Blogs from Jalisco, Mexico, North America

After 2 winters spent on Vancouver Island, we opted for a more benign climate and boy, did we find it! Ajijic is 5 000’ above sea level, moderating the heat of central Mexico. Winter is dry season, so sunny every day with temps in the mid 20s and cooler nights. Our friends Brian & Vivienne were a great help. They have wintered here for the past 7 years & know the ropes. They scouted out our accommodation & purchased used e bikes on our behalf. With no car, we found our bikes and local buses got us around very well. We made a number of new friends. Barry & Maxine drove us to Interesting sights and restaurants that we would never have found ourselves. Through Pickleball we befriended Trish & Ralph & enjoyed their company. On ... read more

I woke up first and had a sneaky look outside the window to find us approaching land so ventured outside to the balcony in my pj’s to see we were approaching the port. We ventured into the harbour and I could see the pilot jump onboard as they don’t seem to trust these cruise ship captains to navigate entering each port. As we docked we watched these three guys trying to built a temporary sign below us which must have been for one of the tours and they had all sorts of trouble. It must been like putting an IKEA furniture flat pack together with no instructions but they got there after about 10 minutes of trying. Once we docked we went to the buffet for breakfast (I did get out of my pj’s first) and ... read more

Guadalajara was the first time I had worked remotely in another country, which resulted in its own set of problems. Things I take for granted like phones, credit cards, and online deliveries suddenly became a problem. I will need to figure out how to set up a dual sim card for future travel, so I can still have people contact me from home while using a local provider for data. I had all kinds of problems with my credit/debit cards, either not working because of PINs, not being able to use them online, or not being accepted everywhere. Finally, Amazon in Mexico has nothing to be worried about with IKEA. I ordered a desk through IKEA, but the whole delivery process was a complete disaster. I ended up ordering a new one through Amazon, which went ... read more

Teuchitlan is the tiny pueblo that is the home of Guachimontones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guachimontones), an important archaeological site in the Mexican state of Jalisco, near Guadalajara. Click for url=https://www.google.com.mx/maps/place/Guachimontones/@20.6916485,-103.8515682,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x84260dc27af7e84f:0x78f4a7f5526a5a9e!8m2!3d20.6954172!4d-103.8363279?hl=en&authuser=0MAP. You may have seen my posts about the url=https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS613US682&ei=OMIoXYSSIMPysQX7sJSgCw&q=voladores&oq=voladores&gs_l=psy-ab.1.3.0i203l6j0j0i203l2j0i10i203.2880.2880..11665...0.0..0.111.111.0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.ZNtCeEI2LicVOLADORES. Well, this is where they originated. There are a bunch of photos, so check them all out. Click on the links and read. Interesting things to know: If you ar... read more

Our drive back to Lake Chapala from Sayulita was made a bit more interesting by not one, but two overturned mango trucks. They pack those little trucks to the gills and they pack them high. Imagine how much ONE milk crate of mangoes must weigh. Multiply that by HUNDREDS. One of the crashes had already cleared except for the thousands of mangoes littering the side of the road. People, especially on easy to stop motorcycles, were helping themselves to the delicious free fruit. We got stuck in the second one, but luckily only for about a half hour, when the police starting one way traffic around the crash site. Again, plenty of free mangoes for the taking. Did Rose stop and let me grab even one? Nope.... read more