Saw you in the Ojo
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Saw you in the Ojo
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D IRE C TOR Y PUBLISHER David Tingen
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Victoria A Schmidt
EDITOR EMERITUS Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez Tel: (01376) 765 3676, 765 2877 Fax: (01376) 765 3528 Graphic Design Roberto C. Rojas Reyes Diana Parra Morales Special Events Editor Carol D. Bradley Proofreader Sally Asante Theater Critic Michael Warren Book Review Panel Margaret Van Every Margaret Porter Clare Gearhart Roving Correspondent Dr. Lorin Swinehart
Sales Manager Bruce Fraser Carmene Berner ADVERTISING OFFICE Av. Hidalgo # 223, Chapala Mon. thru Fri. 9 am - 5 pm Sat. 9 am - 1 pm Tel. 01 (376) 765 2877, 765 3676 Fax 01 (376) 765 3528
Index...
FEATURE ARTICLES
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COVER STORY
Herbert W. Piekow tells the how the Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla began the Mexican Revolution for independence from Spain by ringing his parish church bells at 2:30 AM on September 16th to call his parishioners, not to Mass, but to revolt against tyranny and bad government and what lead him to do it in: “The Father of Mexico.”
8 Cover by Jodi Burke
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Tom Nussbaum shares “How to Celebrate a Birthday during a Pandemic.”
18 “Beyond the Forest Gate” by Lorin Swinehart 20 “Saving the Wild Orchids” by Janice Kimball 24 “Never Fall for a Hero” Sue Schools. 26 Margie Keane humors us by telling about a “Perfect Match” 32 Book Review of “The Fun Side of the Wall” by Blue
COLUMNS THIS MONTH 6 Editorial Page 10 Ramblings from the Ranch 12 Bridge by the Lake 14 Vexations and Conundrums 16 Mirror to the Universe 28 Lakeside Living 42 Profiling Tepehua
34 “Acts of Kindness”: by Karl Homann
POETRY AND PROSE
36 “Word Salad” by Sally Asante
22 “House Keeping”
38 “Communication for Results”, by David Acuff
46 “Pulling on the Leash”, by William Franklin 48 “Rachel McMillen, a Life of Sea Changes – In Three Acts.” By Kiera Morgan
Send all correspondence, subscriptions or advertising to: El Ojo del Lago www.chapala.com elojodellago@gmail.com ojodellago@prodigy.net.mx Ave. Hidalgo 223 (or Apartado 279), 45900 Chapala, Jalisco Tels.: 376 765 3676, Fax 376 765 3528 PRINTING: El Debate El Ojo del Lago aparece los primeros cinco días de cada mes. (Distributed over the first five days of each month) Certificado de Licitud de Título 3693 Certificado de Licitud de Contenido 3117. Reserva al Título de Derechos de Autor 04-2011-103110024300-102 Control 14301. Permisos otorgados por la Secretaría de Gobernación (EXP. 1/432 “88”/5651 de 2 de junio de 1993) y SEP (Reserva 171.94 control 14301) del 15 de enero de 1994. Distribución: Hidalgo 223 Chapala, Jalisco, México. All contents are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the written consent of El Ojo del Lago. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publisher or the Editor, nor are we responsible for the claims made by our advertisers. We welcome letters, which should include name, address and telephone number.
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COVER STORY
VOLUME 37 NUMBER 1
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
By Margaret Van Every
44 “Que Paso’”
By John Thomas Dodds
45 “I am the One”
By John Sacelli
Saw you in the Ojo
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COLUMNIST
Editor’s Page By Victoria A. Schmidt
And now, the News
D
uring my lifetime, I have seen many changes in the world. One that troubles me the most is the decline of the news industry. As a student of journalism, I was schooled in the crucial role it plays in our relationship with our government. In the United States and in Britain it was referred to as the Fourth Estate. I learned about what makes items newsworthy. And learned the difference between news and opinion. For instance, a person writing a column is writing their opinion. Newspapers have an opinion page or section. The importance of differentiating between what was news and what was opinion was understood. But two major events happened in the 1980s that had a profound effect on journalism. The “fairness doctrine” was dropped by the Reagan Administration.
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Starting in 1949, this doctrine, administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the FCC’s view—honest, equitable, and balanced. In other words, presenting both sides of an issue. That ended in 1987 and held true for broadcast news. In journalism, we had the same tradition, that being, nothing could be printed unless it had been verified by at least three reliable sources. This, too, has become more lax.
