Thanks for your nice comments.

First, ChapalaClub is mainly an on line group. We’re all cyber friends. That being said more and more club members are meeting in person and some become very good friends here.

I gave up my private personal office several years ago and created an even better office at home. I’m affiliated with Lake Chapala Real Estate and they process the closing of my sales and of course I use their office from time to time.

They’re located at Constitucion 14 in Ajijic.

I would love to meet you and be of help any way I can when you arrive. My Mexican cell is 331 152 1314.

USA # is 972 635 5290.

The best way for a visitor to get pesos in cash is from an ATM machine. Check with yur bank to see if they have afiliates here in Mexico.

The local banks are Banamex, Bancomer, HSBC, and Serfin.

You may be able to save some transaction fees.

Travelers checks are not as welcome as in years past and the rate of excahnge has never been as good as cash dollars.

To stay in touch with family and friends from here many of us have either a Vonage voice over internet, a Magic Jack line, (I have both) and a lot of people use Skype.

Your welcome to use the Vonage line I have or the one that Lake Chapala Real Estate has in their office.

A Mexican cell phone (wit cards) is great for local use, but the USA calls would be expensive.

Find out how much your USA cell charges for roaming calls from Mexico. It might be less expensive to just use your USA cell when our offices with our Vonage lines are closed.

A Mexican cell phone with cards can be bought for around $30 to $35 USD, bt the cards go fast. Not sure of the cost per minute but not cheap, especially to the USA.

Others that read your comment may have more experience with local cell phones. Best bet I think is your USA cell as backup to using our local Vonage phones.

Glad you’re enjoying Les and David’s blog. They make a good team.

I just arrived from Dallas late last night so answering this a little tardy. If you’ve already arrived in our area give me a call and we’ll meet and I’ll give you an area tour (no hype, no pressure about anything, and I’ll answer all your questions about living, working and playing in our little slice of paradise.

Siempre tu amigo, Sid

We have written to each other before throgh your post, I have read all of your very enjoyable informative entries. Through your post I have become e-mail friends with Les and David and their blog,” Boomers to Mexico,
Thank you for these connections”.

A few years ago, I decided to retire in Lake Chapala (time yet to be determined for permanent retirement) amd will be taking another visit to the area this month. Where is your group meeting? Is there a designated place and time? I am very interested in joining and meeting you and the other group members.

Could you answer some travel questions for me before I leave this month? Will Chapala banks cash travelers checks now? I heard that nobody in Mexico wants them anymore. Is the best way to get cash to use your U.S. bank debit card and credit card? I have read reports where there has been some copying user’s personal
information at local ATM’s in the area. What would you suggest?

Also what is the best way to phone friends and family back in the states when you are there? Should I bring my cell phone or buy a cell phone in Mexico, I am also wondering if I should buy phone cards here to use down there or wait and buy a Mexican phone card? Your input would be greatly appreciated. Can can you give me directions to your office so I can stop by and meet you? Thanks so much. Viva Mexico!

Sincerely,

Laurel

For now we’re an on line club only although as club members arrive and relocate at Lake Chapala some of them are hooking up and meeting for lunch or dinner and sharing notes and getting to know each other and becoming friends.

If you’ve not signed up for regular club updates just go to the upper right hand corner of any of the site’s web pages and put your primary e mail address in the box and click go, then watch for an e mail from the ystem and follow the instructions and you’re a member of the best free club at Lake Chapala. Sid

Metin in MEXICO!
http://www.metinbereketli.com/ pages/MEXICO_Healing_Art_ Workshop_2009.html

METIN BEREKETLI, HEALING PAINTER

AT “LOVE IN ACTION” CHAPALA, MEXICO

I have just come back from a children’s shelter in Chapala , Mexico a small village close to Gaudalaja next to a spectacular lake. I was there to assist Metin Bereketli work his magic and charm with his “Healing Art” program. We were at the Love in Action children’s shelter, a home for abandoned and abused children that were from four months to eighteen years of age. The shelter can be seen at http://www.loveinactioncenter.org

Metin is an international artist with whom I had the pleasure of an extensive interview with him before making the trip. You can see his art and his work with charities at http://WWW.HOLLYWOODPAINTER.COM The idea of his show is to lift up the children’s spirit, even for a little while, out of whatever unhappiness is in their lives at that moment. To give them the chance, with, Metin’s help, to experience the exuberant immersion into color. Maybe to take the first hesitant step into the world of art.

