Lake Chapala region resource page: Ajijic, Chapala, Jocotepec
The Lake Chapala region of Jalisco, Mexico, with its wonderful climate and large base of ex-patriate residents, has become a very desirable place for retirees, those wanting to escape aspects of "Home" (such as the winter weather), and those who desire to live and work in Mexico.
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Only Once in a Lifetime by Alejandro Grattan
Here's a story that takes in a complete life, from childhood well into adulthood, and from rags to riches. It's a story that is of interest to we residents in the Lake Chapala area as it starts out in Ajijic and covers a fair number of years there - or should I say here. On page one we encounter ten-year-old Francisco Obregón, a homeless barefoot orphan outside the Old Posada on the Ajijic waterfront. It's 1940 and Francisco is hustling for odd jobs and tips. It's the only way he can manage to survive.
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Agave Marias: Border Crossers, Boundary Breakers by the Lake Chapala Women Writers
Here's an unusual volume with ten individual authors, each of whom is independent of the other nine except for the fact they all reside - either full or part-time - in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. Their book consists of some 45 or more pieces of fiction and non-fiction plus a poem or three. The non-fiction includes travel tales, accounts of significant events in the authors' past lives, recollections of interesting people and other offbeat memoirs and anecdotes.
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House in the Sun by Dane Chandos
As the legend goes, Dane Chandos came to Ajijic and made his house into an Inn and, in the process, met a mixed bag of people who also visited the place, which the author describes as "nestling between the lake and the paws of the mountains." There's a full-blooded Mexican Army general and an interesting French countess who arrives alone, wearing a mink stole who makes extravagant demands on the establishment. And there's a pedantic German professor who feels compelled to explain everything he encounters in scientific terms….and many many others.
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Village in the Sun by Dane Chandos
I reviewed Chandos's other book, "House in the Sun", in Mexico Connect a couple of months ago and now I'm catching up on what was actually the author's first book, published four years earlier. We're given a good long loving look at the various events that mark a typical year in a Mexican village - like The Day of the Dead, the Day of the Cross, Navidad, birthdays and the other festivals that are customarily celebrated. It all adds up to an attractive narrative.
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The Insider's Guide: Mexico's Lake Chapala and Ajijic by Teresa A. Kendrick
I'm filled with admiration and respect for The Insider's Guide. Its 368 pages are so complete and comprehensive and so well thought out and so well organized. Teresa Kendrick and her colleagues have done a wonderful job of providing and packaging a full authoritative range of information, not only for long and short-term residents of the Lake Chapala area but also for those many people who seem to be contemplating coming here either to live as permanent retiree-residents or as snowbirds.
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A Chance to See Egypt by Sandra Scofield
My spies tell me that author Scofield used to live in Ajijic and that Lago de Luz, the setting for her novel, is in fact Ajijic. If so, here’s her description of the village: "Lago de Luz, on the altiplano far from the sea, where it is neither hot nor cold, boasts no buildings higher than two stories, and no slick discos. It is rather a sleepy place, swollen on weekends when musicians and vendors make the plaza festive for the tourists in from the nearby city. Resident Americans and Canadians make their own social life in their suburban enclaves and trailer parks, their apartments and houses, halls and meeting rooms. The Lakeside Society is the hub of activity, the place where everyone crosses, but there are many diversions: Elk Clubs, Rotarians, Veterans Clubs, Red Cross and all the interest groups, for cards and dominoes and self-improvement. "
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Mexico Magic by Dru Pearson
.Dru Pearson begins her account of her first four seasons in Ajijic starting in the summer of 2000 when she loaded or, rather, overloaded her VW van with as many belongings as it would hold, and she and her dog, Bailey, drove (slowly, she emphasizes) to Laredo. However, before she even reached the U.S./ Mexico border, the vehicle broke down and she found herself by the roadside in 110 degree temperatures, unloading twelve boxes of belongings, plus a TV, a computer complete with monitor and printer and other sundry items. However, a mechanic answered her call and the car was repaired and she made it across the border at Laredo, starting the 750 mile stretch to Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala.
