Wildlife

It was an early start on Thursday, to be on site for John, Owen and Mari's talk at 9am. We beat most of the exhibitors in, hopping over brooms and vacuums and the cleaners got the site ready for visitors.  This was the calm before the excited schoolchildren storm, arriving coach load by coach load, and buying books, mobbing authors, buying more books. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm in the 9am talk, and a full room at a time I was told was 'too early for most Mexicans!' Later that day we manage to get out to Mercado Libertad (known locally as Mercado San Juan de Dios): 'Guadalajarans claim that it's the largest indoor market in the world' says my Rough Guide to Mexico. It is  pretty  big, with around 2,800 stalls - a sprawling maze of narrow lanes of stalls selling leather goods, clothes, tequila, shot glasses, handbags, ukuleles, all kinds of street food and birds in cages from roosters to songbirds. We come up for air and wander outs...

Back at FIL on Wednesday morning the stands have been shuffled around and we've more space to spread out the Parthian display. I busy myself with that before the British Council networking reception at the UK publisher stands at lunchtime. Afterwards we sat down to work out the questions and answer flow for Thursday's 9am panel discussion in the UK Pavilion space with Mari, Owen and John (chaired by Hazel from Accent Press). That evening Rebecca and I returned to the anbiently-lit Cathedral squares by night, exploring side streets where locals had rigged up an outdoor cinema with a sheet tacked to a construction work awning – there were a lot of roadworks centrally – and then we stumbled across some al fresco private party to do with shiny cars, before Owen joined us for a quiet dinner at a place with great views and company but bad food (we were yet to hit our food luck stride).

Refreshed after some sleep and with a seemingly busy day ahead I'm up and showered early and taking advantage of the fruit and coffee at the B&B. Having made arrangements to pick up our passes from the old town the day before plans are changed again that morning and our early taxi takes us to the new pick up instead -– the MIND centre around the corner from the main FIL Guadalajara site. There we find Mabli Jen Eustace, an elfin Cardiff MET student who is creating a painting by the Wales exhibition in the foyer. She's popular with staff and visitors alike as her vibrant abstract piece, inspired by a visit to the local market and the historic old town, builds in layers. Read her blog about creating the piece and her visit to Mexico here. Mabli gives us our festival passes and explains that the 10.30am Media and VIP reception announcing the Welsh delegation that we were heading in for is cancelled. So we grab another coffee on the cafe terrace instead before heading roun...