Hola! Well,
after 3-and-a-half days on the road, we've officially arrived in
Gringo-land. It was about a five-hour drive from SLP to
Ajijic, much of it on winding mountain roads (think southern
Spain), passing semis in between dangerous curves. The
mountain roads eventually turned into farm country, with miles
and miles of prickly pear cactus (tuna) fields, which
they appear to grow as a crop here. For our first night in
Ajijic, Monday, we booked a room at the very charming and
romantic Casa Mis Amores (if you are ever in Ajijic, you must
stay here), which is about a block from the town square.
We loved it so much upon checking in that we immediately booked
another night. It is decorated in Colonial Mexican style
with rustic wood furnishings, bright colors and a private patio
overlooking the garden. As a bonus, it has a brand new
bathroom and a very comfortable king size bed. It is
reminiscent of someplace you might see in southern California
for upwards of $200 per night. We are paying about US$70
and people consider this to be very expensive here.
After all the driving
we've been doing, we've decided to stay here for awhile to get
some practical questions answered and to plan our next move.
As luck would have it, the local Gringo association, the Lake
Chapala Society is just blocks from our hotel, so after a
delicious breakfast at the hotel, we went to pay them a visit.
A conservative elderly gentleman named Skip was most helpful
with regard to answering our questions about water sanitation,
phone service and apartment rentals. In fact, he even knew
of an apartment his friend Jack was renting for US$200 per week
that was available and he was getting off duty, so off we went
with Skip to check it out. (We would have LOVED to stay
here at the Mis Amores for another week, but alas and alack,
money doesn't grow on trees, you know!) The apartment is
not quite the Mis Amores but that's what you get for 200 bucks,
I guess. It's got cable TV, at least, so Caroline will be
able to watch The O.C., and that's worth a lot. It's also
got potable (i.e. drinkable) water, which is pretty cool.
Lucky for us, the previous tenant died recently, so it was
available; weekly rentals this time of year are hard to find
here.
So we agreed to rent
the apartment starting tomorrow and then Skip insisted we come
and check out his place. He had torn down the existing
buildings on his lot and had a fancy architect from Guadalajara
come and build this super modern-style house in the middle of
his very Mexican neighborhood. We spent the next couple of
hours touring and hearing all about it. Caroline got very
dehydrated and had to go and rest after that. |
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