April 3rd 2015 The religious and Easter celebrations in Mexico are very important and considered a big event. Most business, schools and banks close from a 4 day up to  1 week period in order to celebrate "Semana Santa y Pascua" (Holy week and Easter).  Both the towns of San Antonio Tlayacapan and Ajijic practice for weeks in order to re-create the last living days of Jesus Christ. Below is this years...

Mazatlan is known as the Pearl of the Pacific because of it's friendly people and the beauty of the beaches. It is the second largest city in the state of Sinaloa. It was founded by the Spanish and Indigenous people in 1531. In the mid 19th century, the Germans came and they settled and developed the area. It is located directly across the gulf from La Paz which is located at the tip of Baja. There are car...

The 37th Annual Mexican Chili Cook-Off was a great success. It started on Friday, February 27th and went through Sunday. It ended at five p.m. on Sunday, March 1st. It was held at the Tobolandia water park. This year the parade was very small. The Shriners were in it and the tour bus from Chapala. Instead of starting at six corners as it did on previous years, it started by the bank up on the Carretera....

February 26, 2015 The 37th Chili Cook off took place on the last week of February of 2015 and although the parade that kicks off this event was a little disappointing this year, the turn up for the event was great. This year was one of the most busiest yet. The organization was a little different than last year, since they moved the grounds from the back of Tobolandia to the center of it, relocating...

February 17th 2015 It seems that every year the "Ajijic Carnival" Fat Tuesday parade gets bigger and bigger. If you do not know what this local tradition is about, check out our blog where we have written about it over the past years. All though there are several parades during Carnival, especially in Chapala, none are as unique as the on held in Ajijic. Men dress up as women, which are called...

This is my third year of writing about the Fat Tuesday parade. Unfortunately, I was too sick to get out of my house to see it. My friend Ramon took these photos for me with his wide angle lens. The lens gives an interesting perspective.  Since I didn't take these photos, I can't comment much on them but I will give you some background information on the Fat Tuesday Parade. I hope next year I will not have...

The Guadalajara zoo is at the edge of town, next to the Huentitan Canyon which is a natural park.   The cost is sixty pesos up to two hundred pesos, depending on what you want to do there. If you want to go on everything that takes people around to see the animals, the cost is two hundred pesos. That includes the sky ride, the safari truck, the train, plus entrance to the aquarium. There may have been...

My Christmas holiday was very special because my son and daughter-in-law came to visit. They live in Portland, Oregon where it is cold in December. They appreciated the beautiful warm days here. We all stayed at the Hotel Tapatio. It is located not far from the airport. We had spectacular views of Guadalajara from there. We only had one week, Christmas day to New Year's day. We took taxis everywhere. I was...

Have you ever fantasized about living in the lakeside area before it became popular with the expats? When it was just a small town? I have and sometimes I have wished I could go back in time for just a day to see it as it was then. Well, I took the bus to San Nicolas yesterday and it looked very much like the photos of Ajijic many years ago.  It isn't too late!  It is just a short walk to the water from...

Before I moved to Mexico I had the idea that I would settle near the smaller lake instead of Lake Chapala. I figured it would be less crowded than the popular Chapala area and less expensive.  But I have lived here for eight years and never bothered to even visit it until this last weekend. I had forgotten my previous plan of settling there. (Life was too good at the Lake Chapala area.) It was not a bad...