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
The other major event was the introduction of the 24-hour-news broadcast, as started by Turner Network Television, in 1988. A visionary, Ted Turner thought that it was time to present news throughout the entire day. Suddenly headline news developed. Breaking news, which I like to call broken news, developed. There were positives and negatives that accompanied trying to provide roundthe-clock news. The main negative, as I see it, is that providing well-researched world and national news with the accuracy we had come to expect from ABC, CBS, and NBC ceased. The ratings contest became a war. And news departments were suddenly forced to become a profit center. Frequently, accuracy was sacrificed to “on-the-spot coverage.” The poor onscreen reporters were forced in front of a camera and told to present the story. This hurry-up reporting cleared the way for a lot of supposition and a “we’ll worry about the facts later” attitude. Viewers were given a rough draft, so to speak. There was, and still is, a lot of misinformation as reporters made suppositions about an event, such as the Oklahoma City bombing that thought to be a foreign terrorist act. Well, as it turned out, it was; but not in the sense the term was understood back then. Terrorists were foreigners. Timothy McVeigh was a homemade, homegrown terrorist who had a deep-seated hatred of the federal government, stemming primarily from the federal response in the Ruby Ridge incident and later the siege in Waco that he personally witnessed. With the Internet becoming more accessible, websites and blogs popped up and began conveying opinions, which many people mistook as fact. Some of the more popular crossed over into broadcast television, and people accepted these opinions as facts. Skeptical Americans slowly learned how to spot the difference. This is where I see news devolved into info-tainment. Nuanced and measured reporting seemed to give way to speculation, and people who didn’t like what
they were hearing were confused by the information they were receiving, or those with unshakeable conflicting agendas would simply call the news “fake.” It was at this point that news became polarized. We had entered an era where the messenger was more important than the message. If so-and-so reports it, it must be true. Or, flip the coin over, if so-and-so reports it, it can’t be true. Now it is easier to listen to or just read a headline and form an opinion than it is to delve into a story and fact-check it. This has produced a population that is by and large devoid of critical thinking. Back when Grandma was my age, she used to tell me to believe only half of what you read, 25% of what you watch, and none of what you hear. If I wanted to know the truth, I got pointed to the encyclopedia or sent to the library. This is an incredibly important time for the entire world. With a global pandemic raging, information and misinformation are distributed equally. Only a tiny percentage of us are epidemiologists, scientists, or doctors, leaving the rest of us at the mercy of “the news.” Our very lives depend upon the reliability of that news. Hint: Politically driven information is not a reliable resource at this point in time. In the U.S. “news” is mostly all politics all the time, even when the subject should not be politicized at all. We have a world filled with news that is marvelous as well as horrifying. But we need to see the whole picture. We need this for planning our future, investing our money, raising our children and grandchildren. Newspapers never have been nor will they ever be perfect. But I miss the times when perfection was the goal. [Ed. Note: The Ojo is not a newspaper. We are a monthly periodical. And an Editorial is also part of the opinion section. Polite suggestions as to content are always welcome.] Victoria Schmidt
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How to Celebrate a Birthday During a Pandemic By Tom Nussbaum
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aving a birthday during a pandemic is like not having a birthday at all, especially when you are of a certain age and are single. The isolation, obviously, limits the celebration. But that isn’t such a bad thing if your birth certificate was written on papyrus in hieroglyphics, as was mine. The day begins like any other. You wake up, check your pulse to see if you have one, ache out of bed, stumble around in a post-sleep haze searching for your kitchen, prep the coffee maker, and try to remember what day it is. Was “The Ed Sullivan Show” on last night? you ask yourself. Is this Monday? You shake your head. Was the gardener or maid here yesterday? They come on— Oh, what are their names? Conchita? Consuela? Pedro?
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Pablo? You look at the gurgling coffee maker with irritation. “Would you shut up?” you yell. “Could you make more noise? Can’t you see I’m trying to think?” You look around. Think? What was I thinking about? You see your computer. You are distracted. You meander to it, sit, and study the notes explaining how to operate it that were left by a techie genius named . . . well, it doesn’t really matter what his name is. Her name is? You look at email. There’s one from the bank telling you how to check your credit score. Why? you think. I don’t need to worry about credits; I’ve been out of college for decades. There’s another. It is from some prince in Nigeria asking for money. You laugh. That’s a scam, you tell yourself. There’s no country
