boat isse, once again

boat isse, once again

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The Mexican consulate in Detroit that I visited with earlier this week has stated that a "recreational motorized item" can be brought into Mexico on a renewalble yearly basis. You must prove that it will not be used commercially - easy to do apparently with billing invoices from marina, insurance policies, appraisal and marine survey and statement from the coast guard that it is not a fishing vessel and is not ocean worthy.

This was a big surprise to us as the line items seem fairly clear, but I was reassured more than once that the boat and its trailer could be included in my menage paperwork if I met their requirements and assurances beforehand. They arechecking to see what status the tow vehicle might be able to come in as - 1990 jeep grand wagoneer - becuase of its age there might be a way for them to come as a unit.

Anybody ever heard of this type of exception to what seem be some fairly straight forward rules?

esperanza

Jul 24, 2004, 5:33 AM

Post #2 of 25 (2494 views)

Re: [NEOhio] boat isse, once again

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What size boat is this and where are you planning to use it?

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

NEOhio

Jul 26, 2004, 5:02 PM

Post #3 of 25 (2404 views)

Re: [esperanza] boat isse, once again

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I have been told that "no one" boats on Lake Chapala. Given that information I still am going to pursue bringing the boat with us.

It is a 28' 10'2"beam 2 foot draft 1963 Sea Skiff hard top, single screw inboard, freshwater only and has been boathoused winters. It is double lapstrack, painted hull not mahogany and basically good for just a evenings cruising around with friends and food/beverages - no waterskiing, no swim platform. I imported it from Thunder Bay, Canada thru Windsor/Detroit in 2/2003 and paid duty/tax/fee on a purchase price of $6000.

Given that it is 43 years old next summer, and although restored in 1993 it will need another complete restoration in 2-3 years. We would want to have it with us to do the restoration as a "hobby" keep busy project while in Mexico.

The consular agent stated that as long as we could prove with the original bill of sale, insurance, marina bills, maintenance bills and pictures that it was not a commercial boat and was indeed a hobby/recreational boat he might be able to get it cleared thru the menaje......however, we are still going to be anxious about it....

It was suggested to me in a private post that I might be able to bring it - without the motor - and it wouldn't count as motorized - that seems unlikely and a very long shot, but doesn't seem to be against the rules. We would then send ourselves the motor when the hull and rest of the work was completed as an import and pay the tax/duty required on the engine.

I put this in this forum instead of Ajijic with hope that perhaps someone on a coastal location might know a little more about some of the ins-and-outs of bringing a boat.

We would bring it on a trailer pulled by the 1990 wagoneer as one of our allowed vehicles. We want to use the wagoneer for in Mexico travel.

Anybody have anything to say I would like to hear it...thanks.

alex .

Jul 27, 2004, 1:48 PM

Post #4 of 25 (2352 views)

Re: [NEOhio] I drove on the lake bottom

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Its been 4 years now, I almost got my car stuck driving in what used to be Lake Chapala. You can drive quite a ways out there, then eventually come across some crunchy seaweed looking stuff. Thats where I turned around and headed back to shore.
Peggy S. says that its too shallow to land her seaplane there, I'm sure that she would if she could.
Alex

Jul 27, 2004, 2:35 PM

Post #5 of 25 (2343 views)

Re: [NEOhio] boat isse, once again

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NE:

I is not true that no one boats on Lake Chapala. I presume you meant recreational boating, not fishing. Now is a vacation season for Guadalajarans and over several days recently, as I have walked the shore, I have observed people sailboating and speedboating on the lake. People also ski and jet ski. They also swim in the lake which is foolhardy. Motorized and sail boat traffic is not as common as one might see in lakes or in the Gulf in my native Alabama where weekend boat traffic is so thick it is dangerous, especially since so many boaters are drunks, but it happens with some regularity here during holidays.

I must tell you that, today, as I walked the beach in Central Ajijic, I had to wade through or walk around copious streams of municipal raw sewage flowing from ruptured waste water pipes near the shore into the lake and this is not an uncommon experience here. Local authorities do not view these phenomena with alarm and seem to repair these breaches in a desultory fashion. The lake is utterly filthy and the water unattractive. Like boating in your toilet. If that's what you like then have at it.

The beaches and roadways in Jalisco are also littered with a remarkable and sickening amount of garbage disposed of thoughtlessly by an inordinately large number of citizens refusing to make the connection between personal behavior and community filth. Reminds me of the U.S. or France 50 years ago when we littered freely and dumped raw sewage into the oceans, seas and rivers on the theory that God would disperse it for us. Even today, people in Varanasi bathe in the unbelievably filthy Ganges in order to cleanse themselves in water made pure by sacred trust. I was there 25 years ago and will never forget the scene at the funeral pyres.

