Taking a Walk with Les Around Ajijic, Mexico

Here’s an article from a friend’s blog.  She has a wonderful colorful blog about she and her other half’s life here at Lake Chapala Ajijic, Mexico.

Her name is Les and her significant other is David. She a excellent writer and David is a professional photographer.

Their blog can be found at  http://boomerstomexico.com

(The article has been edited for length)

“Now that we are in Ajijic we have fallen in love with the idea that we do not have to take walks simply to walk – though we do that too.  I’m not kidding folks; we can walk to pick up almost anything we need without getting in the car, driving somewhere and parking.

Hard to believe?  When we first came here I mentioned the small shops that dot every street in this village.  They are not the boutique shops you see in the big cities…believe me.  They are tiny little shops crammed full of fascinating, unique, mysterious and lovely items.

You don’t have to go far to find bakery, vegetables, fruit, meat if you need groceries.  We have also found many a papeleria’s – they are shops with paper, art supplies, crayons, ribbon, inks, everything the mind can imagine.

There are Internet shops and printing shops.  One of the best frame shops is “right up the block next to the casket makers shop” is what we’ve been told constantly.  And, low and behold, sure enough – right next to the casket makers shop is the frame shop that David and I use to get the matting done our his exquisite photographs.  We mentioned the farmacias (pharmacy) and ferreterias (hardware stores) in the past.

So, we were not sure what to expect at the Wednesday market.  We have been pleasantly surprised.  This market has the simply best fresh fruit – bananas to die for, oranges and tangerines fresher then we’ve either had in our lifetimes, apples, and some vegetables and fruits I’ve never seen or heard of before.

There’s, of course, the fresh fish booths, fresh flowers the colors brilliant and the fragrances hypnotic, clothes so colorful you often are caught staring at the designs.  Beautiful pottery – bowls, dishes, plates and statuary that takes our breath away.

There are other items you can find that cannot be described in this blog but are a lot of fun to peruse and even more fun to buy.

Picture us, not only walking for our health, but also walking to shop, go out to dinner, go for an ice cream (helado) or a margarita.  (Okay, my friends can stop laughing now – I’ve actually learned to live without Pick N Save!…a Wisconsin thing.)  All we have to learn now is to grasp the fact that we are now a part of a slower – but not quieter – society of passionate, parade loving, church going, party at-the-drop-of-a-hat people and we’d be even healthier.  Thank goodness they are patient with us, for this is a place where you actually can slow down and smell the roses….beautiful roses!

Viva Mexico.”