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called Nigeria. It’s named Somalia now. You delete it. You go to Facebook to see if Carolyn sent another funny comic. She sends the best comics. Sometimes you type “LOL,” like so many people do, even though you haven’t a clue what that means. You also haven’t a clue who Carolyn is. But, alas, she hasn’t sent anything. As you look down with disappointment, you notice the date in the corner of the screen. “Oh,” you say with surprise, “it’s my birthday. Well, I should celebrate with a nice hot cup of coffee. It would be so nice if someone would make me one.” You get up, go to the coffee maker, and discover your coffee has been made. You pour a cup, using the mug you won at church Bingo Night in 1997, and return to your computer. Seven birthday greetings welcome you. How did they all know it was my birthday? you ask with surprise. Did one of those nice Facebook people tell them? The one named Carolyn? Or was it that Mark Zuckerstein? You look out the window. I should do something to celebrate my birthday, you tell yourself. So, after you prepare yourself for the day, you head off to Walmart to buy yourself a small cake. But as you reach for the doorknob, you notice the pink and yellow floral-patterned mask hanging on it. Oh, yes, you think, COVID-19. Hand sanitizer. Social distancing. Masks. You repeat that mantra the entire ten-minute drive. When you arrive at Walmart, you have your temperature checked, your hands sanitized, and you rush to the bakery. There are no small cakes, just large ones. You do see slices of cake packaged in plastic. They look older than you. Then you see the chocolate cupcakes, Hostess cupcake-like, but called pinguinos here because they resemble penguins. “Aah,” you exhale aloud. And there’s two to a pack. One for after lunch, one for after dinner. The packages are crammed together on a small shelf. But one is socially distanced, sitting by itself on an empty shelf once housing
bundled tortillas. For health and safety reasons, you take that pair of pinguinos. At the checkout counter, the young clerk greets you. Because of his mask, you can’t tell if he smiles. “Ah, pinguinos,” he says. “It’s my birthday,” you explain. “Feliz cumpleaños.” In awkward English, he asks, “How many years—” He stops himself, realizing his rudeness. Proudly, you say, “I am … I am …” That’s when confusion sets in. “I was born in 19—” “Ah, nineteen,” he says. “COVID-19. Is your COVID-19 birthday. You have nineteen.” You laugh. “Yes. I guess we all are nineteen this year.” When you get home, you lay the sweet treats on the kitchen counter. For lunch and dinner, you remind yourself. Then, before you have removed your mask, you reach into a drawer and pull out a box of birthday candles and decorate each pinguino with a small red candle. You pull a lighter from the same drawer and light the candles. You lean forward and try to blow them out through your mask. You singe the mask. You remove it, blow out the candles, and scarf down both cupcakes as you stand at the counter. Chocolate crumbs dance down the front of your Lucky Dog T-shirt as you walk to your computer. Seventy-two birthday messages greet you. One is from Carolyn who says, “Happy Birthday, old friend!” Now you remember her. You went to high school together. But you weren’t friends then. There’s a greeting from your cousin David and one from your niece, Jessica. A former neighbor has remembered you, as has a co-worker from a previous life. There’s a greeting in Spanish from Paco. “My gardener’s name is Paco!” you yell. The phone rings. The Caller-ID says “Carolyn.” You stare at it. Now, who the hell is Carolyn? Tom Nussbaum
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COLUMNIST
RAMBLINGS FROM THE RANCH By Christina Bennett
Pet on the Belly
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ecently, I learned another context for the phrase “a pet on the belly.” I always thought it was what my dogs wanted when they lay down with their feet in the air. But think again. My husband and I were “flight angels” for the first time when we flew to Portland with seven dogs from the Ranch. When the Volaris airlines agent handed me my boarding pass and luggage ticket, it said, “PET ON BELLY.” Seven dogs in seven crates were going to be in the belly of the plane and I guess Volaris wanted to be sure we didn’t forget them when we arrived at PDX!
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As volunteers at the Ranch, we have seen the crowded conditions during the pandemic—no flights up north for dogs and more pups being abandoned due to the economic downturn. We were happy to help out and take some dogs to loving homes in Oregon. One of the dogs was a sweet cattle mix named LuAnn. She was a shy girl, so pretty, and I had loved spending time with her at The Ranch. Two of the dogs on our flight had belonged to an Ajijic man who lost his life due to tainted alcohol. A Ranch volunteer drove us to the Guadalajara airport and another one met us there with the
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seven dogs. Getting checked in took a bit of time as each crate was processed by the patient ticket counter agent. The Ranch volunteer made sure all the paperwork was in order and we were on our way to the gate, the crates of dogs waiting to be placed on the conveyor belt. We were a bit concerned as we heard that international arrivals in Portland involved a bus ride, with our luggage and the doggies, to the main terminal. It was a pleasant surprise that two cheerful airport employees were waiting to help us wheel carts of dogs to the bus, where others helped us load them up. At the main terminal, another wonderful staff member with a giant cart assisted us in getting the dogs outside of the secure area. And she wouldn’t even accept a tip. A large group of adopters and foster parents from Street Dog Hero were anxiously awaiting our arrival. The dogs looked a bit scared but they were all healthy and extremely well-behaved. The adopters were wearing masks but I could feel their smiles. I was able to meet Laura, from Eugene, Oregon, who adopted my sweet
friend LuAnn. Can you be a flight angel to help dogs get to their forever homes? I guarantee you that it’s not difficult and that your heart will be full when you see the fabulous Ranch dogs meeting their forever families. For more information on adopting, volunteering, and escorting dogs to their new homes north of the border, visit our website www.lakesidespayandneutercenter.com or email us at adoptaranchdog@ outlook.com
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COLUMNIST
BRIDGE BY THE LAKE By Ken Masson
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xperience counts for a lot in competitive bridge. Although the odds against the exact same deal occurring more than once in a lifetime are stupendous, certain situations reappear with sufficient frequency that if you recognise a possible solution early enough it can lead you to the best line of play. Such was the case with the hand in the diagram which was
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played at the Lake Chapala Duplicate Bridge Club in Riberas. West dealt and opened 1 diamond and after North passed, East ventured a bid of 1 spade. Although East held 6 diamonds and only 4 spades and 6 high card points, the lure of trying to find a major suit fit proved too strong. South considered his hand too good for a simple overcall so he made a take-out double.
