone maybe they would have asked you. 

Click to expand...

_ By the way, Alan, that is an excellent observation. I was alone as my wife was taking care of her business in the federal building. Since all of these guys spoke good English, at least as far as selling drugs is concerned, including, "Hey, my man, good to see you, what will it be today?" I have a feeling I stumbled into the WalMart of ******* routinely seeking drugs in Mexico´s second city and having no problem fiding them. However, not even one taco joint where Dawg could get the desired taco and cerveza. What has this world come to when one can´t get a taco and beer in Downtown Guadalajara but all the meth one doesn´t want? The old guy´s lament.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Having been to the Palacio Federal before, we were happily sitting in the park and munching on our snacks from our survival kit, prepared in case of a long wait at INM. Maybe they though we were already satisfying a case of the munchies, or that I was too far past the Willy Nelson stage. ¿Quien sabe?


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## tepetapan (Sep 30, 2010)

RVGRINGO said:


> Having been to the Palacio Federal before, we were happily sitting in the park and munching on our snacks from our survival kit, prepared in case of a long wait at INM. Maybe they though we were already satisfying a case of the munchies, or that I was too far past the Willy Nelson stage. ¿Quien sabe?


 Seriously RV, do you take the OP serious? If so, go back a few months and read. the posts. darlin.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

tepatapan , do you doubt that drugs are being sold in parks in Guadalajara? You have to be kidding of course they are and in in many big cities parks all over the world no doubt.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Today, I do not care, as our visits to the Palacio Federal have resulted in getting our Green Cards, the Residente Permanente cards, in our hot little hands today. Finally, after only seven weeks of waiting and wondering, we are free of the annual renewals and associated bother and expense. It feels good!


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## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

RVGRINGO said:


> Today, I do not care, as our visits to the Palacio Federal have resulted in getting our Green Cards, the Residente Permanente cards, in our hot little hands today. Finally, after only seven weeks of waiting and wondering, we are free of the annual renewals and associated bother and expense. It feels good!


That's wonderful news. ¡Felicidades! :clap2:


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


RVGRINGO said:



Today, I do not care, as our visits to the Palacio Federal have resulted in getting our Green Cards, the Residente Permanente cards, in our hot little hands today. Finally, after only seven weeks of waiting and wondering, we are free of the annual renewals and associated bother and expense. It feels good!

Click to expand...

_I certainly understand that sentiment, RV. We got our "Inmigrado" cards in that building in November, 2010 - the equivalent ,for you newbies reading this, of today´s "Residente Permanente" card back then - and haven't set foot in a dreadful INM office since. It took us ten years as FM-3 and then FM-2 residents to achieve "Inmigrado" status which calls for no renewals EVER. It´s supposed to be yours until you expire as long as you live in Mexico until that happens.

Then along came the Mexican lawmakers who drafted a new immigration code and made things a bit more problematic for would-be permanent residents and INM seems to be having a tough time handling the new code administratively speaking so we are thrilled to be out of there even though they say we need - eventually - to go in to an INM office and exchange that "Inmigrado" card for a "Residente Permanente" card but I think I´ll wait a while until they get their "ducks together". 

I am shooting for Mexican citizenship in the near future so I will be out from under the umbrella of INM and legislative uncertainty.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

The SRE people in Guadalajara are a pleasure to deal with no comparison with the Immigration. You can get all your papers together and have them check everything before you turn them in. You can go and drop by and they will see you if they do not have anyone but it is better to make an appointment.
They are extremely picky about names and all the names on the passport, Inmigrado card, birth certificate, constancia from the State and Federal gvt and curp have to totally match otherwise the problems starts..
You have to go to Coyoacan , DF to get the carta de policia Federal and all papers are valid 3 months so the trick is to get the birth certificate, apostilled and translated quickly and immediately go to Mexico after you receive them .
You can get the carta de policia from Jalisco at the Forensic office in Chapala by the market so that is the easy one .
Get 4 passport pictures (front only on white background) and make the appointment. 
You need a letter telling them of all your movements in out of Mexico within the last 2 years corresponding to the sealed entry and exit in your passport and fill out the application form and you are on your way. 
Once they say you have everything you go and pay 3965 pesos to the bank come back with your payment (plus 2 copies)and 5 or 6 month later you have your papers. 
I did not have to take the test but the test is easy and all the questions are on their site so no big deal one way or another.
If you make 3 copies of everything including all your passpors´pages you got everything, about 1kg worth of paper...


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=tepetapan;1253207]Seriously RV, do you take the OP serious? If so, go back a few months and read. the posts. darlin.[/QUOTE]_

Keep in mind that tepetapan not only lives in Catemaco but is proud of living there.


