Mainecoons Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 I knew people who were closely affected by Columbine: one friend whose daughter was in the school when the shootings took place and the beleaguered county sheriff who was a family friend. I lived a mile or so from the Century 21 Theater and watched many movies there. I have had friends and acquaintances murdered here in Mexico. Life is full of risks. Exactly and it isn't getting better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elevator Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 hey Bennie, I wasn't implying I've seen or been bothered by drug violence here...I haven't. My point to Jim Bowie and others was that random violence is much more prevalent in the US than anywhere in the world. Some places have more violence. but it is sectarian or religious, or drug related. You may somewhere where the incidence is less, but no place is immune. I feel very secure in my home here in San Antonio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 I love my home here as well but I feel for the ones who hate it here. I've lived where I wasn't thrilled with my situation but sooner or later you have to learn to bloom where you're planted until you can leave. And if you can't ever leave it's even more important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbviajero Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Some of us need to learn that when others express opinions that we don't like, the standard insult of "go back to ...." is getting old. As are getting old those thinly veiled expressions of hatred towards Texans and Texas which aren't thinly veiled at all on TOB. You know who you are. MC,the fact of the matter is that there is group of people on this board who do nothing but contantly bash Mexico in their posts and the majority of them are from the same state,it's strange,I dont understand it, but it's true and easily recognized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerm Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 cbviajero, what state might that be. I can not determine which one you might be talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecoons Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 And the fact of the matter is that you can simply ignore them and their threads or posts and skip the very worn out put down of "if you don't like it here, leave." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbviajero Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 And the fact of the matter is that you can simply ignore them and their threads or postsYou're right,I'm going to try to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xena Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Me too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senior kentie Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 And, back to my original post... This has been quite enlightening for me, and other folks also, from the amount of views and replies that have appeared on here. I appreciate that the Moderators have politely allowed the comments regarding the negatives of moving Lakeside, as that is certainly a part of the area. The folks that I have met during my numerous house/pet sitting arrangements there, I can count as friends already, before even making "the big move". And I have not talked with a single person that is not thrilled with their decision to make Lake Chapala their home. My wife and I have discussed frequently that there is no perfect place in this world to live, otherwise everyone would move there, thus making it too crowded and expensive to live there". Oh, well... and thanks for all of your pertinent replies. Senior Kentie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bennie2 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 elevator, happy to hear you feel secure in your home. yes the US is huge place, & so many variations. about this texas thing: some people are bossy, its not about mexico. i dont think its state related. maybe a coinidence? my ending advice: ajijic has high hills! beware if you have trouble walking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecoons Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Like every other place on the planet, it is a mixed bag. How it feels to you is very dependent on how carefully you chose where you live although you can be careful about this and still end up with some greedy jerk turning his house into a bar or his failing restaurant into a noisy dance club on your street. Knowing that I might have been tempted to buy the house in upper Chula Vista we liked but I sure would have hated to give up the village life style. To avoid this, you can opt for the fracc route but of course they have their own set of issues related to governance. One of the local forms of entertainment is watching the fracc boards and members make war on each other. I've said this many times that there is virtually every life style imaginable along the north side of the lake and a much different one along the south side. It is interesting that I am seeing a bunch of house listings for the south side in the Chapala MLS now, the wave of the future? We're going on our 7th year here and continue to enjoy it immensely. We're hoping to do a lot more travel around Mexico in the next two years and I'm going to ride my moto as long as I can as fast as I can You can't underestimate this fantastic climate, it feels like Spring already. The climate alone imparts a tremendous freedom to just walk out your door at any time and go to an open air market, get some stuff at the hardware store up the street, pick up some groceries, and leave the darned car sitting inside the garage! If I had known how salubrious the climate and the walking life style was I would have tried to get here sooner. One thing I think is going to happen is that they will tear down those stores built on the carretera right of way in centro Ajijic and widen the road eliminating the parking. I