Hola Everybody:

Hope I'm not overwhelming you with this avalanche of emails. We will be leaving Chapala tomorrow and my access to a computer will drop dramatically so I'm trying to take advantage of the easy access while we're still here. I haven't told you much about our life in Chapala so that's what I will attempt to do with the present writing. I will also send another separate email about our trip to the city of Patzcuaro.Life in Chapala, in general, has been pretty ho hum. Although there are lots of people who come here on the weekends, the rest of the week is relatively sedate. While here we went to the hot springs twice. There are thermal pools in the town of San Juan Cosala approximately 20 kms. or so from Chapala. The site itself is very well developed with three huge pools, a water slide, a steam room, mud baths, herbal whirlpool and a massage area. We didn't try the mud or the massage. The entry fee is pretty steep at around 260 pesos which is about 25 dollars for the two of us. Still it was really worth it because we usually ended up spending the whole day. There weren't too many swimming opportunities otherwise. We never did try the lake. It just looked too murky.We went to Christiana Park instead. They have a huge pool there also. The water is questionnable as well, you have to make sure you really keep your mouth closed. We only saw two dead cockroaches floating at the far end of the pool and it was a little fuzzy on the bottom but other than that, no rash after coming out, so that was pretty good and the water was pleasantly cool. I think we were the first gringos to ever set foot in that pool. In fact every time we went we were the only customers so we had it all to ourselves.While here we decided to go house hunting because after all that was our primary purpose for being in Chapala. Coldwell Banker Realty does a Tuesday thing where they take potential customers around. That Tuesday we were the only two clients. Our guide was an expat. Canadian from Ontario with the unlikely name of Bev. Bev. had been in Ajijic for 6 years and both he and his wife have reinvented themselves as real estate agents. Our first showing was of a recently deceased older woman's condominium. Said woman very partial to religious art in the form of icones, some not too shabby but a little overwhelming nevertheless. The condo was in a gated community with beautiful, immaculate grounds. Just too sterile for us. Another house we saw was on top of a hill. It was brand new and gigantic but really poor construction. There were already cracks in the cement and in many of the walls.All in all none of the places we saw impressed us. I'm sure there are beautiful houses hidden behind many of the walls but we never saw any that appealed to us.We did a lot of walking although it's difficult to walk up into the mountains. The mountains are covered with deciduous scrub and there are no easy paths. The market in Chapala was a big disappointment, really small by Mexican standards with a poor selection of fruits and vegetables although the fresh orange juice is always a treat and the liquados are also quite scrumptious. In general Mexicans do not eat a lot of vegetables except for tomatoes and peppers. It's hard to find really nice fresh salad. As far as driving goes we did drive to a pueblo called Mazamitla. The Mexican government has a program designed to highlight what it calls "pueblos magicos" - magical towns. Mazamitla is one of those towns. It's about two hours away from Chapala on a comme-ci, comme-ca road but the country side is quite beautiful with rolling hills and pine forests, very unusual for Mexico. The village centre has a very pretty zocalo (square) and the houses are adobe, painted white, with wooden overhanging roofs just like in villages which might be found in Switzerland. The streets of course were very narrow with high sidewalks not atypical of those types of cities.Mazamitla is famous for its cheese which resembles feta and its cream. We bought some cream and it was very good but there was lots of it and I had to find creative ways to use it in my cooking.The Chapala American Legion is the direct competition of the Lake Chapala Society and although less stuffy than its counterpart it's not a place where we would choose to hang out. We went for lunch there once and for a drink in the afternoon when the place was empty. I also went there on my own for a wine and cheese and chocolate "event". Stan didn't want to go and I can't say I blame him for his lack of enthusiasm. There were exactly 3 cheeses on offer. One was a Danish camembert, a pitiful cheddar and a smoked Gouda. I hate smoked gouda. The wine was mostly from Chile and Argentina, not a bad selection but each bottle cost about 13 or 14 bucks. The chocolate was all of the homemade variety in the form of fudge and such, not a particular stellar offering. I hung around for a bit and made small talk. I bumped into a real estate agent who we had met at Coldwell Banker. I had asked him then who he was going to vote for and he had said McCain. When he saw me again he said: "Obama won". I said "I know you must have been really pissed off". He said "yeah" and we left it at that. Quite restrained on my part really.There is a Republican Chapala organization and he probably belongs to it. Two little things happened. There is a dog who hangs out at the zocalo. We had bought some really awful frozen burgers and we didn't want to eat them so we brought them to the zocalo thinking the dog would pounce on them. He didn't even bat an eyelash when we put them in front of him. Obviously he was not suffering from hunger.A little boy, about 7 or 8 came up to me and wanted some money because he was hungry. I asked him where he was from and he said Mescal, a town quite a distance away. I asked him where his mom was and he said at home. I asked if he went to school and he said yes at 2:00. They have two different school schedules in Mexico. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I told him I would buy him something to eat and asked him what he wanted. He surprised me by saying "jugo de naranja" - orange juice. I suppose that at 10 pesos a pop it's quite expensive but then again there are so many oranges growing wild. Anyways I bought him one and also one for his little buddy who suddenly appeared out of nowwhere. Today I saw him again. He was trying to sell me bags of beans but I told him I had no use for them. He recognized me and I, of course, recognized him. I asked him what he wanted and he said: "tamale". We went to the tamale vendor but she didn't have any so we went inside the market. He picked red jello in a glass and I said no that's not nutricious enough so he picked a creamy concoction with fruits. I happily paid for that. He said "gracias" and went on his way.There are a lot of people just trying to make a living selling stuff. Lots of mariachis too. It's unbearable how much rejection, all those trying to sell, have to endure. An endless parade of "no - ahorita no". I don't know how they can handle it day after day but somehow they do.I'm tired. I don't think I will be able to write about Patzcuaro. I will do it from Melaque.Hope you're all well. Write back if and when you can. It's nice to hear from everybody. Hasta Luego

Josiane