Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

As the weather turns cooler in the North Country, the thoughts of many Canadians turn to sunny Mexico and areas like Ajijic Mx, and the Lake Chapala area. This is not only a wonderful place to discover a beautiful and unique culture, but also a great place to meet fellow Canadians who visit and live in Lake Chapala, Ajijic Mx, San Miguel Mx and other areas. When first visiting Mexico, it is easy to think “Wouldn’t it be exciting to own a place in Mexico that we could come to every year?” With the strength of the Canadian dollar to the Mexican peso, it is more affordable than ever to look at purchasing a home or condo.

Today many foreigners love living in the Lake Chapala area, but many don't really understand what makes the area so beautiful and interesting, or even how the lake was actually formed. It really is quite an interesting story. A seismic upheaval 12 million years ago along the San Andrés-Chapala plate formed a gigantic basin surrounded by extinct volcanoes. Water from the Lerma-Santiago River system filled the great fresh-water inland sea, which was seven to ten times the current size of Lake Chapala. The great lake covered much of Jalisco and Michoacán, totally submerging the area now occupied by Guadalajara.

The first people living in Lake Chapala, came to the area in the late 11th or early 12th century from the far north, a place called Aztlan, which means whiteness. It is believed these people were part of the Asiatic migration to the Americas across the land bridge across the Bering Sea. Believed to be the ancestors of the Nahuas, some of these indigenous people were living in this area when the Spanish arrived.

We should all take comfort in knowing the Lake Chapala Society was organized by residents during the 40's who realized that they had a mutual problem: they hadn't just moved into another Tucson or Miami for a warm climate retirement. There were neither dentists nor doctors out here, although our Mexican neighbors could grab a handful of leaves or pick a flower and boil it up; we drank It, and we mostly got better.  It was the fact that, sometimes, you did not get better that caused their making of the LCS.  A valiant few gave themselves no title but nobly took a few years or so and found out what to do with a dead gringo.  There were papers and property, heirs and relatives and no cremation. Most importantly they learned who to pay off etc.--you get the picture. Forced to organize, they called themselves "The Lake Chapala Burial Society."  It took an equal amount of time before they decided it was time to drop the "B" word, since the burial was the least of it when a foreigner died down here.  

By My small village inn, Los Dos B and B in Jocotopec, was recently invited to join the prestigious hotel Association, Haciendas y Casas Rurales de Jalisco. This organization was originally the brainchild of a few owners of restored haciendas and grand old village homes, converted to hotels.

The Heroes of the Age of Reform

The years following independence were difficult.  Between 1822 and 1850, the country endured countless changes in government, many instigated by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, five constitutional conventions, an attempted reconquest by Spain and the loss of much of its northern territory.  It was Mexico's good fortune that into this chaos stepped Benito Juarez and Melchor Ocampo.  Mexico finally came into its own intellectual inheritance.  Liberal ideals were reintroduced and reinvigorated.  Inevitably, conflict followed, but when Mexico emerged from this era it had a new constitution that captured much of the spirit of the enlightenment, and it had taken its first meaningful steps toward representative government.