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
West had the values to raise his partner to 2 spades and this took North off the hook so she didn’t have to bid with her modest collection. East passed and South now showed his strength by bidding 3 hearts. West passed and North came alive as her hand began to look less anaemic and she raised her partner to game. West led the diamond King and when dummy came down declarer could see two inevitable spade losers as well as two possible club losers so his contract was in some jeopardy. Fortunately however, this South was sufficiently long in the tooth to be familiar with a gadget known as a strip and endplay so he set about attempting to set one up. But he would need a little help from the opponents to make his plan work. Declarer won the first trick in hand perforce and immediately led the spade queen from hand, taken by West with the ace. West now led a second diamond which declarer ruffed in hand followed by his remaining spade to dummy’s jack and East’s king. East now returned a trump and declarer was in control. South won in hand with the ace and crossed to the king, drawing the opponents’ last trump. He then
cashed the spade jack pitching a club from hand followed by a small club to his ace. Now came the coup de grace: declarer led a small club from his hand and East-West were now completely powerless. If West rose with the king it would cannibalize his partner’s queen; if he let it ride around to East’s queen that player would have no safe exit card and would have to play a diamond or a spade allowing declarer to sluff a losing club from his hand as he ruffed in dummy. This was the only table in the contest where 4 hearts was bid and made. Could the defence have done any better? Yes! If West had led a club initially, though this would have been very difficult on the bidding, or if West had eyed declarer’s spade queen suspiciously at trick two and switched to a club on winning the spade ace, South would not have had the timing to set up the endplay and the contract would have failed. But declarer had spotted his best chance of making his game and then he executed it. Questions or comments: email: masson.ken@gmail. com Ken Masson
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Are We Done?
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ecently I was invited to be a guest at a very exciting presentation at the Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University campus in Houston, TX. The seminar was titled “A Presidential Election in an Uncertain Time.” It was as lofty as it sounds. The event was nonpartisan, with luminaries from both the Democratic and Republican parties presenting in panelstyle discussions. Question-and-Answer periods followed each segment of the program. The room buzzed with high energy and anticipation. The Honorable James A. Baker III was even present and would speak. The most exciting panel for me was to see Mary Matalin and James Carville in a discussion. These two are political consultants for different parties, yet are able to have what has to be the most unusual marriage imaginable. After listening to them debate points in a very civil manner, I wondered why people in regular society have so much difficulty with political differences these days. Politics can’t even come up at dinners anymore, lest fights break out, ruining evenings and friendships. Mary made a great point when she said that politics is not supposed to be all of life. We have families, work, and social functions too. I realized she had hit on something, as my inbox is filled with politics now, as is social media. I feel like I’m drowning in politics. Presenters addressed the increasing polarization of America, due to politics. They explained that the country has had this issue in its history before, of course with the Civil War, but even within the Democratic Party when there were differences between McGovern and Wallace. And rancor ran high in the election between Goldwater and Johnson. However, one expert said that polarization is
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currently less ideology than animosity and grievances. After four panel discussions (one moderated by Karl Rove!), there was a wrap-up where voter fatigue was addressed. People want their lives back. They want their friends back. Several weeks passed and my husband and I were invited to dinner with new acquaintances. We were at a nice restaurant and things were going swimmingly. No one had brought up politics, though a few hints around the edges had been thrown out. Mention anything like climate or people on social benefits, and one is tiptoeing close to actual party identification. One can ascertain political philosophies based on attitudes of these key subjects. I addressed subjects with amazing neutrality and vagueness. Suddenly, the woman of the couple turned to me and asked point-blank which side of the political spectrum I was on. Uh-oh. I was cornered. I answered, based on some of her statements earlier, “The opposite side you’re on.” Her demeanor changed from hospitable to stony. “We’re done,” she stated coldly. She repeated this statement as though it were a dagger and she was glad to insert it. I just looked at her, not looking for an argument. Needless to say, the evening ended poorly. We definitely won’t be socializing with the couple again, nor is that desired. Now that we find the U.S. in an election year, I am less apt to venture into unfamiliar social territory. I ask myself if the country I have known all my life has changed from America the Beautiful to America the Intolerant. I wonder if the country I once knew no longer exists. Katina Pontikes
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COLUMNIST
Mirror To The Universe —Community Spirituality By Rob Mohr “Alone, we can do little - Together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller
