’23 Jan: San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala

The Holiday Season In Mexico

'23 Jan: San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala / January 8, 2023

So many Christmas decorations are still up.

You’ll remember I spent Christmas and New Year’s with Cynthia in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas and I am now in San Antonio, Lake Chapala, Jalisco with Michi. The Holiday Season rages on. This is a good web page telling about a ton of Christmas traditions in Mexico from December 12 – February 2 with good pictures of food, decorations, etc.

Yesterday we decided to celebrate January 6th, the day when the children in Mexico traditionally get their gifts from the three Magi (because I wanted to see what that cake was like!). There’s a 3 Kings Cake reminiscent of the Mardi Gras King Cake with a baby Jesus baked in. Michi hit the baby on her first cut! We ate a little of the cake and gave the rest away…

Boxes of 3 Kings Cake available in San Cris and the one Michi bought for us here in San Antonio.

So you can get a feel for the size of Lake Chapala in comparison to the very large city of Guadalajara.

That little bit of the shore from Ajijic to Chapala is where most of the US and Canadian ex-pats live, and there are plenty of them.
We are in San Antonio.

I decided to walk to the San Antonio church, the plaza, and then to the lake. Not my best idea considering my twisted ankle. At some point both sidewalks disappeared and I turned back. At least I could oh-so-carefully and oh-so-slowly make it across those driveways.

..and the church that looks a lot like a California mission.

Decorations and the required water delivery since no one, not even locals, drinks the water.

In a prior life Michi was a private chef for hoity-toity parties in Aspen and Vail. Now she cooks for her friends. YUM!

Prep for the meat dish. Yikes!

Meeting Some Of Michi’s Friends

'23 Jan: San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala / January 9, 2023

We had a busy day today with activities and meeting some of Michi’s friends.

Sidni is preparing for a show of her work and there’s much to be done. The top picture is some of her paper mache pieces that are already finished and below we find Sidni in her workshop.

(Sidni Monroe sidnimonroe@gmail.com Sid says feel free to write to her about her work.)

And more on the way.

After our lovely visit with Sidni we went to the old railway station where they often hold Sunday concerts.

This is the concert hall. Today’s concert featured a quartet, three strings plus piano, who played music from video games and movie sound tracks arranged by the first violin, and it was delightful.

Peeking through the crowd…

And an after-the-show grab shot of the piano player and the first violin who did the arrangements.

Then we went to lunch next door and met up with Kathleen and Falin for a very good lunch in the garden..

And then we went home to rest! There are eight units in this complex all of them very big and with the mirador on the roof and a view of the lake.

A Stroll Around Ajijic

'23 Jan: San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala / January 10, 2023

The Dog Mural(!) so deep in shadows, all known to be local dogs.

But first Michi went to exercise and I hung out at THE donut place, Dona’s Donuts. I dream about Dona’s Donuts.

We did some driving and walking around town to scout out the murals.

Called ‘El Muro de los Muertos’ (‘The Wall of the Dead’), these are the corner walls of a primary school that showcase a Mexican version of memento mori, made by local artist Efrén González in 2016. During the Day of the Dead celebrations each skull holds a candle. I looked at some pictures online and it’s a very cool thing to see.

Wow, some colors.

A couple from the plaza walk street.

Thumbs up on the tiles around the doorway.

More on the theme of Día de los Muertos.

A view walking out to the Argentine restaurant where we ate a feast..

Adiós It’s Been Great

'23 Jan: San Antonio Tlayacapan, Chapala / January 13, 2023

The entire ring of churros!

What with my ankle and Michi’s cold our last couple days have been pretty quiet. We went into Chapala to get Michi’s car serviced and to get Falin to give my ankle another welcome physio-treatment.

The main street in Chapala is totally torn up and this was as close to the church as I could get.

We stopped off at another one of Michi’s places for a morning snack with Felipe.

Walking back from lunch on the way to get the car: CATS! There were 20 of them in one small alley.

Sunrise on my last morning in San Antonio.

Below the view from Michi’s front door and the street around the corner where you will find, among other things, the fish restaurant, a drinking club for ex-pats, and a welcoming coffee spot.

Above is the main street and the very long bike/walk path beside it. The path runs for miles which is excellent considering the situation with the sidewalks. This is the road that runs mostly around the lake and the only ‘main’ road. Michi’s place is across the street from the picture on the left the left and one block from the picture on the right.

Closing off with the opening map of this journey. And next stop Home-Sweet-Home.