Lake Chapala and Ajijic

Today we did a day trip by buses to Lake Chapala about 1 hour south of Guadalajara. It is the largest fresh water lake in Mexico and is a pretty area of several villages with a large ex-pat community in one of them, Ajijic. It is a very interesting area. The town is an arts community and many of the buildings are painted in bright colors and there are more art gallery's than we thought was possible in such a small community. There are a lot of year round residents from both the US and Canada. But again prices are US comparable. The weather is mild here year round and though it reminded us a little of San Miguel it was not as upscale and high end. We met some really nice folks and shared a lunch table with them at a restaurant on the plaza. They not only gave us the low down on living there, they also gave us a 20 minute driving tour of the different areas of town and then gave us a ride back to the town of Chapala to catch the bus. A very fortunate day for us. We still got back late and are tired and have had a quick taco dinner and will take an early bus tomorrow to Morelia. We may decide to bail out on Patzcuaro as the weather is supposed to be raining and cold all this week in all of Southern Mexico. Just like our last venture into the mountains 2 years ago ... it will be cold (50 in the day and freezing at night) and most places in our price range do not have heat. Last time we both got sick from the weather change so we want to avoid that. We hear it is even raining in Oaxaca but at least there it is in the 80's. We miss the heat of the beach already. In the meantime there is a lot of Museums and art to see in Morelia.