Hola Everybody:

This email might be a little longer because I just wanted to bring you up to date. Our time in Chapala is drawing to an end and it's been a mixed bag, certainly not the paradise we had, obviously erroneously, anticipated but more on that later.We came into possession of our rented apt. on November 1st. It's very comfortable and quite spacious with a kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and two outdoor areas one with plants. No problem with the apt. We also had access to unlimited phone calls to Canada, cable T.V. and internet. Things may not be as comfortable once we move away but comfort is highly overrated. A little hardship never hurts. Comfort makes us too soft.November 1st. is the Day of the Dead and the celebration in Chapala did not disappoint. A whole bunch of chairs were set up in front of the Cathedral and they were all filled including the sides and back with standing room only. The spectacle consisted of music, narrations, a troop of performers young and old in beautiful costumes with dances, very well rehearsed and put together. The highlight was an apparently famous singer, from the state of Oaxaca, accompanied by an expert trio of musicians. Death, dressed as a very attractive, shapely temptress, attempted to seduce him without much success. Meanwhile another woman dressed in sepulchral white, her face painted white and black and hidden under a veil, roamed amongst the audience periodically calling out in a loud, anguished voice: "Oh, mis hijos" "Oh my children".It generated some laughter but of a yellowish kind, nobody likes to be reminded of the hold which death has on the living.The spectacle went on for a good hour and a half and was to be a highlight of our stay in Chapala. The next day we discovered this street where they were setting up altars for the dearly departed. One half of the street was decorated with altars designed and set up by students of the preparatoria school which would be the equivalent of either a grade 12 or a grade 13. These altars are extremely ornate and almost impossible to describe. I took lots of pictures. Some of the altars were devoted to well known personalities like Frieda Kahlo and Pope Jean-Paul as well as some local celebrities. On the other half of the street altars were set up by relatives to commemorate the passing of their loved ones. It's a very festive occasion with lots of little bits of food being given out as well as drinks. We were quite privileged to experience this.A lot of our time here was spent exploring the area. The second most important village and the one where most gringos reside is called Ajijic. Ajijic is quaint with very narrow cobblestone streets and a small plaza. They don't have a malecon like in Chapala and not much of a lake access. Two things come to mind when looking at Ajijic, gated and high walls. It's virtually impossible to see any of the houses since they are mostly all hidden. In the village the gringo houses are pretty easy to spot. They are generally huge, with plenty of Mexican touches and can often be found next to a dumpy place. It's a hodge podge mix. There are a lot of chichishops designed with the gringos in mind.Lake Chapala Society used to be a bit of a hub for the expats. but it's lost a lot of its lustre and is having a tough time holding on to its members.The grounds of Lake Chapala Society are beautiful but most of the people there are old. We were given the tour by a guy in his late seventies who had lived in Ajijic for about 26 years. He couldn't wait to finish because he needed to go home and have his nap.The Society is a regular hotbed of activities. On Monday you can have your blood pressure checked, on Tuesday there's a hearing clinic, on Wednesday it's time for that eye check and to round it off there's also a cancer screening clinic. O.K. I'm exaggerating a little but really not that much. It was pretty, f....ing depressing.Gringos here all hang out together and barely any speak a word of Spanish. They play bridge, golf, scrabble, pinochle etc...and some do a little volunteering on the side. When they get really bored they become real estate agents and try to rope other unsuspecting gringos into moving here. You need absolutely no certification, anybody can be a real estate agent. They just have fun socializing and passing out business cards.Lots of people on the Chapala web board said that there were tons of things to do here, see the aforementioned. However the little snafu is that neither Stan nor I are "joiners". I am almost convinced that I am pathologically incapable of joining anything except a union and maybe the odd film or reading club.The plastic situation here is out of control, much worse than in South America. Mexicans love their plastic. Stan bought a burrito (horrible) which cost 5 pesos. It came on a styrofoam plate, with plastic over it, went into another plastic bag and was accompagnied by another plastic bag filled with salsa. The cost of producing that plastic was more than the burrito. Plastic is everywhere and they do not recycle hardly anything at all, at least not in this state of Jalisco.Our bus trip to Guadlajara was fine but once you get away from the Colonial centre there was garbage everywhere. You want to close your eyes but sometimes you just have to keep them open. Garbage is an endemic problem in these overworked third or second world economies.Some beautiful things to report on as well. A man gets on the bus to Guadalajara with his young 8 or 9 year old daughter. She's carrying a little plastic bag. He has a 5 gallon pail covered with a towel. Somebody on the bus wants what he is selling. It's a type of tuber, very gelatinous in substance, which Mexicans seem to love. I've tried it and it's vile. In any case he cuts up a portion with his knife, puts it in a plastic bag (what else) gives it to his daughter who then takes out a lime, salt, salsa and puts it on top. The girl buying wants to pay with a 20 peso bill but he has no cambio. It costs maybe 8 pesos and he has no change. They hunt around for change and change is found. There was something heartbreaking about the whole scene. Imagine getting on a bus with no change to go sell something not terribly valuable accompanied by your young daughter. They got off at a stop just before Guad. I have no idea where they were going to sell the rest, perhaps on the side of the road. Nobody can excuse Mexicans of being lazy. The poor especially work so hard for the few pesos they get. They are so resilient in the face of adversity. We, on the other hand and I know I've said this before, are not so resilient.I'm almost done, don't give up just yet.We watched the historic Obama victory on November 4th. The verdict is still out on "change we can believe in". So far many of his "new" appointees are rethreads from the Clinton administration back for another kick at the can. I remember vividly that in one of his speeches he stated that you can't have change with the same old players. We'll just have to see how well he can keep those old players in line. I'm happy to have the internet so I can still get my political fixes. For those of you who love CNN we simply abhor it. CNN in Spanish is marginally better but the english one is just painful. Navel gazing at its very worst with hardly ever a mention of what is going on outside the U.S. and the same endless stories looped and analyzed with a minutiae that in the end amounts to nothing or so very little. O.K. that's it for my rant on CNN. We miss The National and the CBC.Tomorrow we're off to Patzcuaro, one of the most beautiful colonial cities in the interior, so there will be more to report of that trip. Hope this wasn't too long. I could say more but I will end it here. Fill free to comment on any part of this dispatch....haha. Lots of love and hasta luego,
Josiane