Mexico Travel: A Tour to
Lake Chapala featuring Mexcala Island, Chapala Town
and Ajijic
I had enjoyed my personal tour through “El
Centro Cultural El Refugio” in Tlaquepaque
and gotten good insight into the historical and
artistic highlights of this Guadalajara neighbourhood.
Now it was 3:30 pm and it was time for an out-of-town
excursion. My local expert, professional tour guide
José Orozco, had arrived and was ready to
pick me up for a tour of Lake Chapala.
Located less than an hour south of Guadalajara,
Lake Chapala is Mexico’s largest freshwater
lake and measures roughly 80 km from east to west
and 18 km from north to south. The lake is an important
source of fresh water and has been overexploited
in recent years, leading to a dramatic decline in
water levels. Water levels have recovered in the
last few years because several unauthorized dams
upstream have been removed. Not surprisingly, real
estate values around the lake fluctuate with the
water levels.
José Orozco, my expert local guide, in front
of Lake Chapala
The climate surrounding Lake Chapala is nearly
perfect with warm winters and not overly hot, dry
summers. As a result, Lake Chapala has become a
popular retirement destination for Americans and
Canadians who have congregated in towns like Ajijic
and Chapala. The topic of retiring abroad has fascinated
me for a long time, and for this reason I was really
looking forward to my excursion with local expert
José Orozco.
José was born in Guadalajara and specialized
in exporting furniture and pottery all over the
world. In his line of work he came into contact
with many Americans and Canadians and decided to
expand his services. He started to offer relocation
assistance and tour guiding services as well. His
services are in great demand because the Chapala
region attracts many newcomers from northern regions
every year. Some of them are in search of a winter
getaway while others desire to relocate permanently
to this region.
Lake Chapala shoreline
As we started driving southwards on a busy multi-lane
highway, José explained that the favourable
climate, the great international transport connections
in Guadalajara and affordable real estate have created
a big demand for expatriates to relocate permanently
to this area. Talking about affordability, José
mentioned an example of a North American retiree
who had rented a two bedroom house for US$400 a
month. The cost of living in the Chapala region
is quite reasonable, particularly since there is
no need for heating or air conditioning.
According to my expert José, about 50,000
people live in the Chapala region, including many
thousands of expatriates. After San Miguel de Allende,
this is the second most important Mexican retirement
destination for Canadians and Americans. And the
Lake Chapala Region is still more affordable than
San Miguel de Allende. Safety, an important factor
for retirees, is very good and the region also offers
a wide array of restaurants, culture and activities.
Boat on Lake Chapala
Many Americans and Canadians who are considering
to relocate to the Guadalajara region contact José
who helps them with tour guiding services. He can
also provide them with practical advice and assistance
for relocating to Mexico. José’s English
is excellent – although born and raised in
Guadalajara, he lived for many years in the United
States, in places like L.A., San Diego and more
recently in Birmingham, Alabama. He went to school
in the United States and has a good linguistic and
cultural understanding of his clients.
Our program today was first going to take us to
an island in Lake Chapala. Mexcala Island, virtually
untouched by commercial tourism, was an important
site in the Mexican War of Independence. After that
it became a prison island and then lay abandoned
for many years. Over the last few years the Mexican
government has designated Mexcala Island as an important
historic site and has started to restore some of
the structures on the island.
The church and bandstand of Mexcala town
In addition to Mexcala Island, Lake Chapala also
has other islands. Scorpion Island, for example,
is a popular weekend getaway for urbanites from
Guadalajara. Many city dwellers come to this area
by car or even public bus which runs every 15 minutes
from the south side of the city. Bus travel in general
is quite well developed in Mexico; while there is
virtually no passenger railway service left in the
country, all major towns and cities are connected
by a large network of frequent buses. I could attest
to this myself as this past weekend I had gone on
a 3.5 hour excursion to Guanajuato from Guadalajara,
in a luxury bus with airplane-style seating and
a Wifi-Internet connection on board – luxuries
I had not even seen in Canada... Of course bus service
in Mexico comes in several classes, from extremely
basic transportation to luxury vehicles with first-class
amenities.
Lighthouse on Lake Chapala
As we were driving through a local village called
Santa Cruz we started talking about Mexican food.
José gave me an overview of local delicacies
in the Guadalajara area: “bírria”,
for example, refers to goat meat in a tomato stew.
“Tortas ahogadas” are sandwiches with
pork and beans that are drenched in a spicy chili
sauce, a rather messy yet tasty meal. “Chiles
en nogada” are poblano chiles filled with
a mixture of ground meat and spices, topped with
a walnut-based cream sauce. I enjoyed the virtual
culinary tour of Jalisco with my guide José.
Statue in Lake Chapala
We started approaching the village of Mexcala from
where we would catch a boat to Mexcala Island. Children
were playing in the street, people were going about
their daily business – this was definitely
not an affluent or touristy village. Down by the
waterfront we approached a young man with a boat
who was going to take us across to the island. The
clouds were getting dark now and it was noticeably
getting cooler. Rain was definitely in the air.
To get us to the island, José was even able
to negotiate a discount for us from 250 Pesos to
200 Pesos (about $20).
Our water taxi is ready
After our 15 minute boat ride we started walking
up the slopes of the island and started to see stone
formations that had all formed part of the former
prison. A circular structure, José explained,
was a “foco tonal”, a ritual location
with healing powers. Two vortexes of energy are
said to converge in this location, one coming up
from the earth and the other one descending from
the heavens. Mexcala Island definitely has a bit
of a mysterious feel to it.
