A Mexican blog I like

http://sparks-mexico.com/ is a very attractive blog with many photos. Scott Parks describes it as "Stories and photos about my travels in Mexico since 1998. I'm now retired and living in Melaque, Jalisco - the Costalegre."

On the right is a long list of other blogs about Mexico, so there's plenty to keep you busy beyond his site! If you go to his links page, there are all sorts of other good things.

I've had intentions of getting as well organized as he is about Mexican information, but now I will save my organizational attempts for other projects and just refer you there. Message boards, earthquake information, Spanish language, and much more.

Sounds we hear at our Mexican house

Ah, so many sounds here! I'm sure I've forgotten a few...

• The Scott Joplin tune that heralds the truck selling ice cream and other snacks, off and on during the day
  
• "Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk...Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk...Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk...Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk...Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk...Zeta G-A-S!!!... honk honk..." can be heard from early morning till pretty late. The gas is propane and as most smaller homes only have one tank they need it fast.
• Kids playing, usually quite a jolly sound
• Fireworks, often
• Recorded exhortations early Sunday morning which for a long time I thought came from the church but gradually realized it was a truck driving around selling a miracle health cure
• A brass band practicing, frequently... they aren't right now and I kinda miss them
  
• Neighbors playing radios or CDs, usually Mexican romantic tunes or mariachi
  
• Lots of thunder in the rainy season
• The occasional large airplane flying low on approach to the Guadalajara airport
  

Why not Ajijic?

This question was in one of the comment threads, and I thought I'd answer it here where it would be more visible.

My wife & I visited Ajijic last year and are seriously considering doing what you have done, so we're keenly interested in your experiences. We looked at property in Chapala and Ajijic, and took the bus to Jocotopec (through your San Juan Cosala). Would love to know more about your decision to be there, instead of Ajijic. -- Fred, Oakland, Calif.

We are living in San Juan Cosala because a string of circumstances brought us here. This included Kelly breaking a rib, which is not recommended! But it forced us to spend more time lakeside. We *thought* (but what did we know?) that we would be returning to a town (Bernal, Queretaro) several hours east of here, where we had lived before and still had a house we had rented. We even had a cat there, being fed by our landlord.

We weren't planning to buy a place in Mexico till we had lived in this country quite a while, the standard good advice. We had sold our home in Colorado and were enjoying the sense of being more footloose and fancy free than usual.

As Kelly's rib healed some, just for fun we looked around a bit at real estate in the whole lakeside area. I think this is called playing with fire... We came across 1/4 acre lovingly planted many years ago with fruit trees (banana, papaya, lemon, lychee, pistachio, loquat) and other lovely landscaping, with a modest but charming two-room cabin recently remodeled, and a small swimming pool. This was for sale for $80,000 US, which was at least 20k below market value at that time (a year ago), in this location. We succumbed, justifying that it was very likely a good investment. Oh, and I forgot to mention the peek-a-boo lake views.

So that's how we ended up on the edge of San Juan Cosala. I'm sure this place if located in Ajijic would have cost a lot more.

At first, I kinda wished that we were in Ajijic, with walking access to more restaurants, shopping, the Lake Chapala Society, ATMs, medical, and all that. But it's only a 15 minute drive or a slightly longer bus ride, and we are really small town / rural type folks. We're both writers who are online a lot and we enjoy the relative quiet here. I say relative, because Mexico is not noted for its quiet. Like Ajijic, our town too has fireworks, live brass bands at any hour, etc., though on a smaller scale.

We have a routine of going to Ajijic and further east as needed for errands one morning a week, getting cash if needed out of the ATM at the corner of the libramiento and carretera (because we can swipe the cards there instead of inserting them), a few imported groceries at Superlake in San Antonio Tlay., meat at Tony's next door to it (the only place we've found good lamb), library books at the LCS, and having lunch at Pedro's, the Secret Garden, or one of several other favorite restaurants we've found. I'm always glad to get back home. Often something else takes us in that direction at other times during the week too. We like Jocotepec and go that way too.

This week we were amazed at how hectic Ajijic was and how everywhere you looked there were lots of Americans and Canadians. I like the more Mexican feeling of San Juan Cosala, with the plus that there are enough foreigners to have friends of our own culture nearby too. We're making good friends among the Mexicans, and this may be easier here than in Ajijic, from what others have said to me. I don't really know. But I do know that the longer we are here in San Juan Cosala, the more at home I feel here.

