This photo is taken from the parking area of the best gym in town (at our corner, too, not that it matters) looking across the highway that goes to Celaya and Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club. This is where I time my crossing carefully to make it across the road between the cars speeding down the highway towards the glorieta (roundabout) where the highway meets the Libramiento (ring road) around town. Reminds me of those warning signs on the Interstate 5 near the border control point that warn of people crossing the highway - only we don't have any warning signs here. It's take your life in your hands time!
The shop on the left is the Pharmacia Guadelejara - a good source for inexpensive drugs. Antibiotics (and perhaps some other drugs) require a prescription, but otherwise it's walk up and place your order.
Next to the pharmacy is a building that formerly held a Brazilian restaurant (recently closed) and then an appliance store for upscale kitchen hardware. The brownish buildings at the far end are part of a small shopping center with offices, shops, restaurants, and a bank.
After crossing the highway I walk in front of these buildings and turn left into the shopping center at the bus stop where there's usually a small crowd milling around. An intercity bus (Coordinados) stops there as well as an intracity bus that heads out to the sports center (Unidos Deportiva) outside of town. Some of the intracity buses fo three-quarters of the way around the glorieta, depositing passengers safely at the Mega parking lot; others drive straight through the glorieta and drop passengers for Mega at this point.
This is the shopping center. Shops and restaurants along the left side; more of the same at the far end. The unfinished building in the center of the photo is unnamed at this time; probably a restaurant with underground parking (the building took over part of the parking spaces) They've been working on it for about a year now. I walk through this center towards the back and out to the Libramiento.
Leaving the shopping center I walk on the sidewalk (!) past the TelCel offices (the cell phone service which we use - the driveways are for their parking lot). When the sidewalk ends (and it does), it's on to the dirt path alongside the Libramiento.
Here's the walk alongside the highway. We walk on the dirt path rather than the paved shoulder because cars zip past on the roadway as they come up the hill and make the curve (we hope) - and they're not too careful about observing the painted line denoting where the shoulder is located! Shoulders are used for many things here in Mexico: pulling over to let another vehicle pass; passing another vehicle; driving on when you're a slower car than others in your lane.
This photo shows the edge of the parking lot for the new Burger King (just out of sight), the Pemex station next door, and some offices along the Libramiento. There is no sidewalk here, so one has to be careful of cars entering/leaving both the gas station and the new fast-food restaurant. At the far end of the picture is the used car display area for the local Nissan dealer.
Having made it safely this far, we then head off overland on this little path, cross a cobblestone road, walk past the next set of offices (sort of maroon in the picture), then walk along the shoulder (watching for on-coming traffic) and eventually reach the dental clinic (it's in the building in the distance). The whole trip takes 15-20 minutes and you hope there's no rain 'cuz those dirt paths turn into mud holes!
On Saturday I finally had my permanent bridge cemented into place (it fits so much better than the temporary, which kept coming unglued between appointments). There's only a second cleaning left for this afternoon and I'm free! Until next year or until something else goes wrong with my mouth! I've been dealing with this process since May, when a tooth broke. Of course, we had a 5-week cruise booked for later that month, so the process has taken a little bit longer than normal, but my mouth is back to near-normal.
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