Chapala - Final Thoughts

Coming back to Lake Chapala after six years has allowed us to reconnect with friends we made the last time – friends who really changed our perspective about the possibility of someday living here. Karen was a realtor on our previous visit and, with her husband Bill, showed us several properties in the area at that time. Karen's no longer in the business but she and Deborah have stayed in email/facebook contact so we wanted to see them again on this trip. We got together for drinks and then lunch at one of Ajijic's better restaurants, followed by cake and tea back at our apartment. They both still love living here and encouraged us to consider it. Karen perhaps has an ulterior motive as she'd love to one day take advantage of Deborah's hair styling and home organization skills.

We made a special effort on this trip to visit a few times with our good friends Gordon and Tony, a couple who live in La Floresta, our favorite neighborhood in Ajijic. We were more than happy to share a few meals with them as well as many hours of conversation sitting on their terrace in the company of their four friendly dogs. Gordon is a particularly effective proponent for this area and is fond of using the phrase “when you move here...” as opposed to “if you move here...” He was kind enough to drive us around a bit and to show us the houses of some neighbor friends. One of those friends has season tickets to the Scotiabank Northern Lights Music Festival, which takes place in Ajijic this time each year. He wasn't able to use his tickets for a couple of the performances and so passed them on through Gordon to us. As a result we got to see two great concerts for free – one a renowned classical pianist and the other an award-winning jazz quartet. Having these sort of quality cultural offerings in the relatively small village of Ajijic – without having to go to the much more metropolitan Guadalajara – is another advantage to living at lakeside. There is English language live theater here also, as well as cinemas and plenty of art galleries. After our last restaurant meal with Gordon and Tony, Gordon insisted on paying the bill, craftily causing us to owe them a meal and thus ensuring our return visit.

So we end this trip having visited three great areas in Mexico, each with it's own advantages and disadvantages. Mérida has loads of cultural offerings, friendly people and very little crime for a city of its size. But it is still a big, noisy city with traffic and air pollution, and, although the winter weather we experienced was quite nice, the summers are supposed to be brutally hot and humid. It's also Florida flat; and I think we'd miss the mountains. I liked the town of Izamal a lot but it, like Mérida, is situated inland and would experience the same sweltering summers, plus Deborah thinks it is a bit too small of a place for her. If we were to live in this area it would probably have to be in one of the smaller villages on the coast where the sea breezes keep the temperatures cooler, but where you're still not too far from the big city culture and conveniences.

Oaxaca is scenically situated up in the mountains and has an ideal climate with warm sunny days and cooler nights. The historical center is a gem, better maintained than Mérida's, and with a nice selection of cultural activities from concerts to museums, plus a beautiful, lively main plaza. It is still a large city though, so if we chose this area we'd want to explore some of the smaller outlying villages that are popular with expats. We didn't have a chance to check out housing prices in Oaxaca, but I'm told they aren't cheap. Oaxaca is deep in the south of Mexico and there are more indigenous people than other parts of the country, which lends it more of an exotic air, which appeals to me. I also like the fact that Oaxaca is an area full of artisans and their various crafts. And of course you can eat bugs there.

Lake Chapala, and in particular Ajijic, in a way makes the most sense. It sits at a similar elevation as Oaxaca and enjoys an equally good climate. (Locals would say the climate is better, siting a 1968 National Geographic article proclaiming it the second best in the world, trailing only Nairobi, Kenya). It's close to the US with an international airport just 30 minutes away. Big city culture and amenities lie just 45 minutes away in Guadalajara. The huge contingent of North American expats here is both good and bad. It would make the transition much less difficult as we could easily harvest the crop of local knowledge gained here from our fellow English speakers, and in particular from those friends we have made here. And frankly you can get by here knowing very little Spanish, which, outside of tourist areas, is not the case in the rest of Mexico. But we want to learn Spanish and I would hope we would continue to work on our language skills no matter how easy it is to just not bother. Ajijic is more Americanized than I'd generally prefer, but there is something to be said for shared values and the fact that it's easier to find favorite foods, entertainment, etc. There is crime here – maybe no more than at home, but more than you'll find, for instance, on the Yucatan Peninsula. And the traffic and sense of hustle and bustle is also more than the sleepy village vibe I had in mind, but I'm told that once the snow birders fly home to Canada and America things quiet down considerably. That's also when the rain starts and the hills turn from brown to green and the flowers bloom. That's when we need to come back to buy Gordon and Tony dinner.

