Arrived yesterday in Guadaljara and were promptly ferried from the airport to Ajijic by our guide Pepe and pal Randall. Spent the afternoon checking in to our casita in the village center, an impressively large and well furnished place owned and operated by an eccentric woman named Robyn, now retired from a life of humanitarian assistance in war and other disaster zones around the world. (Very chatty, very arty, hangs about all day in the tiny remnant of the house, to which she is banished when she has renters, clad in a mumu. It appers she doesn't get dressed for much of any occasion.)
Ate lunch (stuffed myself) at a popular restaurant called Tango, in the town (pizzas, salads, beers). Pepe left to conduct business in Guadalajara (he's opened a couple of ice cream stores, as his guide business has fallen way off during this recession), and the rest of us walked back to the condo, stopping to buy a few beers on the way. We sat down and talked awhile and then Randall's friend Richard stopped by to socialize. He's a retired anthropology prof from KC.
Randall left with Richard, an hour or so after he arrived, to return to Tlaquepaque, where he rents a house. We'll see him and Pepe by next week, anyway, when Pepe takes us touring south of Lake Chapala, across from Ajijic and the other gringoized villages of the north shore. We'll look at a few of the towns on the south shore, which are small and unassuming, and then ride up the mountains to an alpine town called Mazamitla, which is said to resemble a village in the northern climes of Europe. We'll see.
As for now, which is Friday afternoon, it, like this morning, Friday morning, seems the time to do precisely nothing much about getting ahead in life or producing anything. Isn't that what Mexico is all about, after all? Soon (who's counting the minutes) Jen and I will have Happy Hour, and every hour here, uncountable, unaccountable, should be a happy hour.
Salud, then, amigos y vecinos y familia! Mas informacion, y vistas, mas tarde.
