Being a part of the Lake Chapala society, I have come to realize that biodiversity is crucial to the survival of plants, animals and human beings. Reading The Tapir's Morning Bath convinced me of this beyond the shadow of a doubt. Elizabeth Royte spent most of a year in a cloud forest on an island in Lake Gatan formed by damming the river to create the Panama Canal locks. Since 1926 a science laboratory there has attracted ecologists and nature biologists from all over the world. The title refers to the enigma of a small pond meticulously measured several times a day by a scientist who wanted to account for every fluctuation of the water level. Mysteriously, at 6:00 in the morning the water level rose, and shortly thereafter it returned to what it had been earlier. Finally the scientist discovered that a tapir, a large rhino-like animal, bathed there.

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.

It's no secret. There is a lot of real estate in Ajijic. There  are a lot of homes for sale on Lake Chapala's north shore in Ajijic Mx. Some savvy owners are beginning to reduce prices as a reaction to the slower market created by the economic woes north of the border.

Many buyers are turned off by 15 to 25 year-old homes that look like they were built in the late 50's and 60's. Concepts, plans and materials didn't change until the very late 80's. Smart shoppers are noticing that many older homes are more spacious and on larger lots, but the houses look a little tired and worn. With advantageous costs, good workers and materials, giving a house a "facelift" is a breeze.

From the time Homo Erectus realized chasing mammoths around all week made for serious joint pain, there’s been a rush to find nature’s balms within every earthly nook and cranny.

Today, hundreds of natural locations around the planet have been enshrined as centres endowed with the capacity to heal an entire Gray’s Anatomy of physical illnesses. And while thousands of the halt and lame seek out these sacred groves and mystical energy “vortexes” that reputedly provide illusive cures, the jury is still out on whether these sudden health benefits have any medical basis or are simply the result of illusory, wishful thinking. So the question remains: Can exposure to nature and the earth’s peculiar climatic and geological components actually affect human health? Or are we just as effectively treated for our nagging maladies by dancing naked on the summer solstice wearing shells and feathers and hootin’ at the moon?