Do yourself a favor and sell the damned boat. Otherwise you will park it 'till it rots from disuse.

Glad I could cheer you up.

Bubba

Jul 27, 2004, 2:37 PM

Post #6 of 25 (2341 views)

Re: [alex .] I drove on the lake bottom

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I launched my boat today. All I have left is an 18 foot bayliner, and a blowup 9 footer. And it's really great cruising the lake. The trouble is I am talking about Lake Cavanaugh, not lake Chapala.

I'm told by those who have lived in Ajijic longer than I, that years ago when the lake was higher that there were many boats in the Lake. And that now that the water level is coming back up that more people are going out in boats. I usually see a couple of jet skis and the occasional waterski boat in Lake Chapala.

I have a friend who keeps a 20 some foot sail boat at the Yacht club in Ajijic. Yes there is a yacht club and yes there are some boats there.

So, no, this lake is not the best spot for boating. But it is being done, and if the lake keeps on coming up, just maybe I'll buy one down there and tie it up to Bubba's fence post.

Carron

Jul 28, 2004, 9:07 AM

Post #7 of 25 (2290 views)

Re: [NEOhio] boat isse, once again

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We sold our beloved 29' sail boat before moving to Mexico six years ago. I think you will find that you are just too busy once you actually live here to miss your boating hobby.

Jul 28, 2004, 9:10 AM

Post #8 of 25 (2290 views)

Re: [johanson] I drove on the lake bottom

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You'd be welcome to tie your boat up at my fencepost, Pete, as long as you let me use it to move my furniture to dry land until the water recedes. I thank the Virgin and Huichols for their spendid work on the lake level but let's not overdo it.

By the way, do your friends actually use their boats or are they simply tied up at the "yacht club", the dock at which may actually be nearing the water line by now. The last time I walked past the yacht club it was closer to Jocotepec than the lake.

Jul 28, 2004, 9:15 AM

Post #9 of 25 (2288 views)

Re: [Bubba] I drove on the lake bottom

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Do I have to answer Bubba's question? My friend hasn't had his sail boat in the lake for maybe 10 years. But now that the lake may be returning to a normal level, he is contemplating going out again. But he is 81 and realizes that just maybe he will never use the boat again.

NEOhio

Jul 28, 2004, 9:53 AM

Post #10 of 25 (2282 views)

Re: [Carron] boat isse, once again

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Carron, sounds like somebody might have a sailboat available...the boat is one of the things that will keep us busy in Mexico - scaping and painting and fussing and fooling - we were excited to know that it and the trailer could come and not be counted as a vehicle - that was a surprise.

JanetZ

Jul 28, 2004, 3:11 PM

Post #11 of 25 (2242 views)

Re: [NEOhio] boat isse, once again

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I've heard that water hyacinths, or lirio as they're called in Mexico, are a natural sewage treatment, and are actually used in some cities such as Arcata, California. So those lirio that are abundant in Lake Chapala have their silver lining. Since we will be living a block or so from the lake in a couple months, I'm hoping to buy a canoe or small boat to enjoy paddling around the shoreline to bird watch and relax. Hope I'm not dreaming too much!

Carron

Jul 28, 2004, 3:44 PM

Post #12 of 25 (2236 views)

Re: [NEOhio] boat isse, once again

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I think I would not want to paint and scrape and and polish and varnish, change the prop and the zinc, or flush the bilge, or do all those other fun things you now enjoy in the fresh waters of the US in the shallows of Lake Chapala. We had enough nastiness in the waters of a popular marina just off the polluted Houston Ship channel near Galveston. Scraping barnacles while wearing a wet suit and snorkle gear isn't exactly a typical Mexican past time.

My point was that you will be amazed when you get to Mexico at just how busy you will be doing "Mexican" things, such as settling in to your new home, shopping, eating, learning the language, paying bills, visiting the sites, making new friends with different interests. If the boat is so important, you might enjoy it much more by remaining in the US. Or visiting there during the best boating season and spending the rest of the year in Mexico.

Jul 28, 2004, 4:41 PM

Post #13 of 25 (2222 views)

Re: [Carron] boat isse, once again

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Or bring the boat with you and pay someone else maybe three dollars per hour or slightly less to do much of the work on the boat for you..