Not much is left of the officers' barracks
Walking around the grounds we saw different structures
of the former prison. Not much was left of the officers’
barracks other than crumbling walls of irregular
boulders. The restoration efforts will aim to put
the boulders back up in their rightful place. A
round structure inside the former officers’
barracks was an oven for melting cannon balls.
On top of the hill is the actual rectangular-shaped
prison which is in much better condition and has
been partially restored already. The prison is surrounded
by a moat, similar to many medieval European castles.
A door had been installed at the entrance and José
commented on the “Home Depot” style
of the door. This modern wooden door certainly seemed
a bit out of place compared to the historic structure
surrounding it. The central prison courtyard is
surrounded by walls on all four sides. A look at
the former prison kitchen revealed a stone floor,
but not much else. None of the rooms we saw had
any furniture in them.
The prison actually has a moat!
We walked up the stone staircase to get to the
stone roof of the prison and enjoyed a phenomenal
view of Lake Chapala and the surrounding mountains.
Other islands were visible from our vantage point.
We came down again and walked from the jail building
to the former prison chapel. There was no roof on
the structure and all interior ornamentation or
furniture had disappeared, but at the front of the
chapel we could see the remains of a stone altar.
View from the prison at Lake Chapala
Our ferryman took us back to the mainland from
where we drove to the town of Chapala, with about
43,000 residents a major population centre on Lake
Chapala. Since the 1960s Chapala has become a popular
destination for Mexicans and foreign tourists, and
in recent years Chapala has attracted a significant
number of expatriates. It is a very pretty town
with a beautiful malecón, or waterfront promenade.
Today a big fair was going on, all part of the carnival
in Chapala.
The waterfront in the town of Chapala
A Victorian villa called Casa Braniff today holds
the Restaurante Cazadores – I was quite surprised
to see a Victorian-inspired building in Chapala
in Mexico. Mountains surround the lake and together
with the palm-fringed promenade make this an extremely
pretty town. After a brief look at the church on
the main street we walked to the pier on the waterfront.
Sculpture off the shoreline of the town of Chapala
The sun was now setting and casting a beautiful
golden glow on the mountains surrounding the lake.
The view from the pavilion at the end of the pier
was phenomenal and reminded me a bit of the lakes
in Northern Italy. No wonder Chapala has long been
a popular tourist destination with locals and foreigners
alike.
The town of Chapala has a beautiful waterfront promenade
As the sun was sinking lower and lower on the horizon
we drove on to Ajijic, centre of the expatriate
retirement community on Lake Chapala. Ajijic has
about 15,000 residents and is less than 5 km from
the town of Chapala. Its rectangular grid pattern
street layout features many hotels, restaurants,
galleries and boutiques, and many of the entrepreneurs
are foreigners. We had parked our car by the main
street and walked down to the waterfront where we
found a restaurant called “Tequila Republic”
on the pier. The tables and chairs at this restaurant
provided a great vantage point to enjoy the surrounding
lake and mountain scenery.
The Tequila Republic restaurant on the pier of Ajijic
From the waterfront we walked back up to the main
square which is surrounded by shops and restaurants;
it also features a bandstand, a traditional “quiosco”,
in the middle. A few steps further east is the parish
church which we peeked into as well. It was a rather
simple stone building with little ornamentation.
Back on the square a young boy caught my attention:
he was manually grinding coffee and selling fresh
Mexican coffee.
Coffee grinder in Ajijic
It was completely dark now, so we started our return
journey to Guadalajara through the mountains. As
we reached the peak of the mountain chain we could
see the lights of this huge metropolis twinkle in
front of us. As Mexico’s second largest city,
Guadalajara has about 4 million inhabitants and
is an important economic and technological centre.
José talked about its nickname as the “Silicon
Valley of Mexico”, based on the many companies
that produce computer and electronic assemblies
here. He added that Guadalajara often models itself
after Houston, Texas, and has also become a popular
destination for medical tourism. Many people come
here for cosmetic surgery and even regular surgery.
As one of Mexico’s most developed cities,
Guadalajara is a center of higher education and
has numerous public and private universities.
The church of Ajijic
We were now coming back to Tlaquepaque and José
dropped me off on the main street – Calle
Independencia. This is a popular pedestrian street
with cobble-stones and attractive stores, galleries
and restaurants. It was still a very beautiful warm
evening; at about 8:30 pm it was still about 20
degrees Celsius. I had a look at many of the restaurants;
attractive eateries like Casa Fuerte, Real San Pedro,
and El Patio were lining the street. But many of
them were in the process of closing down for the
evening, somewhat surprisingly because it was not
even 9 pm yet. I guess on a Tuesday night restaurants
close down earlier.
The bandstand of Tlaquepaque
So I ended up heading to the main square, picked
up a slice of pizza and watched the action on the
plaza for a while. Families were strolling around
or sitting on some of the benches, young couples
were walking hand in hand, and everyone seemed to
be enjoying themselves. After my pizza I ended up
buying some boiled peanuts rolled up in newspaper
from a street vendor. I had never had boiled peanuts
before, but they actually tasted delicious and probably
qualify as semi-healthy street food. I had spent
another interesting day in Guadalajara….