Driving in Mexico can be summed up in the immortal words ‘just do it.’  ‘It’ means doing whatever it takes to get you where you want to be before the other guy gets there – even if he’s not going where you’re going. I mean whatever. cutting in front of other cars, changing lanes on a dime, going the wrong way down one way streets, cutting someone off by making a u-turn around them, making unexpected u-turns in general, backing up into oncoming traffic…  I’ve seen things no sane diver has even dreamed of. It doesn’t help that there are so many one-way roads and so much construction screwing everything up.’just do it’. it’s a demolition derby driver’s dream.

I’ve found that the best way for me to approach driving in G. is to keep my left eye glued to the outside driver-side mirror, my right eye alternating between looking straight ahead and in the rear view mirror, with an occasional glance to the right, just in case a pedestrian decides to jump in front of my car, and to keep my automatic transmission in 1st gear. there’s no use having it in ‘D’, i’m never going to get above 5 mph anyway, and the low gear gives me the instant acceleration i constantly need. i’m going to have to get some new brake pads soon, though.

yesterday, we went into Guadalajara to hit up the new Home Depot there for a fireplace screen to keep Mandy the gata (cat) out of the ashes.
THE LADY IN THE GPS DOESNT KNOW A DARN THING ABOUT DRIVING IN GUADALAJARA!

i cant even describe the wild-goose chase she sent us on.  about an hour ending with a half-hour’s drive on a dirt road somewhere. i’d like to show you a photo of the neighborhood she took us through, but stopping to get out of the car and take a picture just didnt seem like such a bright idea. finally, she got us near an intersection that would take us back to Ajijic, and we took it. a three hour trip, and no Home Depot.

last nite, i played with the gps, hoping i could program in better instructions to get us there. i thought i had it down pretty good, and so this morning we took off for Home Depot once more. amazingly, our lady friend turned us down the same dirt road we had travelled the day before – just going the opposite direction! ‘She’s diabolical’ Les exclaimed.

Deciding that we’d go in the opposite direction of whichever way she told us to go, we slowly approached the neighborhood of the Home Depot. But there was construction and we had to take another street to get there. At one intersection, we decided to take a right to see if we could get back to the street the store was on, when we noticed that we were actually in the Home Depot parking lot! How in the world that happened, I’ll never know.

I’ll just briefly say that the store didnt carry any fireplace accessories, and that only one person in the store spoke passable english. however, everyone was delightfully friendly and helpful. While we were in shopping, I paid some men in the parking lot 40 pesos (around $3.50) to wash our car. they did a great job, and would have cleaned the inside too if we hadnt locked it.

But back to our lady inside the GPS. twice she led us around in circles trying to get back to the highway, each much larger than the one before. constantly she asked us to turn down the wrong way on one way streets.  we finally turned her off and just drove as far as we could away from the Home Depot before turning her on again. By this time, Les had located us on the map we had, and had devised a route back to Ajijic. at this point, the smart lady in the Garmin agreed with her.

Don’t forget to check out our gallery of photographs of Historical Guadalajara by clicking on this picture of the Cathedral Dome. You can also find it by clicking on the link in the blogroll on the left.

Photos of Historical Guadalajara

The hotel is lovely, an ancient building only four stories high.  Rehabbed by the Guadalajaraian government, it boasts beautiful dark wood stairways, doors, furniture and lovely old world paintings.  Several fountains – one just outside our hotel room door, covered with beautiful mosaic tiles. Lush greens, an ancient lamp post and a park bench is welcoming and begs the traveler to site a while and relax.  Looking up, from this park bench, you see beautiful blue skies, fluffy white clouds and find yourself breathing a sigh of relief realizing you made it through the chaotic Guadalajarian traffic and seem to remain among the living.

A place of beauty and peace

At night, the streets in Downtown Guadalajara come alive. We stumbled upon this breakdancing exhibition by accident. Click on the picture to view the movie.

Breakdancing on Saturday night

Sidewalk Cafes in the Plaza de Guadalajara

Open air restaurant on Ave. Ramon Carona

Sidewalk cafes, open air restaurants, Guadalajara has it all.

Halway and courtyard, The Hotel Morales, Guadalajara

We’d be able to drive to Guadalajara on special occasions and stay at the Hotel Morales.

1. Called someone who had a house to rent and see what our money could buy.

2. Ask people what they liked about the Chapala area and why they chose to live there. It would have been especially useful to talk with people who had lived in other parts of Mexico before settling on the Lake.

3. Get some suggestions for other places in Mexico to visit.

In general, we might have asked around a bit, instead of just driving up and down the road and seeing what it looked like. But by now you should know us – we don’t do the logical thing.

The 2 bulletin boards outside the the Ajijic Wal-Mart were full of postings for houses to rent or buy. They came furnished or unfurnished, in the old village or in communities with ’shared swimming pools.’  Most rented for $700-$1000/month for 6 months, with rents being less for extended stays.

In the pizza parlor I mentioned earlier, we ran upon a woman who quickly told us she had a house to rent or sell. So between the bulletin boards and just asking around, Les and I both figured that in only a few weeks we’d we able to find a place in Ajijic which we not only could afford but would be to our liking.

Mountainside homes, Lake Chapala

There are three Ajijics on Lake Chapala. The beautiful hillside homes with their magnificent gardens and views of the lake, the gated subdivisions just off the main road, with their attractive, modern American homes, and the old village of Aijic itself.

Ajijic was written about in the popular 1945 book, ‘Village in the Sun’, by Dan Chandos, and Americans started to retire there. Because of its long history as a Norte Americano retreat, it has the largest American population of any town or village in Mexico – perhaps 25,000-30,000. Ajijic proper is an old Mexican village, with narrow cobblestone streets and adobe homes hidden behind high walls and wooden doors. It is also home to the Lake Chapala Society, an English speaking organization started in the 1950’s, with over 3700 members, and a large library, all set upon a beautiful walled estate deep in the heart of the old village.