After getting set up to stay in Oaxaca for a while I decided last week to make a quick trip to Guadalajara and Ajijic to pick up some stuff I left there in storage and haul it down to Oaxaca. I had to drive, as I needed my truck to haul the stuff. I had planned to travel alone but at the last minute a young Mexican lady who lives in Mexico D.F. but had been spending Semana Santa in Oaxaca decided to ride with me as far as D.F. read more

My wife and I have just returned from Ajijic. While there we toured real estate with a very competent man. We are currently negotiating for a property which is a walled lot with all utilities installed, a basic foundation, cistern, etc. for a small home. What we are trying to determine now is what the cost per square foot will be for average construction. We realize that costs can very greatly due to luxury ammenities. That's why I indicated average or middle of the road construction costs. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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I am planning on going to Mexico in the fall and I heard of this small village on the Bay of Tenacatita called La Manzanilla, in the state of Jalisco. I am looking for a place that is quiet and on the ocean. Can anyone give me some information on this place? Is it affordable to live there? Is the fishing good?

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Posted by Kim Martin on February 04, 1997: Sorry about the long delay in responding to questions, but the university server seems to be down more often than not. Here¥s some info about rentals. M... read more

As everyone who has been to Chapala lakeside knows, there is only one major roadway that encircles the fabulous lake. One of the small but essential journeys required of any lakeside residents on a regular basis is to go from one side of the carretera to the other as a pedestrian. read more

We've thoroughly enjoyed reading this site recently and now have another question. With a lake the size of Lake Chapala there must be pleasure boating but haven't found much info. We're thinking about bringing a boat or buying there. Does anyone know about marinas, boats for sale, boating activities, living aboard, etc.? Any help is appreciated...

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There's more to the Mexico seashore than skimboards, seafood and sun-bathing bronzed bodies: there is solitude. There are vast stretches of uninhabited or unfrequented beaches lounging serenely beside a roiling sea that stretches westward seemingly into infinity. read more

Set on the shore of Lake Chapala, the town of Ajijic has become a center of art and culture. The Noches de Ajijic International Festival of Gastronomy and Music highlights some of the region's best.

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Jenny is a modest artist. She paints word pictures without fully realizing it.

Drama & Diplomacy in Sultry Puerto Vallarta is an insider view of a hot beach town in a less complicated time. Both are long lost, the simple village and the relative serenity.

The Jenny McGill story is even better than the book. She tells it like it is. If you ask enticing questions, you get exciting answers, about her 35 years in Mexico, about beauty and bandits, about Fourth of July parties and the fake gardener who fleeced her out of $35.

Even better is the tale of...

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In Talpa, we have tianguis or street markets. Every two weeks, venders come from Guadalajara with their trucks loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit, herbs, ornate plants, cell phones, hair dryers and CD players. We can buy a galvanized milk can or rubber boots to wear in the milking lot. There are clay bean pots, stone metates for grinding the spices for savory salsas and machetes to clear the path through the woods. read more

Approximately twenty-five years ago I heard rumors of some curious geological formations hidden high in the hills above the town of Ahualulco de Mercado, which is located about 58 kilometers west of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city. "There are giant stone balls up there," I was told, "perfectly round and lying in a great bed of volcanic ash." When I asked how these megaspherulites (as scientists call them today) came into being, I was told that they had been shot into the air from inside Tequila Volcano. read more

I began to discover that certain vested interests involving the Huichol did not welcome outsiders. There was almost a political rivalry among various individuals and groups who regarded the Huichol as their own private preserve. This sense of proprietary rights by over the Huichol was confirmed later when I went to Mexico City. Back then there was intense rivalry among people working with the Huichol., too. read more

Strange, but true. Charles Embree's A dream of a throne, the story of a Mexican revolt, is based on the story of the Lake Chapala area during the 19th century. read more

From July 16-18, Mazamitla hosts three days of music, art, gastronomy, film and more. read more

Lake Chapala’s literary and artistic reputation was enhanced in the 1930s, '40s and '50s by a long string of visiting writers and artists. Here is a brief alphabetical listing of some of the stalwarts of the Lake Chapala art and literary scene in the 1960s and early 1970s. read more

The tecpan, or pre-Hispanic palace in Oconahua, Jalisco, dates from between 500 and 1100 A.D. The only tecpan bigger than this one may have been the Palace of Moctezuma, but this can't be verified because it's buried underneath the Zócalo in Mexico City. That makes El Palacio de Ocomo the largest tecpan to be found anywhere. read more