Day 35 - Arriving in Ajijic

Before I begin the Mexican Chapter of the Blog, let me take a moment to thank Ron and Bev. They went beyond the call of duty looking after us in Green Valley, with food and drink and games (Mexican Train - so much fun). Ron took Greg to buy Mexican car insurance, medical insurance and get the car serviced. Their villa in Green Valley is in an adult community and they have a sweet two bedroom. The community is pristine with lots of amenities. If you know anyone who might be interested this is the URL is www. ArizonaVacation.ca

Our 3 day Mexican journey was much easier than we anticipated. Of course the fact that we only stayed in 5 star hotels certainly helped. I'm afraid we're not quite the old hippies we thought we might be. We value our comfort and mostly our safety.

The second night out we stopped in Mazatlan which I'm sure most of you have heard of as it's a vacation haven with a million time shares. When we stopped in front of what we thought was an Ocean side hotel, we found out it was indeed ne of those time shares. From the moment we checked in there were angles and schemes to save us money if only we would attend the infamous meeting in the morning. We have been down that time share road in Ontario so we declined as our experience is that they become very mean when you tell them you are not "buying."

We had a little two bedroom suite....quite ugly, with a sliver of ocean view. You'd think that if they were trying to sell you they'd give you the nicest suite in the place but I'd take a guess that our suite was not close to being the nicest. We took a beautiful walk on the beach and watched the sun set. The weather was lovely and so was the beach. We ate dinner in the dining room at the time share and it was shrimp night so we ate well and but it wasn't cheap either. This was the first place we stayed in that didn't have wifi so we bought some time in the internet cafe and that just proved aggravating. We rented ping pong balls and paddles and had a half hour of playing.....and I beat Greg 4 times.....I had to say that because there isn't much in the way of competitions that he loses to me or anyone else for that matter. After that we went back to the ugly suite, watched some t.v. and fell asleep. We were happy to leave in the morning.

Our drive yesterday was long and somewhat arduous. We went through many villages. Our only experience of the Mexicans is that they are kind, courteous, helpful, friendly, honest and generally lovely. We had some more mountain roads to traverse and we were very low on gas so we (mostly I) had some very tense moments. We drove into a small town called Magdalena and finally found gasolina.

We drove through the outskirts of Guadalajara which is the second largest city in Mexico. Greg really keeps his cool driving through these big centers especially with me pumping my imaginary brake and holding on to the door handle. After Guadalajara it was a breeze to get to Lake Chapala. We immediately came to the town of Ajijic (pronounced Ah-hee-heek.) We managed to find the hotel (Nueva Posada) that Greg had found on line and got their last room, the honeymoon suite which is gorgeous with a balcony overlooking the lake. We had dinner outdoors...under a huge old rubber tree. Greg ordered Beef Tenderloin and I had Sea Bass. Both were delicious. We each had a drink and our bill was approximately 29 U.S. dollars. Our bed was somewhat disappointing, like a sack of old laundry but we managed to sleep like babies anyhow.

We had our included breakfast this morning under the same old rubber tree. Comfort Inn, you've been put to shame. This is a three course hot breakfast including eggs benedict. We walked around the town a bit after breakfast and there are some breathtaking views, exotic birds, and although the houses look horrible from the outside when you peek into their courtyards they are just charming. We have arranged to meet with a real estate agent tomorrow to look at renting a place for a couple of months. I'm writing today as Greg had web work to do for a client.

Click here for today's pictures