Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

The colourful images and the experiences of shopping in los tianguis of Ajijic Mx,  (open air markets) will be some of the most vivid memories of your Mexican adventure. The weekly Ajijic Mx tianguis flit in and out of our daily life and conversations and the items we purchase at the markets fill in the spaces of our lives—and our vases, refrigerators and pantries.

Tianguis have been the favoured form of shopping since 1500 B.C. when Olmec farmers started trading excess corn for baskets woven by neighbouring tribes. For the next 1,000 years the Olmec culture and chiefdoms into Guatemala and El Salvador were trading jade, obsidian, magnetite, pottery and shells. Mexican trade made giant strides when the Maya joined the markets around 450 B.C. Open-air merchants bartered for jaguar skins, beautiful bird feathers, dyes, incense, medicinal herbs and a wealth of foods: avocado, papaya, cactus fruit, pineapple, guava, chile, cassava, sweet potatoes, and yucca, along with the nutritious “three sisters of life,” corn, beans and squash.

If there’s a single personality trait that marks folks who don’t adapt well to living in central Mexico like the Ajijic Mx area, or San Miguel de Allende Mx, it’s probably the latent (or sometimes overt) need to change and control. It’s an interesting phenomenon. People move to places like Ajijic Mx, and San Miguel de Allende Mx because they are enchanted with the old world charm of the area. By the time they’re moved in, they are trying to implement committees, studies, groups, and programs to change almost everything, and promising that it will all be approved and inspected according to north of the Border standards.

One early warning sign is a constant refrain outlining the problems of the area in sentences beginning with “Why don’t they…?” “Why don’t they clean up the trash?” “Why don’t they mow the roadsides?” “Why don’t they do something about the dogs?” “Why don’t they do something about the noise?” Why don’t they learn English?” Right Mexicans living in Ajijic Mx, in their own country need to learn English!

An important part of the indigenous cultures of Mexico, are the traditional rebozos (shawls). These are worn by the women strolling across the small Michoacán plaza, matched by the bright confetti showering their coffee-coloured hair, festively completed with their lime green, burnt orange, and ocean-tinted skirts.

As I watched,while local villagers danced to the music of a live band, a young woman adjusted her hair over an aqua blue rebozo, and spoke to a friend draped in a vivid purple piece over a yellow blouse and pink skirt. Meanwhile, a young girl pulled a small boy along while carrying a load of belongings in the cobalt-blue shawl over her back.

Rebozos have long been a part of the indigenous cultures of  Mexico. They paint México with an extensive palette of colours, striking a majestic pose in the country’s streets, plazas, and marketplaces, seducing the attention of visitors from throughout the world with a carnival of tints and hues. Many historians date the rebozo to pre-Columbian times; today, Mexican artisans still use backstrap looms to weave their pieces, maintaining a living connection with centuries of ancestors, while factories produce machine-made rebozos for sale at a much lower cost. Ceremonial rebozos are adorned--some with a hem of playful feathers or glistening white diamond-shaped tassels of articela (a sort of manmade silk) wrapped around splashes of flaming orange.

There is a network of active Canadian Clubs across Canada and around the world, but few of those groups can challenge the setting of the members of the Lake Chapala club who gather on the second Wednesday of September through April in the lovely lakeshore garden of the Canadian-owned hotel, La Nueva Posada.

As he waited for a name tag at a recent meeting, one newly arrived member from a club in Ontario tilted his head so the sun could shine onto his face and said to his companion, “Can you believe this perfect day? Here I am, comfortable in shorts. I’ve never before attended a Canadian Club meeting without a heavy coat.”

Each year more Canadians abandon their former winter snowbird destinations to live happily for a few months or all year long in colourful central Mexico. They often prefer to take up lodging in Lake Chapala and the surrounding areas.

What’s causing once fiercely loyal winter Texans, Arizonians and Floridians to abandon their previous warm haunts and move farther south and seek out lodgin in Lake Chapala? Well, the area has a nearly perfect climate, is close to an international airport and excellent medical care, has restaurants, hotels and bed and breakfasts, activities and events to suit every visitor’s dream for the perfect winter escape. Mexico’s largest natural lake is the focal point of the country’s high central plain. Located less than an hour south of Guadalajara (Mexico’s second largest city), Lake Chapala is approximately 100 kms long and 20 kms wide, and home to 5,000 to 7,000 full-time foreign residents with nearly three times that many visitors arriving during January, February and March.