The children in the shelter are either abandoned, abused, orphaned and in one horrific case of a sweet, sweet girl whose father held her hands on a stove top until the skin was charred and blackened. These were the children that Metin went to help heal their wounds both mental and physical with his special brand of kindness.

The show starts with the backdrop of white cloth with flooring the same. Metin comes on stage dressed head to foot in white. White bandana, shirt and pants. He announces in his booming, Turkish accented voice that he is going to introduce new painters to the assembled crowd. Then about thirty children file onto stage from small to tall all dressed exactly like Metin, white bandanas, shirts and pants. A more sweet and innocent group you cannot imagine, I freely admit that along with many others I had moist eyes. With a beautiful young girl as his translator Metin gets all the children lined up to his left and right with him in the center. With their white outfits and white backdrop all that shone out from the stage, was a row of bright shining faces with looks of excitement, trepidation and maybe a little fear as they had no idea what was about to happen.

With a loud voice Metin announces as all the kids shoot their arms in the air “Ladies and gentlemen….PAINTERS” Then, after a big bow, the children sit in a semi circle facing Metin.

Metin picks a child hands him a painters pallet with colored paints and a brush and leads him to an artist easle center stage. There is already a large canvas there with the beginnings of a painting of a large circle representing the circle of life. Metin invites the little one to paint whatever he likes on the canvas. At this point the crowd begins to laugh because unbeknownst to the child Metin is pouring different colored paint on the boy’s head and putting handprints on his back. Of course all the kids think this is hilarious and join in the laughter. Metin then dips his fingers in the paint and gently paints the little kids face. At this point Metin invites the boy to paint his face and while its being done Metin pours different colors on his own head. This brings shouts and laughter from everyone particularly the children, because they now get it, they have been given permission to jump into the figurative mud puddle. When the first victim finished he is held aloft as Metin yells out with the boy “ladies and gentlemen…. I AM A PAINTER” with everyone yelling and cheering like mad, much to wildly smiling child’s delight.

This process went on child after child with everyone getting more and more enthusiastic and the children getting more and more excited waiting for their turn. By this time the kids were painting each other and dumping paint everywhere. One particular young girl was persuaded to come on stage. She had difficulty to overcome shyness. When she had first come to the shelter her foot was completely bent to one side making walking next to impossible. The shelter got her multiple operations until she finally found the joy of getting around her self although with a little difficulty. With all the excitement she had a problem standing, without fuss Metin gently put his big arm around her so that she, like all the other children could express her feelings in color.

When the canvas was completely covered with every child’s efforts in art, most for the first time, the finished piece was put to one side. With all the children once again sitting in a paint splattered circle, Metin egged them on by liberally spraying them with multi-colored jets of paint. Every kid were now enthusiastically painting each other and even themselves.

The next step was to have everyone paint the white background with anything they wanted. It was interesting to note how each child put color to feelings, some dark some joyful and some even destructive, smudging others work. One happily smiling girl wrote “I LOVE YOU” in impressively large letters. Finally Metin finished the piece with his traditional rainbow from one side of the stage to the other, completing a communal work of art eight feet high by twenty feet long. Being a showman to the last, Metin then laid on the ground and the kids attacked him like brightly colored vampires shrieking with delight as they deluged him with paint from head to foot. Eventually Metin emerged from the pile of children looking like a slowly melting, multi colored candle.