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s early as 100,000 years before the common era, Paleolithic and Neolithic hominid communities lived in both the spiritual and physical worlds. Their dominant art and architecture were the stage and setting for communal spiritual rituals. Myths, rituals, gods, ancestors, and anthropomorphic beings dominated human focus. Stone markers defined sacred ground, portals between worlds, and sites where the gods and goddesses visited humanity. Magical rituals opened the spiritual realm and revealed its treasures to humanity. But today, ego-centered spirituality has become personal, a commodity sold by competing spiritual guides and shamans. Even within major religions, spiritual tourism to sacred sites and “thin places” is a goal of many believers. The impact of internally idealized commercial forms of individual spirituality promotes “a light hidden under a basket,” which enables formation of an interior wall blocking access to the creative dimensions of communal spiritual practices. Narrowly defined individual spirituality, which comforts and supports the individual, has little impact on communal life. Negative energy, created by selfindulgence, greed, and the absence of compassion, remain a primary cause of divisions and violence in the world, and limits communal access to the positive energy embedded in the spiritual field. Evaluation of human societies and the human psyche reveals the many ways ego-centric life, with its privileged perspective, works against unity and goodness and keeps humanity divided into aggressive nation states. In contrast, when a small group collectively explores infinite spiritual fields of the cosmos, members’ visions and awareness are enriched through inclusive spiritual discourse. Members of small groups roam the spiritual cosmos encouraged by the compassionate embrace and shared love of their spiritual community. Contemporary scientific evidence adds additional support for this spiritual adventure. Physicists have concluded
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that within our cosmos, the nonphysical (spiritual) field, unbound by time or distance, is in control of the physical field of the cosmos subtended by an all-knowing universal mind. Plato called this mind the “cosmic soul,” and the Judeo-Christian world says this mind is an “all-knowing god.” This new scientific understanding has opened a window on the spiritual world that has been closing over the past fifteen hundred years. Spiritual communities explore their spiritual roots through Taizé services, where simple music becomes the medium for human transformation. Other new practices like sharing spiritual experiences and community rituals, within and outside of organized religions, also enable entry and engagement with the spiritual world. When groups collectively engage the guiding spiritual field, participants awaken to vast new possibilities previously unimagined, and their perspective changes. Awake, participants are able to engage the transformative power of new insights and awakened abilities as they begin this new adventure into the unknown. Today, when small groups gather in their sacred spaces and share communal narratives in preparation for external performance, they expand the ways we spiritually relate to the natural world and seek communion with all sentient life. They enter dimensions where the “allknowing soul of creation” will be present, not with a long white beard, but as an information flow into our souls which participants will convert to knowledge as they once again play beyond the surface of the physical world. Our spiritual curiosity, that was tied up when we were children, will be released, and our shared thoughts will combine as they open spiritually into a textured, holistic life. Humanity, as an evolutionary, enlightened community of explorers, will reconnect with the vast foundational reality of the cosmos. An adventure you may want to participate in. Rob Mohr
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BEYOND THE FOREST GATE
A Day in the Rainy Spring Woods With a Guy and his Dog Dr. Lorin Swinehart
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t was the first week of May, one of the most beautiful times of year in my part of north central Ohio, that narrow window of time during which the woods are brightened by large brilliant white wildflowers called trillium, and all the trees have burst into verdant green after their long winter of dormancy. It was not a bright, sunny day but a gray, rainy day. Not a heavy rain in the beginning that sluiced the woods and fields and soaked one to the skin, but a gentle caressing that morphed back and forth from mist to drizzle to a more substantial downpour. I was experiencing the call of the wild. I had been, as was so often my habit, burn-
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ing the candle at both ends with little or no reprieve, and I needed what I referred to as a mental health day. For company, I brought along my best friend and boon companion Belle, a precocious and ever loyal golden retriever. Many are the stories of Belle’s and my woodland adventures. On this day, as always, she was filled with boundless enthusiasm, eager to see what activity I had planned. Immediately behind my home, located on a side road a few miles south of town, was a stretch of brush and weeds that extended for perhaps half a mile to a stream called Jameson Run, deep in the woods. I had installed a fence along the bound-