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## johnmex (Nov 30, 2010)

As there is a thriving black market in stolen prescription drugs in the area that Hound Dog is talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were actually not offering him "controlled substances", but maybe something a bit more mundane like Vicodan or (say it softly) Viagara.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=johnmex;1254125]As there is a thriving black market in stolen prescription drugs in the area that Hound Dog is talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were actually not offering him "controlled substances", but maybe something a bit more mundane like Vicodan or (say it softly) Viagara.[/QUOTE]_

You are mistaken and presumptuous. Perhaps I worded my post too softly for you. Sometimes speaking euphemistically as was I in the introductory post, creates confusion among some.

As an aside, were you trying to softly say "Viagra"? I was seeking a taco iand cerveza in that park that morning, not a fling in the bushes. Seek your own thrills.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Hound Dog said:


> [_QUOTE=johnmex;1254125]As there is a thriving black market in stolen prescription drugs in the area that Hound Dog is talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were actually not offering him "controlled substances", but maybe something a bit more mundane like Vicodan or (say it softly) Viagara._




You are mistaken and presumptuous. Perhaps I worded my post too softly for you. Sometimes speaking euphemistically as was I in the introductory post, creates confusion among some.

As an aside, were you trying to "softly" spell "Viagra"? I was seeking a taco and cerveza in that park that morning, not a fling in the bushes. Seek your own thrills.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Hound Dog said:


> [/I]
> 
> You are mistaken and presumptuous. Perhaps I worded my post too softly for you. Sometimes speaking euphemistically as was I in the introductory post, creates confusion among some.
> 
> As an aside, were you trying to "softly" spell "Viagra"? I was seeking a taco and cerveza in that park that morning, not a fling in the bushes. Seek your own thrills.


Hound Dog, please remember Forum Rule #1: Please treat others here the way you wish to be treated, with respect, and without insult or personal attack. Thanks.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Isla Verde said:



Hound Dog, please remember Forum Rule #1: Please treat others here the way you wish to be treated, with respect, and without insult or personal attack. Thanks.

Click to expand...

_Sorry, Isla Verde, upon reflection, my response to johnmex did seem bit petulant - I´ll refrain from further such responses. Nothing personal , johnmex., just engaging in word games. I appreciate your contributions to the forum.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Hound Dog said:


> Sorry, Isla Verde, upon reflection, my response to johnmex did seem bit petulant - I´ll refrain from further such responses. Nothing personal , johnmex., just engaging in word games. I appreciate your contributions to the forum.


Thanks, DG. And we appreciate your contributions too.


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## johnmex (Nov 30, 2010)

Dawg, 

My comment about Viagra was not aimed at you personally. My idea was that sometimes having the need for Viagra is less socially acceptable than having a need for coke or meth...


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## Uecker_seats (Jan 26, 2012)

It's just the same in Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, and with more beach vendors in PV, it'sjust a tad worse then in Cancun, but not by much. The dealers start wanting to sell you "coke", and when you say now they offer "green" or "mota". I'll never forget there was this couple from the UK who went for a walk on the beach near the GCP and came back astounded someone tried to sell them some "green" on the beach. There is also alot of pimping, beach vendors pimping out there GF's. I actually saw 3 prostitutes on the beach there in front of Canto del Sol in 2009. Most of this activity can be attrbuted to the Zeta cartel in the region. Years ago they were involved with higher level crime there, big drug sales, extortion and money laundering, but unfortunatly now they are also involved with street crime there to.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

johnmex said:


> Dawg,
> 
> _My comment about Viagra was not aimed at you personally. My idea was that sometimes having the need for Viagra is less socially acceptable than having a need for coke or meth..._




John:

Thanks for the comment. My reaction to your original comment was both inapproprate and, in my judgment, upon reflection, naive and petty. It makes sense that that park in Downtown Guadalajara is a source of the sales of illicit drugs including prescription drugs being sold on the black market. I, as most of us who have become elderly, take several drugs a day just to remain on the planet and lucid for a bit longer.

I must admit to being somewhat ignorant of this drug market and, when I strolled through that park I was taken aback at the multiple solicitations for "medicinas" out of the clear blue. I cannot imagine old goobers like me taking black market, health maintaining drugs with no assurance as to quality but to each his own. Clearly, however, this is happening among some, it is a lucrative trade and there is no attempt to thwart this illegal market whatsoever. Why does that not surprise me? 

Thanks for your input. I may be smarter for it but I will no longer go to that park for a taco and beer; that´s for sure.


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## johnmex (Nov 30, 2010)

If you go about 4 blocks from there you can find almost any medicine sold in Mexico, almost all of it is stolen from the public healthcare systems. Next time you go to the IMSS and they tell you at the farmacia "no hay", you will know where to go to find what you need...

Disclaimer: The above was sarcasm. Please never, ever buy from these guys.


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