Active in Ajijic

 Our main purpose for this Mexico sojourn was to visit John's cousin Danny in Aguascalientes and attend our friends Dave & Marybeth's son's wedding in Playa del Carmen.  Normally this would have been a cue for a 3rd bus journey across the country; however,  we decided to fly from Aguascalientes to Cancun this time. Not letting COVID curtail our ambitions completely, we prepended Guadalajara to Aguascalientes. and prepended Ajijic to Guadalajara by taking a taxi directly from the GDL airport.

Ajijic is a village on the north shore of Lake Chapala, the largest natural lake in Mexico. We picked to be based in Ajijic because there is a Wednesday tianguis (traditional outdoor market) and the hiking trails up the mountain start from town.  Ajijic area is also home to a large contingent of North Americans, though right now it is not yet freezing cold in the north, so the place doesn't seem to be overrun with gringos, though there is plenty evidence that it could be.

Ajijic kept us occupied the whole time we were there.  We spent a wonderful day hiking (more later) and another day bicycling (more later). The first afternoon we had a hard time getting cash, as we never had to before.  We made the rounds to the half dozen of ATM/banks, one more than once, to deduce that the lowest local transaction fee could be ~2%, provided we withdraw at least $250US.  Though it is on the high side, we quickly accustomed to the idea.  However, the banks also wanted to saddle us with currency conversion (the bank that owns the ATM decides on the exchange rate instead of our bank) resulting in an effective fee of 10%!  After a dozen of questions, we declined the extortionary currency conversion, and the ATMs refused to give us any money. We were feeling quite desperate, when we walked by a machine that was out of order earlier. We were so relieved when cash came out and we paid less than 1% in fees. The machine must been out of cash earlier; everyone else must have been in the know.  Markets are fine, when there is perfect information.  Most times there is not.

It's easy to get to Guadalajara from Raleigh: RDU to ATL to GDL. We took a prepaid, no hassle taxi from the Guadalajara Airport (below) directly to our Airbnb in Ajijic.

The Wednesday Market in Ajijic was not-too-big, colorful, and lively. I don't remember if masks were required but every person was wearing one.

Figs.
 

Waterfront (Malecon) walk at sunset. 

 

Typical street.