My Life In Chapala & Ajijic, Mexico

The Easiest Way to Round Out Your Wardrobe and Cookware Collection While Living at Lake Chapala in Mexico

Guadalajara Airport – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingTwo of the best things about living at the Lake Chapala area have to do with aviation:

1. Through what I can only assume is dumb luck, Guadalajara International Airport was placed at the south side of that huge metropolis as opposed to the north side, so us fortunate enough to live at Lake Chapala can get to the airport without having to first pass through 30 miles of the worst traffic this side of Mexico City.
 
2. Flying from one Mexican city to another Mexican city...

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The Quest for the Elusive Mung Beans -- A Visit to Abastos from Ajijic / Lake Chapala

Kan, on Kung FuLike an aspiring knight in a medieval fairytale who had been told to bring back the egg of a fire-breathing dragon or a nascent American Indian brave who had been given the task of producing a specific feather from a fearsome bird on some faraway mountaintop, I now had my challenge: bring me the mung beans.
 
In this case, the one issuing the challenge was none other than my wife, Jet, a devoted cook who sees the world as her laboratory.  “Lakeside is a ‘pot luck...

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Ben White of the Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic Reveals How LCS Has been Successfully Serving Expats and Locals Alike for 61 Years, and Their Exciting Plans for the Future

Chuck Bolotin: It’s mid-February 2017 and we have the privilege of chatting with Ben White, President of the Board of Ben White at Lake Chapala Society LCS and Chuck BolotinDirectors of Lake Chapala Society (LCS), in Ajijic, Mexico, right here on their beautiful grounds.  One of the reasons why we’re so honored to talk with Ben is that in all our travels on our road trip throughout Mexico and from what we know after reviewing thousands of answers on our site from expats about living in Panama, Nicaragua, Belize, and Portugal,...

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Oh Poop!

Riding a  bike along the malecon in Lake Chapala – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingI live lakeside in Chapala. In all of Mexico, it’s the most picturesque, comfortable and enlightening place any Mexico-seeking expat could ever hope to find. It’s also quite common (living in paradise) you get drawn into like-minded social media groups.
 
I try to steer clear of “comment” sections. But a recent conversation erupting on a Ajijic chat site was just too juicy to swipe past. On the surface, it was about a seemly humdrum matter: poop...

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An Interview With Michael Eager About the Unlikely Events that Led His Family to Come to Ajijic in the First Place and Then to Become a Central Part of Ajijic History

Front door of the old Posada, Ajijic, Mexico – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingEditor’s note: We had the privilege in early March, 2017 to talk with Michael Eager.  The Eager family is a bit of an institution in the Ajijic area, where Michael’s brother Mark owns a real estate sales company and Michael runs the business that started it all in the 1970s, formerly the Posada, and now the Nueva Posada.  In this interview, Michael tells us the unlikely set of events that started it all when Ajijic was just a small, out of the way village and well...

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Ajijic, and the Livin’ is Easy

Jet Metier at restaurant at Lake Chapala, Mexico – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingIf you’re like me, you’ve got a song in your head pretty much all the time.   Sometimes, you know why it’s there, and sometimes, you don’t.   Sometimes, you don’t even know where you heard the song.
 
That’s exactly what happened to me towards the end of our stay in the Ajijic area, as I was walking back from the corner store with some pastries.  If you’ve read my first two stories on Ajijic and the Lake Chapala area, you know...

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How Ajijic & Lake Chapala is Like the Aunt You Always Wanted

Jet Metier in Ajijic next to sign for Thai restaurantWouldn’t it have been nice if, when you were growing up, you had an aunt who was always there when you needed her, who understood you, who always seemed to know what you needed and gave it to you, but who didn’t ask for anything in return?  The one who, if you got into an argument with your parents, you could go to?  Who would not be judgmental, and would help to make everything right? Putting aside the lopsidedness of such a relationship, we came to view Ajijic as that...

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Our First Few Days in Ajijic: “Not Too Much”

Street in Ajijic arial view – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingNot even Goldilocks would have a problem with Ajijic.  It’s “just right” and in the middle: not too cold, and not too hot.  Ajijic is not too crowded, but with enough residents to have services: there’s a Wal-Mart close by, and dozens of great restaurants, day spas, etc. Guadalajara, at 40 minutes away by car, provides an international airport, high-end shopping, culture, first rate medical care, etc. just close enough to be convenient but not too close to be an...

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Living in Jocotepec, on the Shores of Lake Chapala: Beauty, Free Enterprise, and Some Cupcakes

Home in Jocotepec, garden and home view – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingIf you’re like me, with typical middle-class US suburban experiences and sensibilities, when you first arrive at Jocotepec, you are confronted with several things that just don’t seem right. 
 
For starters (and this is not unusual for Mexico), what was to be our home for the next 10 days did not have any internal hallways. All the rooms were placed at the far rear of the property, closest to the mountains, so that the back wall of each room was...

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How I Unexpectedly Found My Paradise in Ajijic… On a Yellow Brick Road Made of Cobblestones

 
View of Hacienda O'Neill from back yard – Best Places In The World To Retire – International LivingIn the summer of 2015 a lady friend who had fallen in love with Ajijic in the Lake Chapala area years ago and wanted to get back there contacted me. Her vision was to run a bed and breakfast in the village, but she needed some assistance purchasing the property, so she contacted me to see if I’d be interested in an investment.  After she had expounded upon the virtues of Ajijic through numerous phone calls I was intrigued to the point of flying down and meeting her...

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