Lake Chapala Ajijic Mexico Information

A Trip to Chapala

For those of you following my little adventure, better known as “Brown’s off in the ditch again” - here is the latest from Mexico. I made this trip for two reasons, to confirm what I already thought I knew - that I was going to move down to Lake Chapala, MX around first of year, and mainly to take the noise levels down a couple of notches from friends and family who all think I’m nuts for considering this. I figured if I go down and come back smiling they’ll accept - it right? - well, not totally, but here’s the story.

I headed down on the 7th and did pretty well, being out of the habit of traveling and especially international, it was a “trip”. The flights were uneventful but as we approached Guadalajara (GDL) the steward handed out visa forms for our FMT’s. I filled the first one and then the first tope (speed bump) appeared, the second form was totally in Spanish? - so I asked the steward, who was Mexican, and he waved his hands saying something about, don’t worry, it depends on who’s working, usually they don’t even need it! - really? - this should be exciting. The incoming Customs is pretty much a cattle car operation. So, when I got to the guy he took my passport and form and asked for another form, one the steward hadn’t given us. Ok, fill it out, get it stamped, get my bag and find Ron, the guy who was picking me up.

Ajijic is about 35 miles south of GDL and a nice drive, and Ron was a great tour guide. The hotel is at the end of Donato Gurerra street next to the lake. The streets are very narrow and made of cobblestones, and occasionally a cobble “boulder” with appropriate potholes interspersed. This is NOT the place for my Lincoln, although I did see one down there. The hotel is only a few years old, but built to be a quintessential small Mexican hotel. I got the best room of all, #305 on the 3rd floor corner, so I looked at the lake and the town and best of all I overlooked La Tasca restaurant across the street which has lots of live music which was absolutely great. I hauled my bags up to the room; elevator? cu? es ?e? - no.

This area is a mile high and so moderate they don’t put heating or AC systems in houses, basically it’s an indoor/outdoor living place. So, the hotel lobby and “hallways” or galleries are open to the outside, birds come, birds go - as birds are known to do. The 3rd floor where my room was opened onto the roof or mirador which had lots of plants and flowers and chairs and tables. It turned out that this was where I could connect to the wireless Internet, the signal in my room wasn’t strong enough, or I could go to the 2nd floor computer room. Read more