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Candelaria's Cookbook
Candelaria is back, with her special logic, folk wisdom and Mexican home-style recipes in the bilingual ‘Las Recetas de Candelaria,’ or ‘Candelaria’s Cookbook.’
Readers of Dane Chandosâ...
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Las Posadas, 2001
"What is Christmas like in Mexico?" asked my friend, Edward. It didn’t take much encouragement for me to eagerly share this experience:
Once upon a Christmas nighttime, in a tiny village on the shor...
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Meant for each other: a Mexico love story
Americans choosing to live south of the border are often surprised that the romance of Mexico isn’t limited to its people.
Of the many lovely experiences during my first years in San Antonio Tlayaca...
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Ajijic friends and the perfect fiesta
Someone was playing a Spanish radio station full blast in the car next to mine as we stopped at a red light in Hollywood California. The cacophony of mariachi brass, not a shy sound, bombarded my ears ...
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Yes Virginia, there is another Mexico
"Move to Mexico? What, are you crazy?" said friends and relatives alike, adding, "Don't you know it's full of drug pushers, kidnappers and corrupt politicians?"
This attitude, prevalent among North Am...
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Josefina, a woman of Mexico
Living in New York and Los Angeles, while good for one’s metabolism, is not that great for one’s patience. Who has time to stop and smell the roses? Who stops? Who smells? What roses?
When I moved...
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Chapala - Mexico's Shangri-la
Ford Times, the monthly magazine of the Ford Motor Company. John Russell Clift, the author and illustrator, was born in 1925 and at the peak of his career in the 1950s when he wrote this piece, one of the earliest to promote the attractions of the Chapala area as a retirement haven. His thoughtful prose and fine silkscreens paint a vivid picture of what life was like at Lakeside 50 years ago.
read moreDid You Know? Mathieu de Fossey
 Mathieu de Fossey was born in France in 1805, and educated in Dijon. Politically disillusioned following the end of the reign of King Charles X in 1830, Fossey responded enthusiastically to an intrig...
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Lake Chapala: attractions for all
The earliest human inhabitants of the Lake Chapala area were probably nomadic tribes of Indians who had settled on the shores and islands of the lake, catching fish, extracting salt, and trying to herd...
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Did you know? Mexico's Domesday Book
Mexico's equivalent of the Domesday book was compiled in the sixteenth century.
History shows that conquerors often have very little idea of what they have really acquired until it is firmly within th...
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Did you know? Mexico's largest bird is the American White Pelican
The American White Pelican is Mexico's largest bird, while its relative the Brown Pelican is one of the most fun to watch.
White Pelicans on Lake Chapala;
photo: John Mitchell, Earth Images Foundat...
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Did you know? Mexico was a very different place fifty years ago
G. M. Bashford's Tourist Guide to Mexico was first published exactly fifty years ago in 1954. It was one of a spate of motoring book guides written after World War II as Americans began to hit the open...
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Did you know? Lake Chapala under attack from water hyacinth
Masses of beautiful violet and yellow flowing water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes) add an attractive splash of colour to the Lake Chapala landscape during the rainy season but are a serious problem for thelives and economy oflocal residents.
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Linking up with the Chapala Lakeside: to rent or buy?
Once upon a time, in the previous century, an old journalist and his still-beautiful bride were pondering retirement and escape from Washington, D.C.
They had roots and land on the original TVA lake i...
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Enough water hyacinths, more than enough
Ancient Chinese proverb say ox in ditch bad news. Really bad if your ox.
Lirio (water hyacinths) on Lake Chapala, in the colorful state of Jalisco, in this magical country called Mexico, is bad news. ...
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The Chapala lakeside as it was
As Yogi Berra might say, 90 per cent of the world is changing. The other half is making adjustments.
Among relatively recent arrivals to the shores of Lake Lirio (formerly Lake Chapala before water hy...
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Amazing Grace
This little story of life along Lake Chapala probably belongs in a movie or a museum dedicated to strange and unusual happenings. You can believe it or not.
Our kind and gentle friend, Grace Contrades...
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