hate the thought of it but at the rate things are going it will be in perpetual gridlock in a couple of years unless something is done. So don't plant yourself very close to the carretera. Nor am I going to mince words about the Chapala government. If you think I'm hard on them, you should hear what our Mexican professional friends who are natives have to say about them. The politest thing they've said is "thieves" and it goes down rapidly from there. Kentie, you're going to miss some of the really fun stuff like the electricity going off almost every day and the water going off for a week at a time. Unfortunately you'll also miss when it was a lot quieter around here. I'm astounded at how fast the traffic congestion has grown and how much construction has happened and continues to happen at a rapid pace. If seven years ago someone told me there would be Centro Laguna, WalMart and Autozone sitting at the intersection of the carretera and the libremiento I would have laughed at them. I think that anyone who comes here now should assume this is going to be a full blown suburb of GDL and plan accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bennie2 Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 the plan was the make this a suburb of guad. i read about it in 2003. get ready for an even uglier highway. when i saw dominos i should have realized what was down the pike. i walk to the little stores, as i did all my life. for superlake i have a take a cab home. dont know why they just dont ride thru floresta & san antonio? as for electric, since i moved its been on. when i lived in a really upscale area, it was a nightmare. go figure. now all my fish stays frozen. on a better note: that scarey blasting voice has stopped. looks like the circus is leaving town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monessen Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 I just have to add that I've only been here for three years and the first year was spent renting in a Mexican community in West Ajijic. It was great. The neighbors took care of my house by watching and reporting every person they felt should not have been in my neighborhood or near my house. I became friends with them in spite of the language barrier. I never personally experienced crime here locally. I was here visiting during the terrible trouble with the beheadings and met a mother of one of the murdered children who is still my friend. I know that she went through hell after that. I lived on the boarder of Hudson in Florida where the retired cop shot and killed the fellow with the cell phone in the movie theater. A block from my upscale covenanted community a kid shot and killed his karate teacher in front of the guy's house as the man knelt with his hands behind his neck. I lived in Pennsylvania in a University and Hospital section where I experienced robberies and even gruesome murders in my neighborhood. I bought a home in Chapala Centro two years ago where I have not experienced crime personally and again have made wonderful Mexican friends who watch my place like hawks. They challenge "strangers" who stop to peer through my gate. I have walked the streets of Chapala Centro at midnight for two years without incident (I know; I'm a guy and that may make a difference). I see others out at that hour, too. I'm not saying that this has been a perfect place but I will say that I feel safer here then in any of the U.S. cities I've lived in. I grew up in a very small western Pennsylvania town and still get the newspaper from there on line. Crime? Lots and lots of crime. Part of it is the times we live in ("O tempora! O mores!" as Cicero complained). Part of it is where we choose to live. Live like a pharaoh and robbers don't have to go to a fortune teller to find out where to ply their trade. Live apart from the local community which knows the "good" and "bad" families and you miss the greatest help you can have anywhere--Pennsylvania, Florida or Lakeside. I agree with "bennie" on foot pads for walking if you don't have a car and I agree with those who bought heaters. You don't need heaters for long here but they help during the cold spells. I couldn't find a heating blanket in Florida (hey, they lie to you if they say it never gets cold there!) but I wish I had brought one down from Pennsylvania for those few nights when I could use one. I have never been confined to my house here but I had "cabin fever" in Pennsylvania almost every winter. I love this mostly outdoor living and I still never regret a day of my life here. I didn't complain in Pennsylvania--it wouldn't get me anywhere--and I didn't complain in Florida--who would listen? I sure wouldn't complain about living here. I intend to die here and be buried here (I already have that covered). After almost 7 decades of life I'm home and surrounded by friends--gringo and Mexican friends and all of them made since I moved here. I'm retired. The sun is shining. I'm not lonely but I live alone and came to Mexico with one friend who has since died. I have friends who love me and whom I love. I'm not hungry and can afford to eat at a nice restaurant a couple of times a week (hard to do in Florida and Pennsylvania at their prices). I have wonderful volunteer situations in orphanages and teaching English and health care. I'm busier with the things in life I really care about here at Lakeside than I could ever have been busy with in Florida. Why not live at Lakeside? I'm not afraid of my neighbors or of my Mexican neighborhood. I really do believe that it has much more to do with how you live your life and how you share who you are with others. Fear is always the way to ruin your life. Now, where did I put my rose colored sun glasses? Oh! Stupid me! They're on my head! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mexpat06 Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 This is an excellent ending to a well received topic. Closed. Moderator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.