Ajijic, Guadalajara, Mexico
Friday, January 5, 2007
Lake Chapala is the largest fresh water lake in Mexico. This sounded like a good enough reason to make it a stop on our tour. Heading northwest from Morelia, we arrived in the town of Lake Chapala to find alot of retired expats. We'd been warned of this so were not too surprised. However, unlike San Miguel de Allende where the expats seemed more interested in their own affairs, the Lake Chapala crowd openly offered unsolicited suggestions for eateries and opinions about the local tourist activities. After eating at "the best" restaraunt in Lake Chapala, we took in the view and headed to Ajijic, the neighboring town with a more artistic flair. Ajijic was quite, peaceful, and also gringo filled. We took a quick walking tour, checked the bus times for our trip to Guadalajara the next day and headed to our lake side campground. I was excited about a lakeside campground. "Lakeside" to me anyway, implies being able to walk to the waters edge. The thing about Lake Chapala is that one, the lake level is continuously dropping so our campground was separated from the lake by a newly recovered cow pasture; and two, the lake has a lily problem so the water is about one hundred yards from the shore. It would seem that someday the lilies will take over completely and the water will be hidden from view. So our lakeside campground was with a view rather than lakeside. Regardless of that it was a very cool place.
