Loading the Volvo for the trip to Mexico. Somehow, there was room for Tuck! Bless his big heart, he never complained during the whole trip, even though it was extremely stressful for us and him.

Claudia loading the roof rack…bless her heart. Since I’m not allowed to lift anything over my head for at least a year, she has to do the heavy work.

The sign greeting you at the border crossing station in Nogales. Yikes….here we go!

This is one of the stations at the border crossing where you hand over your passport, your car title, etc. in order to get your temporary visa. The guys behind the counter were very nice, but the language barrier was pretty difficult at times. It took about an hour and a half to get everything sorted out and get on our way.

This little guy (I named him Pepe) showed up by our car at the border crossing….bless his heart, he wanted to jump in and go with us!

The pool at the Best Western in Navajoa….a welcome sight after a hard day on the road.

This is the boardwalk (malecon) in Mazatlan. We stayed here the third night (read the blog about that adventure). Once finished, this is going to be a showplace, but it’s got a long way to go. The locals say it will be done by February 2019, but Claudia and I think more like February 2020.

Tuck at the vet’s office with Dr. Luis….without a doubt the sweetest vet we have ever met. As you can tell….Tuck loved him.

Claudia and Tuck outside Dr. Luis’ vet office.

An example of the Dia de los Muertos displays that were near the town square. On this one, the clothing is made from corn husks. Pretty cool.

I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible when taking these pictures. In this shot, a family member is putting the finishing touches on a Day of the Dead shrine for his son Sergio. Colored sawdust is the medium used for the floors. Lots of work!

At the Hotel Victoria, Tuck met Marguerita. She loved Tuck and wouldn’t leave his side the whole time we were there. She was a typical Mexican street dog….tiny and very sweet. Tuck, on the other hand, is already known around town as the “mucho grande perro”, the very big dog!

How cute is this? Our hosts at The Victoria Hotel dressed for Dia de los Muertos….headed out for a parade through town. Rob and Colin were super fun. Both are from Canada and moved here to “get away from it all”. From what we could tell, they won’t be returning.

As we were walking around the other day, we noticed that the town was gathering up all of the Day of the Dead statues for storage. They looked as if they were dancing.

A modern art mural near the seaside walkway. This is actually a wall that makes up part of the skateboard park.

Claudia and Tuck on the Ajijic malecon. It gets crowded in the afternoon, but mornings are wonderful.

On nearly every large, flat wall in Ajijic, there are great murals painted with historical scenes and some with a more modern, hip look. There are lots of galleries in the town….several on every block.

A view of one of the streets near the town square (aka “centro”), decorated for Dia de los Muertos.

A statue along the malacon. This particular type of sculpture is pre-Columbian art that depicts a reclining figure with the head turned 90 degrees to the body. There are many examples all through Mexico and South America.

A close-up of one of the Dia de los Muertos shrines. This one is for their son, Don Rafel. So sweet. I think I’ll ask Claudia to make one for me. :-)

Claudia walking Tuck on the Ajijic malacon

The entrance to the Lake Chapala Society….the central meeting spot for Americans, Canadians, Brits and other ex-pats to get together, learn more about the area, find out about rentals, homes for sale, attend film screenings, follow and learn more about local and international politics, take Mexican language classes and…they have the largest selection of English library books in the country. The society has been around for over 60 years. The members help the local residents with many things. I think “give back”, or “pay it forward” is a central theme and a great one to blend our cultures together.

This the the old cathedral located in the town square.

Just chillin’ on the malacon in front of the Ajijic waterfront sign.

Another of the murals that are everywhere around town.

What do you do when you don’t feel like driving into town…why, you take your horse of course! What this picture doesn’t show is the ancient cobble stone street. We were thinking traditional cobble stones. Nope. These were basically round stones, set in sand….maybe 100 years old. Almost impossible to walk on and in fact, the lack of sidewalks in the town was such a major drawback that we constantly wondered why all the YouTube videos skipped over this very important feature of the town (along with the traffic).

An apple desert with “crema”….and decorated with a smiley face. A nice touch, don’t you think?

Claudia’s breakfast crepe. Fresh squeezed OJ, local coffee and cream and a chef trained in Paris. Not bad for a small Mexican town.

The daily menu at La Vie en Rose. Everything is fresh and made daily at the restaurants here.

Me and Tuck walking on the malacon at dusk. Beautiful evening, low humidity and temps around 65-70.

Lake Chapala at dusk…viewed from the malacon/boardwalk.

A view of the mountains from the malacon.

A local shop featuring manicures, pedicures, massages, facials, botox (yep), orthopedic care and more. This is down the street about two blocks from where we are renting.

One of the buildings in town has a side wall lines with pottery skulls. Each one has a small shelf to place a candle. Once a year at Dia de los Muertos, they light the candles to honor the deceased.

One of the local weavers, located in a sort of art gallery about a block from the main town square. Beautiful work!

One of the coy ponds located on the beautiful grounds of the Lake Chapala Society.

Claudia and Tuck checking out the beautiful woven goods. We pretty much wanted to buy everything in the shop. I’m sure before we leave, we’ll end up with something from this shop.

The display in front of the garment shop where the weavers were doing their magic.