I keep on saying bring the boat with you. Everyone else says don't. Before you do, come on down and take a look around. Visit the Yacht Club, look at all of the Lirio in the lake. You might just change your mind and not bring the boat down with you.

To the rest of you, sometimes a wooden boat like my old Christ Craft is a labor or love. And the maintenance of it is almost more fun than taking it out.

That said I just launched my PLASTIC Bayliner yesterday. And it sure is fun cruising around the lake visiting friends and socializing, here on Lake Cavanaugh in WA State. I would not be able to do that on Lake Chapala. It is very different down there. But just maybe we can change all of that

Jul 28, 2004, 4:46 PM

Post #14 of 25 (2221 views)

Re: [JanetZ] boat isse, once again

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JanetZ:

Now, you and I know that Arcata, California is about as different as you can get from Lake Chapala and still be on the same planet. Water hyacinths are not going to take over the freezing cold waters of Humboldt Bay in far Northern California where a heat wave is 55 degrees on July 4th. The reason that Arcata is the refuge of the last of the Haight Freaks I remember from my days as a love child in San Francisco in 1967 is that it is so cold and foggy there, all of their old bones are preserved in a sort of micro-climate stew. They still walk the precious if ratty downtown in Arcata which is right out of American Grafitti and say stuff like, "Hey man, cool, y'know what I mean?" and eat veggie burgers and read community bulletin boards and haven't a clue that 1967 was the ancient past, man, except that these personal computers just popped up out of nowhere man, if you know what I mean.

Dennis Hopper in his 20s lives.

I do know now why we have so many water hyacinths. They feed on sewage which defines Lake Chapala, a giant catch basin for all of the detritus produced by twenty million people surrounding the lake and upstream most of whom care not a whit about the health of the lake and pour zillions of tons of human and animal waste, toxic fertilizer runoff and industrial effluent into this natural cesspool every day.

Space cadets in Arcata, attending the marginal university there and subsidized by families blessed to be rid of them and purposefully sending them off to that isolated hell hole, vote and elect city officials who would seek a "natural" solution to their polluted waters without even a clue as to what they are doing or the potential consequences thereof.

Oh, and that canoe you are going to take into the lake. Be prepared to drag it through about 100 yards of lirio in stinking water and, whatever you do, don't tip over or you will emerge resembling something from Motel Hell.

Hey man, cool.

NEOhio

Jul 28, 2004, 6:15 PM

Post #15 of 25 (2203 views)

Re: a labor or love, in more ways than one

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Johanson, you are right, it is as much about the labor or love of "doing" as it is about the cruising. Very glad to hear you are having fun on your WA lake.

Since my husband likes to have a project to focus on, and we enjoy each others company, the project of fixing and fooling with the wood boat is as much a "relationship" booster as it is a project. So it serves many purposes, and if we have the trailer there is always the bass lake to the north - or trips to lakes in Texas.

Be that as it may, the boat comes especially since it doesn't count as a vehicle. We will also be bringing a TR-3 in pieces parts and boxes. These are two projects we have been waiting YEARS to get to do without fitting them around family life and careers - so we'll just have to wait and see.

Maybe in the future we'll be cruising, enjoying the sunset, and visiting friends around the lake - and thne again, maybe not.

Texwheel

Jul 28, 2004, 7:47 PM

Post #16 of 25 (2194 views)

Re: [NEOhio] a labor or love, in more ways than one

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Okay, Ohio, I've been monitoring these posts for several months, researching living in Mexico for a year or so longer than that. I just made my first visit to Lakeside for a week about six weeks ago. And having read all the many posts from some time back, along with personal experience (though not too much at this time) what mystifies me is why despite largely non-positive responses people still want to bring boats down to Lakeside.

I retired four months ago, and am considering the Lakeside area as a place to move to, in addition to others. I do not own a boat, but I would not move one to Lakeside in my wildest dreams. The lake is beautiful, but as a body of water it is a dump. But then, maybe you have more money to waste than I.

Just a friendly observation and opinion.
Tom Williams
Georgetown, Texas
Texwheel@aol.com

Nancy Boyd

Jul 29, 2004, 2:42 PM

Post #17 of 25 (2121 views)

Re: [Bubba] boat isse, once again

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Why do people move to this area when they live on the shore of a giant "cesspool" and what sounds like the largest industrial waste site in Mexico? It sounds utterly disgusting.

