Ajijic Revisited

We had an invitation from our friends in Ajijic to join them in the house they had rented for the rainy season, so, even though we had just returned from our France and Italy trip, we decided "why not"?  So we spent the first two weeks of August back on the shores of Lake Chapala, in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico, about forty minutes south of Guadalajara Airport. We were interested in experiencing the rainy season there, as all of the locals we had spoken to during our visit in February told us it was their favorite season and the rain storms usually only occurred at night. We were quite skeptical, because when we looked at the forecast for the area, it always had images of thunder and lightening and rain every day!  After our Europe trip, I was strongly advocating for as little luggage as possible, preferably no checked bags.  We flew Volaris, which has a pretty restrictive "carry-on" policy, so another incentive to down-size our luggage.

These were Diane's two bags for our 16-day trip.  Janie kept saying, "how did you get all of those outfits in those small bags?!"   It was a challenge, but she did it!  I took a small backpack and a small shoulder bag and managed just fine. 

Our approach into Guadalajara. We knew to pay for our taxi at the counter as we exited baggage claim. This gives you a fixed-price ticket to present to the taxi drivers when you exit the airport. This is a great system as it prevents any price gouging. Our 40-minute ride cost us 420 pesos (about $24).

Winter sunshine and rain clouds along the shore of Lake Chapala.

Happy to be at the house we would call home for two weeks.

Our friends, Janie and Norman, who invited us to share their beautiful rented house.  They were staying for three months to fully experience the summer months in this part of Mexico.

As it turns out, Janie's birthday and mine are just two days apart, so yet another opportunity to celebrate.

Ceviche and local beer, what's not to like?

The weather turned out to be pretty much as the locals had described. The hillsides were all green and the waterfalls beginning to flow again. These "hills" reach about 8,000 feet, and they were often shrouded in clouds.

Most of the time we managed to avoid getting caught in the rain, as it does rain mostly during the night.  There was one exception, we were having a late evening coffee at our favorite Black & White Coffee Cafe, when the rain began. It was a tropical downpour with inches-deep water flowing everywhere. The streets that run from the hills toward the lake become rushing streams, so we had to find a way back to the house that didn't entail crossing one of these streets. We waited until the rain eased off and did manage to find a way home that kept our feet reasonably dry.

Janie and Norman took us to the organic market that occurs twice a week, luckily an indoor event.

This is where Janie introduced us to Laura, who, with her husband Diego, own a goat farm and produce items that you see for sale here (milk, yogurt, cheese and soap, among other things). I tried their goat milk yogurt.  It was delicious! 

We met local artist Jesus Lopez Vega at the market ,who invited us to visit his studio.  On the way home from the market, we happened to walk past his studio and saw him through the open doorway.  He welcomed us in and we spent a very enjoyable time seeing his work. He showed us elements of a book he is working on that is a written, as well as pictorial,  journey on the origins of the indigenous people of the Ajijic area.  All of the pages on the table are the artwork that will form the basis of the book. He plans for a Spanish as well an English language version.

An example of one of the pages.  Beautifully done!

This is the time of year when flowers are in full bloom,

and the bananas are ripening, (along with avocados, papayas and mangos, to name a few).

In the middle of downtown there is a working weaving enterprise using old looms and producing cloth of traditional designs.

Cloth in production.

An example of a finished garment, just beautiful.

We decided to take a day-trip into Guadalajara to see how long it would take, and have a brief experience of  Mexico's second largest city. Janie and Norman arranged for a taxi to take us for the day. The journey took about an hour and we decided just to explore the Plaza de la Liberación, which is a pedestrian-only area where the cathedral and theatre are located on the perimeter of a very large plaza.

An unusual feature of the plaza were all of the shoe-shine booths.  It is hard to imagine there were enough customers to keep them all busy!

The cathedral was begun in the mid 16th century, but rebuilt in the 19th century after it was destroyed in an earthquake.

An unusually wide boulevard leading up to the plaza area.

A peaceful square, where the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres, or, "all of the illustrious people" from the state of Jalisco, are honored. The statues included  painters, revolutionaries, politicians, writers, and poets. It was very impressive, a lovely spot.  Our day in Guadalajara ended at 4:00 p.m.when our taxi driver arrived to pick us up at the agreed-upon corner.  Thank you Rogelio!

Back in Ajijic, it was good to see it was still the same as we remembered from our visit in February.  We especially enjoyed seeing the horses around town.

We explored new restaurants and were somewhat surprised to find a local brew-pub with all of the beer made on the premises, and a yummy brew-pub menu as well.

We decided to explore another lakeside town and took the bus to Jocotepec, about 40 minutes away.  We went there on a Sunday and the town was very busy with markets underway everywhere.
I took this short video to give a small flavor of the day.  I hope it works!

Our journey back to the US was a bit of a slog. Our flight out of Guadalajara was delayed as they removed a passenger from the aircraft which then meant that many of us passengers already on-board had to vacate the plane so that the rows around where the person was sitting were searched. Consequently we missed our connection in San Jose and could not get a seat on a later flight.

We then decided to rent a car and drive back to Medford.

 Renting a car from Avis was quite a fiasco.
Stood in line and when we talked to an agent we were asked if we had a reservation, well no, we just wanted to rent a car. When asked if they had cars, the reply was, yes, if you have a reservation. The supervisor would not let the agent rent us a car from the desk where we stood. So, back out of the line, get on the smart phone and make a reservation for a car, get one reserved. Back into line where the same agent took our reservation and provided us with a car.
What numbskull in the Avis organization came up with this idiotic scenario? For many years I favored Avis because their motto used to be "We try harder". Well those days seem to be long gone and Avis is no longer a rental car company I will use in the future.
To add insult to injury, when we turned the car back to Avis in Medford, they charged us $170 extra over the invoice we signed in San Jose. (We are disputing this through the credit card company.)

The good news is that we made it to Medford before our originally scheduled flight landed.

See you all later for more adventures.