Frank Burton
May 27, 2003, 12:28 AM
Post #4 of 13
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Re: [moondust] narrowed it down to san felipe or chapala, mazatlan maybe
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Hi, Alysia,
My wife and I seriously considered Ensenada and to a lesser extent San Felipe, along with several other places in Mexico. We ruled out San Felipe because of the stark setting, the summer heat, and its reputation for being a party town for the party-hardy young people from the States. Ensenada has a climate much more like San Diego's, which was attractive to us. But, again, on a couple of visits there which included a weekend, there were too many noisy, drunken young people from the States. I've lived near, and visited, US/Mexico border towns for a few decades, and the gringos who use the border areas of Mexico as places to do things they wouldn't try or get away with in the US, ruin those areas for me. We ruled out the mainland coastal areas because we don't want their combination of heat, humidity, and warm nights.
I've vacationed in many parts of Mexico. When we began to seriously explore Mexico as a place to live, we visited San Felipe, Morelia, Patzcuaro, and San Miguel de Allende; and Ensenada and the Lake Chapala area twice each. We chose the Lake Chapala area, and have been living in Riberas del Pilar, about halfway between the villages of Chapala and Ajijic, since October. Mexico is not for everyone, and the Lake Chapala area certainly isn't, but we like it here very much. The spring-all-year-around climate was/is a big draw, and the large community of ex-pats, many of whom we did and do experience as very open and willing to share their experience with newbies. While we're studying Spanish and will continue to do so, we know ex-pats who have gotten by for years here without learning more than 'hola', 'buenos dias', 'buenas tardes', 'buenas noches', and 'adios'. One can live one's life here either very much engaged with the Mexican people, very much engaged with the gringos, both, or neither.
I believe you said in another of your posts that you hope for quiet. A note of caution about noise in Mexico: the noise level in general is higher than most of the places I've lived in the States. And particularly in the villages such as Chapala and Ajijic, there are many sources of frequent, loud noise: vending trucks and political trucks with loudspeakers travel the streets during the day, blaring out their messages; the fireworks which accompany the frequent fiestas--I counted 50 loud booms within about 3 minutes one day at the Ajijic plaza, and they are not uncommon at night; and dogs barking at night, even here in the country. We did not notice the barking until the weather warmed up enough that we wanted the windows open to the wonderful, cool night air. In cautioning you about the noise, I don't want to alarm you, rather just to present some of the realities of living in Mexico. I must balance the caution I've just voiced with my love of the general peace and quiet where we live: Although the night barking sometimes leads us to close the bedroom windows during sleep time, the dominant sounds during the day are the birds and during the evening, the crickets. The last few weeks, the "rainbirds" (noisy insects which apparently show up each year a few weeks before the rainy season starts) have been singing some during the day and constantly for awhile before and after sunset every day.
We don't know how the lake situation will develop over time. There's more hope for solutions now; there is a new set of officers of Amigos del Lago and they are working hard, cooperating with the Living Lakes organization and with the foundation organized by a prominent Guadalajaran who also has a large home here in Riberas, Manuel Villagomez. Significant cooperation among the different groups is relatively new. What has to happen to solve the lake issue is development of the political will to solve the problems, which have been created by people, people who are reluctant to keep the agreements which have been made, and to modulate their use and contamination of the water which feeds the lake. See the amigosdelago.org website for their current action plan. In the meantime, even though the water level is low relative to its capacity, the lake still has a significant moderating influence on the climate.
Besides the wonderful resource which you've already found in Mexconnect, here are a couple more sources of good information in case you haven't discovered them: The book Choose Mexico by John Howels, especially the recent editions; it discusses many facets of living in Mexico and many of the pluses and minuses of different areas where significant numbers of gringos live. And Mexico-Insights.com, which has been publishing on-line for about 16 months, and which contains an incredible array of information about living in Mexico in general, and in the Lake Chapala area in particular.
Pick an area or two, come and visit. If your visit includes the Lake Chapala area, my wife and I would be very happy to share more of the plusses and minuses we've learned, face to face.
(This post was edited by Frank Burton on May 27, 2003, 12:51 AM)
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