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ary line. I could easily climb over the fence, but I needed to lift up the bottom strand of wire to allow Belle to squirm through. I always thought of that tight opening in the fence as the Forest Gate, a term taken from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, an entranceway leading out of the comfort and security of the Shire into an alien world of adventure. I was not so much in search of adventure on that weeping gray day, but craved silence and solitude, balm for the overworked soul. Belle, for her part, was mostly interested in the antics of field mice who fled among their labyrinthian pathways in the underlying vegetation as she sought out their hiding places with her ever curious nose. The rain picked up as we navigated our way across the weedy field and entered the woods. I did not care. On a warm spring day, being soaked is not a fatal event. Besides, once we entered the woods, the overhanging canopy of spring leaves acted as a huge umbrella, shielding us from the heaviest rain whenever a gust of wind would send sheets of droplets flying in our direction. I needed woods, trees, the stream, the wind, and the water on that day, and I needed the companionship of my canine friend. So, a little thing like rain was not going to discourage me. In fact, I exhilarated in it. Keep everything simple, and you will live a much happier life. I am always amazed at hikers I have met on wilderness trails who seem to be laboring under enough gear to overflow a steamer trunk, with a twofoot bowie knife dangling from their belts, probably to defend themselves from attack by cottontail rabbits and fox squirrels. Sort of like those outdoor manuals who assure their readers that it is possible to prepare a 12-course dinner over a wilderness campfire. I wonder if they ever even notice that they are in a wilderness. Spirituality is not only wounded by such extravagances, it is shot to hell. As an old Boy Scout, I always have a knife and a means of kindling a campfire, a simple Swiss Army knife with a cracked handle and a Bic lighter. Add a canteen or a water bottle, and you are set for the day. We arrived at streambed, a true babbling brook, to find swarms of minnows scurrying about in a crystal pool. I was teaching classical mythology that spring, and I thought of the minnows as naiads, tiny Greek goddesses who were said to have frequented creeks and streams, singing and chuckling in delight to be dwelling in their pristine watery world. I wondered if an ancient herdsman stopped by some Arcadian rivulet and
imagined naiads when he observed minnows. I perched atop a soggy log and watched the naiads for over an hour as the rain picked up in tempo. As the day wore on, we quietly followed an overgrown trail, the remnant of an old wagon path that once bisected the woods. It had been many years since any of the land had been farmed. Nature had taken over where man had surrendered. There were trillium in the woods on that spring day as well as other smaller varieties of wildflowers; purple Johnnyjump-ups, tiny Dutchman’s-breeches, and others, for some obscene reason, given the name old maids’ delights. At one point, I was startled when I heard what I thought was a human voice intruding upon my reverie. I motioned to Belle, ever sensitive to my moods, and we stepped off the path into the thick underbrush. When one is alone and submerged in the natural world for any length of time, the sound of one’s own voice becomes a violation. I had no desire to exchange pleasantries with any of my fellow humans, to rupture the holy silence with small talk, on this rainy woodland day. As it turned out, there was no twolegged interloper in the woods that day. Belle and I arrived at the bank of an evergreen-lined private lake, one that I had not known existed before that afternoon. I lingered there behind the cover of pine boughs for some time, unwilling to trespass into a place that the owners had obviously intended for their own private sanctum sanctorum. The west wind picked up, sending the rain across fallow field, woodland, and pasture in sheets. I was saturated, head to foot—denim jacket, shirt, jeans, socks, even underwear—but cared not a whit. We returned late in the afternoon. The house was empty. I warmed pinto beans on the stove and set the coffee pot to perking. Belle was happy with her dog biscuits. I tossed my clothes into the dryer, rubbed Belle down with her favorite towel, and the two of us settled in for a long nap. As I have aged, many old friends have vanished from my life, some having passed on, some having drifted away, but there are none whom I miss more than I do my ever loyal and enthusiastic comrade Belle. It had been a good day. It is a happy memory. It was a long time ago, alongside the creek called Jameson Run. Lorin Swinehart
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Saving The Wild Orchids By Janice Kimball
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oward the end of a miserable winter, orchids bloomed in the conservatory on Belle Isle in Detroit. The director who introduced the rainbow of blooming orchids inside explained that these were cultivated orchids. I remember his saying, “I will never own a live thing that was once wild. Orchids that are free are not like the cultivated gorgeous creatures in here stripped of their tongues and in bondage. In Mexico I have had the magical experience of being among free orchids fluttering about in the treetops, their life substance being drawn from pure air.” I sold my historical home in Detroit’s inner city not long after that, explaining to the street people for whom I’d been an advocate that I had to move where, like the wild orchids, I could bloom. They were the only ones that understood. My brother took me, my feline, construction cat, and three suitcases
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Lavender orchids blooming on trees high in the mountains above Lake Chapala. to the airport. I boarded the plane that would take me to Guadalajara and a new beginning. The year was 1998. I was standing in my courtyard on the fringes of Chapala counting bananas when I had my first encounter with Jalisco’s silky lavender wild orchids. An unkempt man came walking in my gate with a clump of them in each fist, shaking them in the air as if they were rattles. “Muy bonitas orquídeas para ti,” (very pretty orchids for you,) he chanted.