I think Deborah would be happy to settle on Ajijic as our future home now, but she knows her husband is the king of research and needs to explore other options. We can say that Mexico in general is a real possibility though. The climate (in certain areas at least) is great. The people are nice. Housing – at least the kind we're interested in and in the areas we're interested – isn't necessarily cheap, but the day-to-day cost of living is low. The health care is excellent and affordable. And despite the headlines back home, most of the country is safe. Next winter we're thinking of Uruguay and Chile, but of course that is always subject to change. Bye for now, but tune in again come November or December.

Lake Chapala

On the hillside above Ajijic (and above our price range) in the neighborhood of Upper Chula Vista.


Another of Ajijic's many murals.

Ajijic's Carnaval parade.

Colorful cemetery in Ajijic.

Senora Deborah dolled up for an evening concert.

Fancy resort near Ajijic.

Heading towards the Ajijic parade.

Lakeshore vista.

Great White Heron or Great Egret - I'm not sure which, or if there is even any difference.

Gordon and Tony - aka, the unofficial Ajijic Booster Club.

Blooms begin on the Shaving Brush Tree.

Adios from Lake Chapala.

Chapala - Interesting Vehicles

The rate of car ownership in Mexico is only about one third that of the US, but the vehicles that are on the road don't look much different than what we're used to. It's certainly not a nation of dusty beater vehicles as some stereotypes might suggest. One difference that is apparent, however, is the number of old-style Volkswagen Beetles. Mainstream production of the beetle shifted to Mexico and Brazil in 1978 to take advantage of low labor costs. This continued in Mexico until the very last one rolled off the assembly lines in Puebla in 2003. Just for the fun of it, Deborah started counting all the Beetles she saw when we were on a day trip in Oaxaca. She reached 100 after about an hour and a half and then gave up.

Overall the vehicles here are modern but, in keeping with the Mexican's predilection to fix things rather than throw them out, you sometimes come across a really old model that's been brought back to life. Here are a few photos of some of the interesting vehicles we've come across this trip.

Beetles aplenty.

A billboard truck, complete with loudspeakers of course.

A beetle reborn as a tricycle.

Tiny taxi.

As seen at a folk art museum in Izamal: Mary and Joseph go for a drive with the baby Jesus, the three wise men, an angel, and the little shephard boy.

Chapala - We Deliver

Retail works a little differently in Mexico. An expat may not be able to find every little favorite food item or electronic gizmo his heart desires, but most things are available here and there is a well-populated heirarchy of choices where to buy them. At one end of the spectrum there are big American-style grocery stores, shopping malls, Costco, Walmart, Home Depot and many other large-scale venues with which we are familiar. But you also have a plethora of tiny mom and pop stores, many of which sell a dismaying variety of goods which might include, for instance, brooms, toothpaste and fried pig skins. Then you have the vendors with individual stalls in the weekly outdoor markets or the daily indoor markets, selling everything from produce to baked goods, meats, leather goods, clothing, handbags, kitchen utensils, nuts, candies, spices and DVDs (probably pirated). Other individual vendors have much more informal spaces like a spot on a crowded sidewalk where they sit next to a tiny table piled high with their home-made tamales or pre-peeled mango on a stick. These sidewalk vendors were much more in evidence in Oaxaca and Mérida than here in Chapala.

And then you have the mobile vendors. Here at our Chapala apartment the agua guy rings the buzzer every Thursday morning to see how many 20 liter (5 gal) bottles of water we want, and he takes the empties away. If you need a gas canister replaced just flag down the trucks rolling by with their loudspeakers blaring “zeta gaaaaas.” In Mérida we had a guy riding through the neighborhood on his cargo trike tooting his annoying little clown horn in case anyone wanted to come out and buy some bread from him. Other people walking or riding by had their own callout or whistle or bell so everyone knew whether they were selling flowers or tamales or ice cream. In Oaxaca the mobile vendors were more likely to be on foot. These included tiny Indian girls with their arms and shoulders piled high with scarves (and often with a baby strapped to their back as well), women balancing plates of snacks on their heads, others selling carved forks and spoons, even children offering little packages of candy and gum. If you are short of cash and really desperate, you could even buy an individual cigarette.