Finally all the children once shining white,were once again lined up in front of their masterpiece themselves dripping in color to in fact becoming themselves living art. With a final bow and “VIVA MEXICO ”, “LA VIDA ES FANTASTICA” they threw their arms and pallets in the air, graduating from Metin’s Healing Art Program, Chapala , Mexico .

By MICHAEL KYNE

Sincerely Yours,

ARTISTS PR

Beverly Hills, California

Of course this could also be said of the interesting people you will meet at any of the Bed and Breakfast places in our area. Each morning at breakfast you can compare notes and learn from each other.

That being said I will now offer my “opinion”. From what my clients have told me I cover everything and more that the Focus tour covers. Mine is free. There’s is not. They also will refer you to area Realtors who are anxious to be of service.

Now, these folks are my friends, associates, and colleagues and I have nothing mean, bad or ugly to say about any of them. Most are hard working, honest, conscientious good people. To the best of my knowledge all of them also both list properties for sale and represent buyers as well.

I used to be just like them. However, I always felt a conflict that I was uneasy with. I like to think I always did what was best for my client, knowing that in the long run, this would be what was best for me too… and to the best of my ability I consciously did just that.

The problem occurs when a Realtor has a client interested in one or more of his own or his firms listings. Who does he/she represent then? He/she has two clients… the one considering buying a home and the one that expects him/her to sell their house or perhaps a third; the broker who prefers that his agents sell an in house listing that his/her form has listed.

So, for over a year now I’ve been an Exclusive Buyer’s Only Realtor. I have no listings and therefore have given up a large potential income to be made form having listings that other agents might sell. Further more, I have an Independent Contractor’s agreement with my broker in which I earn the same portion of the commission due to a selling agent when I sell a property he or his other associates have listed for sale or if I sell a property listed for sale by other brokers and agents.

So, no more even potential conflict of interest for me. Well what does that mean for you?

It means I have one client.. “You”…. and not 2 or 3. In other words you have an advocate looking out solely for your best interests. I’m very comfortable in this role. Please send me an e mail to Sid@ChapalaClub.com if you’d like to learn the many other advantages an Exclusive Buyer’s Only Realtor can provide for you and my particular services.

Also see the article/video on this site at which is a clip from a news program where a consumer’s advocate talks about the value of having your own “buyer’s agent”.

Siempre tu amigo, Sid

We are from all walks of life, all political and religious backgrounds and from all over the world (the largest group are the Americans, then the Canadians, and Europe with a small percentage from the rest of the globe.

You mentioned activities. The Lake Chapala Society is a hub of activities of all types and has been helping newcomers and old timers for over 55 years. There are ap[proximately 80 or so English speaking organizations from very informal to fairly formal (By laws etc.).

Many of them started because someone wondered, “Why don’t they have a (fill in the blank) group.” Then, they posted a note on the bulletin board at the Lake Chapala Society or placed a small classified ad in the local weekly paper and before they knew it they had a Club or Group for (fill in the blank).

There are more single ladies here than single gents (You gals tend to out live us), but no need to feel like a 3rd wheel. Some ladies and gents team up to participate together as “buddies” and not sweethearts while others team up with another lady to go to dinner or out to a club.

WE have loads of great area restaurants, a number of churches and religious oriented groups, the Lake Side Little Theater group, regular concerts. a 3 screen movie with first run hits in English with Spanish sub titles, etc.

So, your social calendar can be as full as you want. There are the social butterfly types and the sit and watch the sunset types here. My Mexicana wife and I fall somewhere in between. We socialize more with other “mixed” couples, who like us are basically bi lingual or working on it. This way no one is left out of the conversational group, and we all improve our language skills.

I hope this gives you a flavor for our life here. Oh, a final thought. WE all share a love of Mexico and its people, we all think out of the box to some degree or we would not be here, we all breath the same clean fresh mountain air and enjoy the same social activities together no matter how big or fancy our home is or how how large or small our retirement pension might be.

All for now. Siempre tu amigo, Sid