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“Muy baratas, dos por una, especialmente para el jardín de la señora.” (Very cheap, two for one, especially for the lady’s garden.) I shielded my eyes from the sight as I remembered the words of the director and murmured, “No, please no,” shaking my index finger back and forth. He headed to the neighboring houses, following in the heels of the topsoil salesman, a man leading his old mule, from which I bought plenty—while still in ignorance that it had been stripped from under the trees in the wild. Visiting a neighbor, I noticed clumps of orchids tied to a tree. The owner said that the orchids were there when she moved in. I heard that explanation many more times, as the raising of my consciousness regarding the protection of wildlife began to take a foothold in Mexico. In 2001, the federal government passed a law making the cutting or removal of orchids in the wild illegal. Soon after, they began to enforce stiff penalties. After that, the orchid salesman did not come down the street again, and later I heard the old man who hawked poached topsoil from the back of his decrepit mule had died. The nurseries are the place to buy cultivated orchids for your garden; they sell hybrids that will survive, and thrive if kept moist while making sure their roots do not rot from overwatering. For less than
you would pay for cut orchids up north, you can buy real plants here, exquisite in every detail, in a myriad of mood and form and in so many combinations of waxed and silken colors. I find today’s viveros (nurseries) particularly exciting. When I feel restless, I head out to visit my favorites, and bask in their flowers. I was fortunate to have my botanical consciousness raised before I retired to the land of wild orchids. Never did I dream I would be living on the shores of a lake, surrounded by an extinct volcano, below the forest whose heights harbored communities of wild orchids swaying in the breeze—some of the orchids that Belle Isles gentleman had described to me a lifetime ago. After several failed trips into the wilds of the high Sierras, my health always betraying me, I have altered my dream to see orchids blooming in the wild. Maybe someday I will join them in their wild habitat. I fantasize my ashes being tossed from within the confines of a hot air balloon or perhaps a glider, to flutter down among the wild orchids in the breeze. In the meantime, the local nurseries with their magnificent cultured orchids will sustain me. Janice Kimball
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House Keeping It’s March. I don’t know where they’ve been or how they always find their way back “home” but here they are again the third year in a row. The swallows have returned to our pequeña casa to reconstruct their nest and lay their eggs in the protected vestibule, a perfect place to start another family. The first year we were entertained and marveled how they somehow carried mud and grass and water from the lake and built an avian adobe that clung securely to the stone. They bred and fed their chicks then disappeared in fall to where it is they go. Next March they came again, found the very nest and did the same, but this time they began a housing project—two more nests on nearby walls and we were not amused and knocked them down. This year we went to battle. Every time they started to rebuild we knocked them down, those messy nests. We put some potted palms below the overhang to complicate the ease of flying in and out, but they were undeterred. Every time a nest came down they started once again. They wore us out and made us feel like landlords ousting tenants from their home. And then we saw the light. A native from the village said, “You’ll never win against the birds, they’ve got to build the same place they were born. They have no choice.” We put aside our brooms. Once we knew we couldn’t win, then life became more pleasant for both sides. But what’s the limit? Bumper crops of baby birds are born here every year.
—Margaret Van Every
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Never Fall for a Hero
By Sue Schools
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ever, Never, Never fall in love with a hero. Yes, of course, he may be strong, handsome, and virulent. Maybe he’s tall and well-spoken with degrees and/or medals. He might have polished manners or is tough like a stevedore, not one to be pushed around. He may be humble or smart-ass brash. But even if he rides a white charger or drives a white Ferrari, STEP AWAY. Did you ever read John D. MacDonald thrillers in the 1960s? His rough hero was Travis McGee, who was a crime solver and man of stringent principles. McGee always taught a moral lesson or two. But every time, every single time, he fell for a beautiful dame . . . WHAM!! She died. In current times, Lee Child writes about a very tall, very physical ex-military cop and wanderer, Jack Reacher. I just finished Without Fail. As usual, he employs the assistance of an equally strong female lead (spoiler alert), and BAM! she’s shot and bleeds out in his arms, leaving him to take up the trail for revenge. Reacher doesn’t even own a suitcase or a change of underwear, so how in Sam Blazes can anyone hope to domesticate a tumbleweed? Heroes are expected to put
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El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
out fires, fight villains, solve mysteries, and rescue damsels. In all likelihood, the hapless women are wooed and seduced but then become an unspoken burden. These guys are not destined to give up their quests to become farmers, teachers, or bus drivers, and relationships usually entail fidelity and commitment. At this point, it would be unseemly for our star to say, “Back off, woman.” Hence, her tragic and untimely demise. He is encouraged to have a dog or a human male for a sidekick, but once his heart pitter-pats over a woman, her destiny is written. Forgo, she must, and it helps if we can shed a tear for her. She has played a valiant role in exposing a more gentle side to her man. Possibly pillow talk has enlightened us to our man’s background and explained his strength in his convictions, given him a reason to step boldly when others would balk... to humanize him. But once he goes soft for a female, her fate is sealed. In Clive Cussler’s Valhalla Rising, Dirk Pitt laments, “When Summer was lost in the sea and Maeve died in my arms, it left an emptiness inside me.” So, he has already gone through two fatalities and expecting sympathy from his third flame. Jeez! One exception is Robert B. Parker’s Spencer and Susan Silverman. They even share a Labrador named Pearl. But Susan is a practicing psychologist and knows she can never own the private investigator. Spencer and Hawk operate outside the law to the tune of their own jungle justice. So she watches them walk out the door and silently rejoices when they are able to return, until the next call . . . Another possible exception is a woman who can ride a horse while singing. Dale Evans was popular in the ‘50s but then, Roy Rogers was kinda wimpy. (The real star was Trigger)