With the exception of Progresso, a cruise ship destination north of Mérida where the hawkers were annoyingly aggressive, I'm generally not bothered when I'm approached by those peddling things I don't need. A simple, subtle shake of the head conveys the appropriate, unoffensive signal and sends them veering off towards other potential customers. But if you look at their goods for more than a second or two you are indicating a sufficient level of interest to prompt them to hang around and flip through their catalog of offerings so you have every possible chance to lay your eyes on something you might actually pay money for. These people are entrepreneurs and are on their feet most of the day, often selling something they made themselves, and so deserve respect. They could be begging instead, after all.

Not that there aren't beggars in Mexico; in a poor country with no real social safety net outside the family there always will be. But the beggars here seem much more deserving than those in the US, who by comparison seem like spoiled brats. I seldom give money to panhandlers back home. Here I do give, although I favor the crippled up old women and those poor folks with physical deformities. They've earned the right not to be out there selling chotchkies.

Selling scarves in Oaxaca's lively zocolo.

Reverse window shopping. This gentleman was standing outside a Merida hotel enticing those in the lobby to come outside and look at the Panama hats he made.


A cargo trike. These are especially common in Merida.



A little more fancy cargo trike in Izamal.

Fancier still: a motorized cargo trike in Celestun.

Snacks at the Oaxaca zocolo.

We bought some tasty snacks off of this senora's head in Oaxaca.

Balloons with legs (Oaxaca).

Chapala - Carnaval Parade

We took in one of the Carnaval parades here in Chapala this morning. The Guadalajara Reporter newspaper listed the starting time as 10am but, to no one's surprise, it didn't get going until about 11:45am. While waiting for the main event to commence we struck up a conversation with a Canadian couple whose Mexican friend told them, “Oh, in Mexico always add two hours.” The Canadians, who have lived here about 3 years, warned us that this particular parade was quite small, although it was certainly well attended. Sure enough, after all that waiting around, the actual parade lasted no more than 15 minutes. It was fun to see but definitely short; just a few floats with beauty queens and some trucks sponsored by beverage companies. The Corona folks were, incredibly, handing out free beer. They were also giving noisemakers to the kids. That's just what Mexico needs: more noisemakers.

Free beer and noisemakers from the caring folks at Corona.

As I said, it was a "short" parade.

Chapala - Stormy Weather

It isn't supposed to rain here in February. The rainy season normally extends from mid-June to mid-October, and is actually a favorite time for many of those who live here as all becomes green and lush and scented with blooming flowers. It also helps that the rain during that season falls mostly at night with the sun still shining brightly during the day. But this isn't the rainy season, and what is supposed to be the dry season hasn't been so dry for us this past week, which brought cool, rainy weather that had us abandoning our shorts and sandals for long pants and socks, and even sweatshirts. The houses here don't have central heating – it's normally not needed – so you feel it when the temperature drops and the rains keep you inside, especially after you've become accustomed to being warm. To the locals these uncharacteristic spells of wetness are known as las cabañuelas, which means something like “gift to the farmers” and are said to predict a good rainy season ahead. That's fine for the farmers but we want to be warm and dry. Fortunately, it looks like this rainy period has finally ended and our temperatures are creeping back into the 70s F, which as far as we're concerned, is where they belong.

Storm clouds brew behind the church in Chapala.

White pelicans.


Down at the lake.

Fluffing, Puffing, Pooping and Barfing

One of Deborah's criteria for choosing our future home – a criteria that is totally alien to me – is the availability of affordable manicures, pedicures, facials, massages, and other assorted girly fluffing and puffing treatments. On this winter's trip she has done a bit of “research” in this most important field of study. She and Nancy had manicures and pedicures in Oaxaca shortly after Nancy's arrival. The charge to each of them for both beauty treatments, which lasted about 2 hours, was only about US$20. They both seemed happy with the results, at least initially. Later Deborah realized the hardworking girl worked a little too hard at sanding the crusty skin off her feet, going so deep as to expose some wounds that took several days to heal.

