The majority of Mexicans don't own cars. Very few own airplanes. Passenger trains are extinct. Burros are notoriously slow. This makes bicycles and bus service very important. Something, perhaps need,... read more

May is our primary month for visiting friends and renewing acquaintances in the good old United States of America. It's catch-up time for birthdays and anniversaries, the correct time to analyze Tennes... read more

Because most of our neighbors don't speak English and because our Spanish is at least awful, some strange things happen in our Mexican community. The other evening a woman stopped at our front gate. A ... read more

Back in the previous century, at about the time Albert Gore was inventing the internet, clean air, space stations and probably diet Coke, we got hooked on Lake Chapala. This was an era when Gordon Wea... read more

My exalted editor, spelling coach and inspirational wife of more than 50 years said my chosen subject for this month wasn't very good so we'll skip what I thought was an award-winning essay and go dire... read more

Edd Bissell, 64, almost retired as a Tennessee pharmacist and gentleman farmer, has found a new home, at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, on the Bay of Banderas, on the left bank of Mexico, in the edge of Nayar... read more

Don Whitehead, distinguished author of "The FBI Story" and twice a Pulitzer Prize winner for reporting on the Korean War, was an early hero of mine. In semi-retirement, Don was a columnist for Th... read more

White Pelicans on Lake Chapala; photo: John Mitchell, Earth Images Foundation Granddaughter Kim couldn't resist. Our slender, pert redhead scampered along the flatland toward the water. Thousands o... read more

The first time was in New York, along Seventh Avenue, near the intersection with Broadway, where the streets come together to make a piece of pie. No doubt I was gawking. Might as well have carried a s... read more

In the early years of the 21st century, the beautiful Mexican town of Sayula had a wildly fluctuating gringo population. Half of it was lost in one day -- when Paul and Debbie Katz moved to Chapal... read more

It's showtime in Athens. The Greeks are all stirred up about the Olympic Games, worrying about terrorist threats and who's going to pay the bills when the party is over and everybody goes home. Thirty... read more

You've heard about those push-and-shove Americans who cross the border with their arms full and want Mexico to stop, look and listen. Well, they're at it again. These northern do-gooders, wearing Lens ... read more

Point your car (or take the bus) along the south side of Lake Chapala, past San Pedro Tesistan and San Cristobal Zapotitlan and San Luis Soyatlan and San Nicolas and Tepeguaje to Tuxcueca. Make a right... read more

Golf is the magic carpet that lifted Violeta Retamoza from Cerco del Laurel in Aguascalientes and sent her out to see the world. So far, it has earned her a scholarship at the University of Tennessee ... read more

If you've never lived in San Juan Cosala, in the exciting state of Jalisco, in big, beautiful Mexico, you may have missed Guadalupe and Maria Guzman. Their home is deep in the village, on Avenue Morel... read more

It is my sad duty to inform you that the times they are a changing, at Barra de Navidad. Our favorite spit of Pacific sand, sticking out just a little bit from Highway 200 along the west bank, is not ... read more

Love stories are all around but, alas, we miss most of them. They are too personal to share. Or the lovers think no one else could possibly understand the glow on their faces and the stars in their eye... read more

Half a lifetime ago, the West family went south for a Christmas vacation in a quaint, little village on the Gulf coast of Florida. The pencil factory was long gone from Cedar Key. Tourist traffic roari... read more

Cantankerous restaurateur Tom Sandilands, 74, has completed a rare gastronomic circle. Years ago, he was in the barbecue business. He switched to pizza and became a far-out legend -- far out at the cit... read more

The scene is set: The pit, the crowd, the beer, the betting. No question about when the cockfight begins. The tension level goes up and noise soars with it. There is a violent explosion, a blur of fury... read more

Ancient American Alexander R. Pembrooke, 84, retired gospel singer, pipe-smoking trout fisherman and stock-market survivor, retains an insatiable appetite for information. He selected our south-of-the-... read more

Petra is the grand matriarch in our Mexican community of Nestipac, in suburban Jocotepec. A daughter and two children live to the right of her home. Two sons and their familes live to her left. Those o... read more

After an all-Mexico breakfast of fresh-squeezed orange juice, honeydew, banana, raspberries and mango, we dusted off our faithful VW bug and pointed it toward Tapalpa. (Tom McEwen of the Tampa Tribune... read more

In Mexico, the bus, sooner or later, goes almost everywhere. And the cost is low. And there might be free entertainment, maybe an ancient dropout from a mariachi band or a youngster trying to transport... read more

Once upon a time, in the previous century, an old journalist and his still-beautiful bride were pondering retirement and escape from Washington, D.C. They had roots and land on the original TVA lake i... read more