Historic Tour of San Juan Cosala

Monday, February 5, was Constitution Day here in Mexico, a national holiday. Some of the local foreigners organized an excellent event, an historic tour of our town of San Juan Cosala. The purposes included raising money for soccer uniforms for boys and increasing the cultural awareness of those of us who come from other places. On both counts they succeeded.

There were two similar tours, and I happened to be in the 2PM group. About 40 Americans and Canadians (from various parts of the lakeside area) walked around town for over an hour, following a man named Gerardo Tolentino who spoke good English. I asked him about his background. He was born and raised here in San Juan Cosala and lives here now. He had studied tourism at the university in Guadalajara but it seems that his main occupation is that of a teacher at the middle school (secundaria) level. He teaches English and computers. Aha, I thought to myself, serendipity strikes again! I told him I would enjoy coming to his English class sometime, and he graciously said of course.

From the plaza, we went down Calle Cardenal towards the lake, with a stop at the coffee shop I love, Cafetto Saga. My friend Claudia who owns it offered us tastes of homemade ice cream. I'm not a coffee drinker but Kelly loves the lattes there and it's the only place in Mexico I have found chai! Claudia is a biologist who decided she would rather be running a coffee shop, and it is a delight. She has a wonderful spirit. We received little flyers (her sister has a graphic design business getting started next door).

With my Spanish as fractured as it is, I have appreciation for how English comes out here: I loved a bit on her flyer which said, "Dare yourself to flood your senses of a world, where everything can happen."

Hmm... not a bad description of Mexico!

At the lake, we heard some history of this area, but I don't think I got enough of it straight to write any. We then walked a block east along the lakeshore and headed back up towards the Plaza. We stopped in at the bakery Panaderia San Juan, which still makes the tachihual bread that has been made for 400 years in this area, but I didn't find out what it is as there wasn't any there just then.

We continued straight past the church and plaza up to the highway, where Gerardo pointed out the school he had gone to, built some 30 years ago by the priest at that time, Alberto Macias. I had heard of him as for many years he has run an orphanage here called Ninos y Jovenes, which still continues. He is now retired; I think he may be in his 80s by now, and I think he still lives at the orphanage. Bit by bit, the rich texture of life in this town reveals itself.

We crossed the highway and went a couple of blocks to a place where there was a cross by the side of the road. This had been a place of human sacrifice which the Catholics transformed in the 1500s. Mass is sometimes done there.

Back below the highway, we went to a restaurant called Mi Mexico / Tia Lupita's, on Porfirio Diaz just east of Vicente Guerrero Sur, a few blocks west of the plaza. I know this place well, and I greeted my friend Jose who runs it... he and Kelly have a regular English-Spanish exchange every week.

The tour returned to the plaza in time for some live mariachi music. The newly-elected Delegado (maybe kind of like a city manager?) was introduced and said a few words. This interested me as I know his assistant. There were booths of handicrafts and other things set up in the plaza. AMSIF, an organization which does much for the community, had snacks for us. There was also a peformance of the Ballet Folclorico Contemporaneo de San Juan Cosola, going on around the corner in front of the remains of the Hospitalito built in 1529.

As I wandered home, I reflected on how I did have more sense of community from this event. Too bad I had rushed out without my camera.

Climate of Lake Chapala area

Average monthly temperatures and precipitation, in degrees Fahrenheit and in inches:

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
High Temp.	76	79	81	84	86	83	79	79	78	79	78	76
Low Temp.	47	49	50	54	58	61	60	60	59	55	49	47
Precipitation	0.5	0.2	0.2	0.3	1	6.3	9.7	7.6	5.8	2.3	0.4	0.5

These numbers are interesting. Note that March, April, especially May and June are the hottest months. Once the rains begin it cools off, so the months that we think of as summer are cooler than spring.

Of course, climate and weather are two different things! It's been raining hard off and on this weekend, complete with one long dramatic thunderstorm. I'm sure we had way more than the February average 0.2" of rain this afternoon alone.

But it sure beats what we hear about from up north!