One of the reasons we went to Ajijic was my cousin Jeff lives there and we wanted to visit with him some. So we had a couple of meals with him and visited with him a few times. He is looking good and seems to be enjoying life here. In fact we’ve only seen him a couple of times ‘cause he is so busy. Two nights a week he teaches an English class. He is taking part in a play and is going to rehearsals during the week. He goes to Karaoke on Monday nights. This past weekend he was directing traffic both days for the annual Chili Cook Off.
He also belongs to a Culinary Club and has old movie night one night a week for his friends. Busy, busy guy. And I think I’ve left a couple of things out. Jeff and Bill with friend at Cook Off.
Joined Jeff at Karaoke Monday night. What fun. Lots of people participating. Some with really good voices – some …. Okay. Jeff really gets into it and livens things up. Check out the short video at the end.
Ajijic is a neat little town. You hear mostly English spoken here. Thousands of both Canadians and Americans have settled here. The climate is very good and living (after you’ve bought a house) is much less expensive than north of the border. Houses are pretty expensive. Nice ones seem to range from at least US$250,000 and over. There are plenty of doctors, dentists and vets here. All speak English. We bought a couple of DVD movies for US$3.00 each - fairly new releases in English. At the Wal*Mart here I even found Salad Sprinkles – Wal*Mart is new since we were here three years ago. We bought beef filet for around US$3.50 per pound. Fish is very cheap. Cable and satellite TV is available with all US major channels. No we are not thinking of moving here.
I think I mentioned that there are lots of art/craft galleries here. We went into one and fell in love with an oil painting of a Mexican woman, she has her head turned and her braid is covered with colorful bows.
A beautiful piece – I want it! [Didn’t get it.] Lots of clothing stores and stores that sell handicrafts. Saw a corn husk doll paddling a carved wooden boat that was cute.
And a ceramic chicken with lots of little ceramic flowers all over him. Fun stuff for the tourists and the norteamericanos who live here.Down by the lake is a pier with a restaurant at the end. Didn’t go in but really liked the door. An old boat standing on end the bottom turned into a door and colorfully decorated.
In the road in front of the water behind a multicolored display of blankets a woman sat on a piece of cardboard on the ground weaving material. Her loom tied around her waist and the other end to a big old tree.
Many of the buildings have murals on them. Some whimsical - this is a flower shop
some depicting the history of the area.
Others just pretty and interesting. Lots of buildings are decorated with stencils.
And tiles.
A few of the light posts are painted
and several of the street signs are tiles. Never know what we’ll see as we walk down the street or turn a corner.
The streets are very narrow – parking on one side and just barely enough room for a car to go by.
When we park The Driver pulls the roadside mirror in – just in case. We saw a propane truck stopped to service a second floor tank. He placed a ladder from the street up to the balcony and drug his hose up with him. All the while his truck was blocking traffic completely.
The plaza has the requisite gazebo and a very old small church. There are a number of wood carvings in this area. And an art gallery with a magnificent mural inside. Unfortunately it is in a very narrow hallway and I can’t get decent pictures of it. It is about the legend of the lake and the area.
About a block away there is another bigger church – it was started in 1821 and has been added to a number of times. You can see the additions by looking closely at the stone work.
I hah my hair cut here - 50 Pesos - notice the wiring running in front of the balcony.
Just a couple of typical street scenes here.
Lots of stuff for sale.And I could go on and on – but won’t.
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