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A Perfect Match By Margie Keane
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oe lay on his board and was rocked gently by the blue satin sheet of ocean. He was hoping for one more ride before leaving Bali. The surfing here was awesome. Uluwatu and Padang Padang were always bitchin’ even with the crowds. Thanks to some of the locals and a gift of a case of beer, they took him to some beaches known only to serious surfers. Those were perfect days. Panaitan Island, near Jakarta, had been pretty exciting, but Fiji had been the ultimate. The breakers at Namotu, especially at Cloud Break, were so extreme he became totally fierce in his endless efforts to master them. Each time he grabbed a wave, he knew he could get seriously cranked as he shot the curl, fighting to stay in the middle of its face. He knew a wipe-out on those 18-foot waves could end his dream, maybe his life, but the thrill of it kept pulling him back for one more ride. Next destination was Sumatra and then he was heading home. Turning his head he saw a vision that took his breath away. It eclipsed all his thoughts about big waves. Floating close to him was this gorgeous, silken beauty. She was long and lean, with just the right curves. Her honeycolored skin gleamed golden in the sun. He wanted to run his hands over this elegant beauty. He wanted to hold her, feel her next to him. He would have made a move, but she was with this great big dude who had her wrapped
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in his arms. He caught Joe staring. “Ya like her, doncha?” “Yeah, man. She’s sweet!” “Wanna spend some time with her?” “You kiddin’ me?” “No, dog, I wanna take a run up the beach.” Joe couldn’t believe it. “Oh, man!” On shore, the big dude handed her over to me. I held her gingerly, shyly. Out on the water I stroked her reverently and she responded. We became one immediately. I was in love. We were out on the ocean together for about an hour, riding waves, gentle at first, but then they gathered power and lifted us up and dropped us down. We rode them with abandon, in tune with the ocean and each other. I wanted this to go on forever but it wasn’t gonna happen. A sharp whistle ended the magic. Glancing toward the beach I saw the big dude motioning us in and my heart sank. I knew I would never see her again. I pressed my body against her, sliding my hands over her one last time before I let her go. The big dude put his arm around her. “So whadaya think?” I gave her one last lingering look, then with tears in my eyes I said, “Man, she is one hot board!” Margie Keane
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Carol D. Bradley
Email: cdbradleymex@gmail.com Phone: 33-2506-7525 “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” —Mary Oliver Our creative endeavors have been curtailed for this time of COVID-19. While we may be isolating at home or going out under safety protocols, we are staying creative: writing, painting, practicing our craft. We are waiting to get back to sharing our creations, our talent with our full audiences. Many of us are perfecting an online presence and getting added exposure along the way. In the meanwhile, some of us are getting out and enjoying local live music in social distanced venues. We are still missing theater productions as we continue to wait for the new normal. Stay with us. While our popular Open Circle presentations have been suspended, here is their usual inclusion in Lakeside Living for your information: “The Lake Chapala Society hosts Open Circle every Sunday at 10AM, a popular community gathering in Ajijic every Sunday morning to enjoy a diverse range of presentations.” Due to the persistent pandemic and our need to continue safe practices, it looks like Open Circle will not be featuring live presentations in the LCS patio in September as we had all hoped. Thus, we are pleased to feature the following popular video reruns on our YouTube channel accessible through our website opencircleajijic.org. You Need to See . . . to Believe Mexico Presented by Carlos Martinez, Bryan Clark, and John Pint More than 1,000 years of Meso-American cultures define México in so many ways, but the sudden influence of Spain transformed everything. New cultures emerged through a mishmash of religion and traditions. Life as it was known before changed for the inhabitants of the New Spain. Forty million people visit Mexico every year but little do they fathom its secrets. Three experts will introduce you to what is only a stone’s throw away, untouched, and barely on the map—natural, man-made, cultural, and culinary experiences unknown to most locals. They will reveal some of the fantastic secrets of México. John Pint, writer, professor. Passionate speleologist and nature lover. A life of exploring. Bryan Clark, always a helping hand in more than a dozen countries. Carlos Martínez, writer, professor. Passionate speleologist. Curious about everything. Música Para Crecer The San Juan Children’s Orchestra and Chorus Annual Holiday Concert
Música Para Crecer Five years ago a few community leaders in San Juan Cosalá began a music program intended to give disadvantaged at-risk children a sure and safe path to young adulthood. The students studied hard, stayed off the streets, and devoted themselves to what they most loved—music. They have traveled to music festivals and camps, encountered children of other cultures, lived with them, and made music with them. The program has transformed not only individual lives but also the village itself. The San Juan Children’s Orchestra and Chorus (Música Para Crecer) now enriches the lives of 80 children from five to 18 years of age. It includes 20-year-old graduates of the program who assist as teachers. Their Open Circle concert features traditional Mexican, pop, classical, and Latin American music, with Daniel Medeles conducting. As a nonprofit civic organization, Música Para Crecer is supported solely by governmental grants and private donations. Government support for the arts has been drastically reduced under the current administration, and the orchestra is looking for generous patrons and the backing of civic organizations and businesses to help guarantee their future. