Other than going to the US to visit our families once a year, we have not been on a proper vacation since the South America cruise in late 2016. We traveled so often and so far between 2010 and 2016, that these last few years of staying put have become rather dull. And I have to admit, also relaxing and easy. I do miss the former times of constant new places to see and then writing about and showing you the pictures.
Steve’s hair turned white waiting for me to write a blogpost. My solution for the white is a solution available in the supermarket. The arm around my shoulder is a lady who lives in our building in Mazatlan and we ran into her in Ajijic. Quite the coincidence because we barely know anyone. We have had some outings here with her and her husband.
If you have not heard of Ajijic, it is a big village on Lake Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico. This area is known for the huge expat community. I don’t know how many, but years ago I heard it was 50,000+ and at the rate people are escaping the cold and crazy north, that number is growing all over Mexico.
We rented an apartment for a month just two houses off of this main street of the village. I had to buy some extra thick soled shoes for the rough cobblestones that are on every street in the village.
At the top of this street is the main carretera that connects the towns on the lake. It took us 20 minutes just to drive 1.5 miles the day we arrived in town. The apartment location allows us to walk everywhere that we want to go. The one day that we got the car out to drive to the town of Chapala, a truck crossed the lanes next to me and if I hadn’t swerved right, he would have hit me. I don’t like to drive much anymore because my reaction time is slower but it sure was working that day.At the bottom of the main street is the lake and the walking Malecon. We come here often to just walk and exercise our dog Mitzi. The lake is about 50 miles wide but is quite shallow and doesn’t have a good color due to pollution. There are big hills (small mountains?) surrounding the area and they are the reason for the mild climate. Right now they are very green and lush because of the rains in the summer. Winters are dry and the hills turn brown. The same happens in Mazatlan and also San Carlos, where we formerly lived.This beautiful tree is in the main plaza in front of a church. The plaza is big for the size of the town and has several sidewalk restaurants, a coffee/dessert shop, and an ice cream parlor. It’s a great spot to just hang out in. This restaurant has so much space between tables. That was ours. Unfortunately there are peacocks running around and they are having an aggressive spell that the waiter said is due to them having lost their feathers and waiting to get new ones. They tried to take food off our plates. Three weeks ago Steve ate a salad that gave him severe trots. We walked over to the local small hospital and the doctor was almost sure he had gotten a parasite and prescribed some medicine for it. It worked somewhat but once Steve was finished with the medicine, the problem returned. So back to the hospital yesterday and he saw a different doctor who prescribed something else. I hope this one works so that maybe we can take a side trip before we go back to Mazatlan in a week+. We have lived in Mexico almost 7 years and neither one of us had gotten sick from something we ate or drank. Many of the houses have beautiful mural art on their fronts. I have been collecting pictures and hope to show you on my next post. Adios for now!
Wanderlets 