Undeterred, she and Nancy later signed up for a pre-Hispanic indigenous spa treatment known as Temazcal. This involves a sweat-lodge-like experience meant to cleanse the mind, body and spirit. As I understand it, the ladies sit in a semi-claustrophobic space with some steamy volcanic rocks which cause them to sweat profusely. Meanwhile an indigenous healer lightly strikes various of their body parts with healing herbs and does a bit of singing/chanting. This is followed by a gentle body massage. Deborah and Nancy enjoyed this strange experience but again, Deborah later developed complications in the form of contact dermatitis on her arms and legs where the “healer” beat her with the weeds. Thanks a lot.

Deborah's third foray into the world of Mexican fluffing and puffing happened today as her slightly delayed Valentine's Day present. She arranged for a series of treatments at a spa in Ajijic which lasted 3-1/2 hours and included a facial, full body massage, full body exfoliation and moisturizing, a foot treatment which included sanding down the feet, massaging them with oil, brushing on hot paraffin wax, wrapping them in plastic and putting on heated booties, and a body wrap in which she was wrapped snugly in hot, wet ace bandages on the upper legs, upper arms, and torso. Total cost: about US$100, not including tip, which she insists is a good deal for all those treatments and what amounted to one of her favorite spa days ever.

Afterward she was fairly glowing and totally relaxed, or possibly just tired since the previous night she was battling the aftereffects of consuming a bad egg the day before. It's our own fault about the egg. In Fiji we were pretty diligent about testing eggs beforehand. You just plop them in a pan of water and see if they sink to the bottom (good), stand upright on the bottom (not as good, but still okay), or float (bad). Deborah must have gotten a floater yesterday. It's a shame she isn't scheduled to get her colonoscopy now as she would need no further preparatory cleansing. We'll be checking all of our eggs from now on.

I had my own gastronomic “upheaval”, so to speak, in Mérida some weeks ago. I suspect either the cilantro or a certain avocado used in the guacamole we made for ourselves, but it's hard to know for sure. We were told the water in Mérida was okay to drink, but that information came from the Crazy Drunken Expat Landlady and therefore is suspect. We were mostly drinking bottled water anyway, which tasted better, but brushed our teeth and made tea with tap water. In hindsight, I did have a slightly queasy stomach off and on, and it seems the guacamole sent me over the edge with a night of praying to the porcelain goddess. I was fairly wiped out the next day but then recovered quickly. In both Oaxaca and here in Chapala the homes we've stayed at have purified water systems so the tap water is no problem. We have also been taking the additional cautionary step of disinfecting our produce – at least that which we aren't peeling or cooking – by soaking it in water for a few minutes with a few drops of disinfectant made just for that purpose. It's not a big deal and it does keep us healthy. Unless, of course, you eat a bad egg.

It looks good, but don't forget to disinfect.

Chapala - Noise

We find the Mexicans to be generally nice people who speak calmly, politely and quietly. They aren't like the Italians, for instance, who always sound like they're heatedly arguing with each other, even when they are talking about something innocuous like the weather. But what the Mexicans lack in noisy dialog they make up for with their fondness for loud music and all things fiesta. Right now the Carnaval (Mardis Gras) pre-Lent festivities are going on in Chapala, including an extremely loud concert last night at the park down the street which continued well into the wee hours, making for a restless night for us. We wouldn't begrudge the locals their celebrations, but if this continues on a nightly basis through the 21st (Fat Tuesday) we are going to be needing more than our normal share of afternoon siestas to compensate.

Latin Americans in general do seem to have a high tolerance for noise, be it traffic, barking dogs, crowing chickens, or their neighbor's music. Some of the shop owners in town are under the impression that blaring loud music from their storefronts will magically draw in customers, rather than repel them as it does in our case. And then there are the vendors selling anything from gas bottles to water to produce who cruise up and down the streets announcing their wares through loud speakers, which sometimes consist of giant speakers strapped to the roof of their vehicle. I'm just assuming because it is all in indecipherable Spanish, but I think some of the noisy drive-bys are touting political candidates or parties. I guess if they are loud and annoying enough they must be worth voting for.

And then there are the fireworks. They can go off at any time, any place, for seemingly any reason. They can be used to announce the location of a party, or to culminate a celebration, or just because someone feels a pressing need to make some explosive noise. Living close to Fort Lewis back home I'm somewhat used to such random acts of auditory violence, but I can't say I understand the appeal. It's probably not so bad for all the elderly gringos here who can simply turn off their hearing aids. Otherwise, I guess you just have to be Mexican.

One of the noise makers.