Can the weather, the cost of living and nice people make up for this?

bournemouth

Jul 29, 2004, 3:11 PM

Post #18 of 25 (2117 views)

Re: [Nancy Boyd] boat isse, once again

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Nancy: Bubba is in place, has his piece of "paradise" and doesn't want anyone else to come - it's either that or his post is his idea of wit - take your pick.

Jul 29, 2004, 3:30 PM

Post #19 of 25 (2116 views)

Re: [Nancy Boyd] boat isse, once again

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Nancy:

Simple.

Because you can't smell it a few yards away.

Because many people who move here or have vacation homes here whether along the lakeshore or up in the hills are well-to-do and do not care to think of the ecological disaster that is Lake Chapala. It is a pretty backdrop to their desired lifestlyes. Rich Tapatios and expatriates sit on their verandas on or high above the lake and admire its beauty without a thought as to its state. While the rich contemplate their views and dry martinis, it is the desperately poor who eat the repulsive and poisonous carp caught in the lake everyday and sold in the public square to the impoverished who feed it to their children who will almost certainly develop terrible problems as a result later in life. It is the poor who drink the water from the lake that is repulsive to look at much less ingest.

What do you expect? When, on this planet, has it been different whether in was the British coveting the Kenyan Highlands or my ancestors in South Alabama sipping bourbon and branch while their dirt poor African servants served them up canapes.

Wealth has its privilege as George Bush would attest. You don't have to move down here to be affronted by the human condition.

And, who told you the people here were nice? If you are moving here because there are "nice people" then don't move at all. People here are just as nice or nasty as people everywhere.

Jul 29, 2004, 3:38 PM

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Re: [bournemouth] boat isse, once again

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Bournemouth:

An astute observation.

Bubba is like many liberals. Offended by his undeserved success.

Life is full of contradictions and as Jimmy Carter would say, "...is not fair."

Jul 29, 2004, 5:17 PM

Post #21 of 25 (2103 views)

Re: [Bubba] boat isse, once again

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Admittedly the water is not crystal blue; often it looks muddy. But I am told that most of the poisons, heavy metals etc, have precipitated to the bottom of the lake, and that the water itself is not that bad. In fact a water expert who spoke at the Lake Chapala Society said that it would not be that hard to make the lake (Chapala) water Potable.

Marlene

Jul 30, 2004, 5:46 PM

Post #22 of 25 (2032 views)

Re: [Texwheel] a labor or love, in more ways than one

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Changing the subject slightly but my burning question is why people continually refer to Lake Chapala as "Lakeside" with a capital L like it is an official name. Do Mexicans call it this too now, or is this a foreigner, kind of cool thing to rename the area?

Texwheel

Jul 30, 2004, 8:51 PM

Post #23 of 25 (2013 views)

Re: [Marlene] a labor or love, in more ways than one

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Speaking for myself only, I take "Lakeside" to be the greater Lake Chapala area. Just easier to use one word. So I guess it's a "foreign" kind of thing, since in that area I am a foreigner. Sorry if it "burns" that much. Seems minor to me. Sort of like saying "twin cities" instead of "Minneapolis-St. Paul". But I'm open to terminology management.

In editing, I want to add that there are so many different communities that "Lake Chapala" could be taken to be "Chapala" vs "Ajijic" or any of the other communities, whereas "Lakeside" suggests the entire area. I'm not trying to seem difficult.

What general term do you suggest?
Tom Williams
Georgetown, Texas
Texwheel@aol.com

(This post was edited by Texwheel on Jul 30, 2004, 9:15 PM)

Jul 30, 2004, 11:30 PM

Post #24 of 25 (2001 views)

Re: [Texwheel] a labor or love, in more ways than one

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Just like the folks in the greater Toronto area who say GTA. many of the expats living on the shores of Lake Chapala use Lakeside as a generic term covering the villages all over lake Chapala. This 8 letter word is a lot easier than saying or writing "the greater Lake Chapala area".. The term is used by many both in speaking and in writing. You will see "lakeside" used in for example The Guadalajara Reporter, the first or second largest English speaking Newspaper in Mexico (depending on how you count). It is sort of the "in" thing.

In the Western provinces of Canada for example many of the Canadians refer to Vancouver Island, as "The Island". It's sort of the cool in thing to say by my neighbors to the north.

Is the term "Lakeside" proper? Good gracious no. but it sure is easier (shorter) than saying "the greater Lake Chapala area".

It's like saying Arlington instead of Dallas Fort Worth

Esteban

Sep 15, 2005, 2:32 PM

Post #25 of 25 (1891 views)