Now that’s how to protect your little kitty from the street dogs! I’m sure he could have squeezed through, but I think he has more fun teasing the local dogs from his perch.

Check out this little guy…his mom ran one of the baked goods shops at the organic market. He was the hit of the crowd….and no wonder. Notice the hat. A lot of the local kids wear these. The last time we saw these was in a travel documentary of Tibet.

Another example of the mural art in Ajijic. If there’s a smooth wall, chances are there’s a mural.

A partial shot of the organic market…we bought tamales, eggplant zucchini, multi-grain bread, cheese, local eggs, custard, pastries and berries. We found out that Driscoll (the berry people who sell all over the world) have a huge operation just across the lake from Ajijic, where they grow blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. Their operation here is one of the largest in Mexico.

Need a new tee? This cute shop is run by Rick, who moved here 15 years ago. Funny guy! He’s owned two restaurants here and now just chills with his cute T-shirt shop. He decided the restaurant business was just too labor-intensive. Good call.

They have the coolest cloud formations over the lake here. Every night, we get a different one.

Awwww…..how sweet is this little guy? His owner is one of the maintenance workers at the park (by the malecon) and I guess he rides him to work in the morning.

Check out the cool swinging turnstyle door at this gallery. It’s made entirely of copper. There are some amazing artists in this town.

This is one of the streets that we use to walk down to the lakefront malecon…and back up. As in most of Europe, most of the homeowners build walls around their properties for privacy and protection. These two homes are estates….really large and beautiful homes. The bougainvilla grows wild around here and lines the walls. Stone work here is amazing. The skills are handed down from generation to generation.

We walk by this mural everyday….it’s really well done.

Claudia and Tuck on the steps of one of the old cathedrals in Ajijic. Beautiful warm late afternoon light. There are two cathedrals in old town…this one was built in the 1700’s.

A view of the town square and the little cupola in Ajijic. Ficus trees grow wild here and they ring the square. The largest trees in this area are ficus trees…they can grow to heights equal to any hardwood tree in the states.

After leaving Ajijic, which we now look back on as a total failure, we headed to the coast. After our first destination rental proved to be a disaster (we left and never checked in), Claudia and Katie found a place to rent for a couple nights. As for what happened next…well, that’s another story.

Sunset on the beach at Bucerias. The bay here is shaped like a giant bowl, with mountains on two sides, a beach on one side and an opening to sea.

This is a condo development about a block from our home. Beautiful grounds!

The view of the pool and the hacienda behind it where we are staying. When we first checked in , we thought we had died and gone to heaven. The estate was beautiful and the owner was a delightful lady. We were given a lovely second floor apartment. All was wonderful until the weekend crowd from Mexico City checked in. As near as we can figure, the four people below us drank a case of tequila in two nights. They partied all night (literally), never slept….and neither did we. At this point, dead tired and beyond disappointed, we gave up, dropped Katie off at the nearby airport in Puerto Vallarta and headed back to Ajijic to pack up and head back to Arizona. Will we ever return to Mexico? As I write this, it’s doubtful….too many bad memories.

Another view of the local hat vendor. This guy was a hoot…he had all kinds of jokes and spoke enough broken English to get a laugh out of everyone passing by. To say the Mexicans are resourceful is a massive understatement. This hat vendor was one of our favorite memories of the entire trip.

I loved this guy. He called himself “Hatman not Batman”. Really funny guy. I bought a beautiful sombrero for $7.50, which will come in handy in Arizona.

Just a quick view down the street by our house to the ocean at the end of the street. This was in Bucerias. Lovely homes along the way. It’s obvious that there are some beautiful places here and we sure wish we had been able to visit under better circumstances.

The grounds of the home where we’re staying. It’s lush and you can’t see the street or the surrounding homes. Julia, our host, said this is a new phenomenon and that this area used to be arid. How’s that for a climate change!

The pharmacy’e here are a BIG business! There seems to be only one company and they have a store on nearly every block. Really nice, clean, modern stores with licensed pharmacists behind the counter. Way nicer than Walgreens or CVS, that’s for sure. You can walk in off the street and buy medications that require prescriptions in the states. Xanax is an example. Pain killers of all types. Anabolic steroids anyone? Perhaps I’ll come back looking like Arnold…”I’ll be back”. The actual amount you can cross the border with is still a bit of an unknown. Apparently, if you’re stopped, you must first produce a receipt for what you have. Second, we think they only allow a 60-day supply. If I find out the answer, I’ll post the answer.

There are some beautiful condominiums here. All have sweeping views overlooking the ocean. Very contemporary architecture.

There are a lot of art galleries in this town. Last night was a gallery walk from 6:00 - 9:00. A nice thing about beach towns is that the restaurants and galleries stay open late, some until 11:00. A lot of the art (especially the gold and silver jewelry) is beautiful, but also expensive. I think the days of finding really good jewelry at discount, street prices is way over.

A view down the beach…looking towards Puerto Vallarta. The cruise ships were too small to see from my vantage point…but if you look towards the mountains on the horizon…that’s where they dock.

One of the bedrooms in the home we rented in Bucerias. A lovely place. Too bad the whole thing was spoiled by a bunch of drunks who were renting below us.