Top 3 Pros & Cons of Lake Chapala

[giltner68]

Another end result of topes, the severe jarring of the filaments in the bulbs causes them to fail. If you think about it, when you are suddenly confronted with a tope, you jam on your brakes which means the filament is active and hot and the sudden jarring breaks them. You probably rarely saw a car NOB with no brake lights right? - well, connect the dots.

[Crazydog]

Pros for Ajijic/ San Antonio 

1. Great weather 

2. Affordable living (food, housing, hired help if you are lucky enough to hire good people) 

3. Access to some western amenities that do not exist in surrounding towns (jocotepec, ixualacan (sorry about the spelling) or even Chapala) 

by these I mean:

-higher selection of restaurants (a few good ones and some so so and even awful ones)

- access to Walmart/ Centro Laguna 

- if you drink coffee there are a few selections in the area for coffee shops. Coffee shops aren't a Mexican concept so they are almost non existent in poorer surrounding villages unless you go to Guadalajara. 

-generally almost everyone is bilingual in the Ajijic/San Antonio area if you don't know Spanish. 

The bad: 

1. roads and a$$0le drivers 

they just suck! Ajijic has worse roads than the other villages and just feels so congested. The Carretera just looks really dirty and is so noisy with cars and trucks that shouldn't be on the roads. Not pedestrian friendly and forget about handicap friendly. Usually most of Mexico isn't really pedestrian friendly in general. 

On top of the bad roads you add the crazy drivers. 

2. customer service and people not valuing your time in general 

in Mexico you just have to get used to waiting and people don't generally apologize for taking your time or when they don't show up for an appointment. It doesn't matter if you want to pay them to do a job some people go at their own pace. Not all are like that but a lot are and it's NORMAL here. 

3. If you are not over 65 and not a morning person be prepared to be really bored and possibly annoyed.

Most places close early. Businesses take days off and siestas. Generally you can't book many things after 2pm as they are done for the day. If you want to go out to a place after 8 pm your options vary from the local taco stand to very few restaurants that may stay open till 9 and if you are into the bar scene... there isn't much of a scene here. This is okay if you are retired but for a working professional it can get quite frustrating.