Ajijic Tango is located at Morelos # 5, in Ajijic. Their telephone # is 766-2458 but they do not take reservations for lunch or on Saturday and Sunday. Ajijic Tango is closed on Tuesdays.

We all know Ajijic Tango to be a wonderful Argentinean Steak House for dinner in a very lovely setting with cozy outdoor fireplaces to keep us warm during these unusually cool evenings.

They also have a Early Bird Lunch Special from 12:30 – 1:30 pm Monday to Friday again with no reservations. All lunch specials are $50.00 pesos.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this lunch special which I experienced for the first time today.

One, of course, has the option of ordering from their regular menu which includes, rib eyes, filet mignons, flap meat (to my mind the best thing on the menu), chicken, pastas, salads, (more…)

One of our favorite places to stay in Ajijic, Lake Chapala is Casa Tres Leones.

This is a very upscale and elegant boutique B & B in the prestigious area of Las Salvias in Ajijic. They have 8 beautifully appointed suites and 1 self-contained villa. The views of Lake Chapala and the Sierra Madre mountains are wonderful as are the extensive manicured gardens. Internet access is available. Breakfast is served on the outdoor terraza and there is a pool.

Enjoy a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere surrounded by the beauty of Mexico. Complete and modern conveniences with old world (more…)

Neill James is an icon of Ajijic history who worked with the Mexican community for over 50 years. When she died she bequeathed her vast property at Calle 16 de Septiembre in Ajijic to house the Lake Chapala Society.

LCS is a non-profit organization which has legally operated in Ajijic for over 50 years.

For many the Lake Chapala Society Directory published every year alone is worth the price of admission. All expats are listed in this directory along with business and government listings very valuable to the newcomer and residents alike.

A very reasonable part time or full time membership offers many benefits:

Free mail service is an exceptional service.

There are free preventative medical programs and discounts on doctor’s visits, first-class restaurants and membership in a mega-store.

Also access to the LSC Library with over 20,000 English books and access to over 4,000 videos and DVD’s in English is included.

You can have 2 free ads per month in the classified section of (more…)

I watch CNN every morning while I am checking my web sites and doing my business.

Of late, there has been precious little that is uplifting to say the least.

This morning, however, there was a lovely story about the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, returning to US soil in Burbank, California, accompanied by their rescuer, Former President, Bill Clinton.

The two girls were happily reunited with their families and one gave a short emotional speech detailing their harrowing 142 days in capture in North Korea after allegedly illegally entering North Korea from China.

They had been tried and sentenced to 12 years hard labor and thought they would never return to their jobs working for the San Francisco based and Al Gore owned Current TV.

Al Gore had been tirelessly trying to free the girls for months and was on hand today to welcome them home and say a few words.

The selection of President Bill Clinton to make the trip to try and negotiate the girl’s release had been in the works for weeks as a very delicate balance had to be struck.

There should be no agenda hidden or otherwise than the girl’s release. Nuclear proliferation would not be on the table and President Clinton was not an official representative of the Obama (more…)

This morning at 11:00 am ET Judge Sonia Sotomayor is being sworn in as the first Hispanic in history to wear the robes of a Supreme Court Justice.

Judge Sotomayor was born to a Puerto Rican family and grew up in the South Bronx and arguably has lived the American dream. Her father, a factory worked with a third grade education, died when she was 9 and she was raised by her mother who also worked as a nurse.

When her father died Judge Sotomayor turned to the comfort of books and it was her reading of the Nancy Drew mystery series that first captured her attention for the law.

She graduated as valedictorian from high school and won a scholarship to Princeton where she continued to excel and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She also won the top academic award at Princeton. At law school at Yale she served as editor of the Yale Law Journal and (more…)

Our three children all grew up in Ajijic, Lake Chapala.

They went to school here and 2 of them went to college in the US and Canada and the other one went to university in Ontario. They have worked and lived in the US, Canada, London, England and have collectively traveled to Italy, France, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Minorca, Holland Guatemala and Switzerland. One of our daughters wrote her university entrance essay on the fact that Mexico is her heart which gained her admission into 5 excellent Canadian universities.

They all would go away to school or to work but they always came home to Ajijic, Lake Chapala as his is home and where they all feel most comfortable.

Their friends are here, the food they love, the nightspots they frequent and a life style not found anywhere else in the world

We always encouraged them to go back up north or abroad assuming they would have better lives or jobs but no place ever stuck and they always came home. They are happy here and (more…)

Original Message from RipplePlace on July 17, 2009

“Yes, everything you wrote was true. However, as a Canadian owning a single home in the village of Ajijic, it has been a nightmare. My grandmother owned the home as a Snowbird. A woman named MARLENE DUNHAM attempted to purchase it in 1989 and agreed to rent it for $800.00 until the deal closed. She never closed on the contract, stopped paying rent in 1990 and continues to live there, free. The realtor, takes no responsibility for the mistakes made in the contract and wont communicate with the family. We have spent thousands of $$ on legal fees to try to get MARLENE DUNHAM out of the house but the legal system protects the tenant. DO NOT BUY REAL ESTATE IN THIS AREA!!!!!!!!!”

Response from Kevin Collins Collins Real Estate

We received this e-mail a few days ago and because it is so negative, we considered not posting it. That would be less than honest and it’s an opoptunity to talk about some issues that are important for new comers to the area. Truth is, I have been selling real in this area for 14 years now and I have seen similar situations to the one described here about 6 times. I haven’t been directly involved in any but, unfortunatly, they do happen. There are almost always two sides to these situations but I am going to go on the premise that the Marlene Dunham ( the renter) is simply
a scam artist. I obviously don’t have access to the paper work so I also have to make some other assumtions.

There are three main factors working against the victim here.
1. People “fresh off the boat” sign contracts here, in an area they are unfamiliar with, that they wouldn’t sign back home.
Realtors will tell you “Don’t worry, that’s just the way it is here in Mexico”. That’s rubbish.
If you are not comfortable signing something DON”T until you clearly understand it and the ramifications.

2. You can set up a contract to protect yourself but you need a good notary to handle the closing.
Not all notaries are created equal. There are some that will do what ever they are instructed to do and they have the autonomy to do that.
If someone doesn’t live up to their end of the bargain you do have to go to court. If your documentation isn’t done correctly you are going to have a problem. Of course you want to avoid going to court at all because it is a slow process, even if you have an “open and shut case” it can take at least 3 but more likely 5 or 6 months to evict someone. These cases are rare but the paper work is critical. Again, the initial burden of the transaction falls on the realtor to make sure the process is done corectly from the get go.

3. I know this all sounds like selfserving realtor promotion but the real issue here is you got hooked up with an unscrupous agent.
Not all realtors are bad or intend to screw you but they don’t have the experience to handle these situations. The internet has changed our business and in some ways improved it but the truth is there are far too many who are in it for the fast buck and don’t really understand the ramifications of unethical behavior. If you blithly send an enquiry to an office you will be responded to by the person on duty that day. You just pulled a name out of a hat.
They may seem like good folk but what do you really know about them? Not all bad situations are unavoidable but having someone you trust has your best interest at heart is just common sense. Get refferences. There are some pitfalls that you aren’t aware of.

The bottom line is 98% of deals are straight forward and to say “don’t buy real estate in this area” is just ludicrous
( however considering the situation I can see why they would say that). I am not saying I’m the only realtor to deal with. There are a number of very good professional people here but certainly not everyone enjoys my reputation.

I hope “Ripple Place ” reads this and sends me some more details. There is a chance (slim) that I could help.
The situation they outline is reduculous for here or anywhere else and damages the area as a whole.

Roosters… Not just a wake-up call any more

Let me start out by apologizing for the up coming pun….sorry.
I recently went to the cock fights in Ajijic.
I am a bit “chicken” to write about it because I know for Gringos it is a rather controversial subject.

I am not a vegetarian but I do think of myself as an animal lover. Michael Vick is a right bugger and he deserves to be in jail. Having said that, I need to confess I have no deep affection for poultry.
We grow them in a box, kill them and sell them to a military guy from Kentucky in a white suit and bolo tie. That’s pretty much a chicken’s life. (more…)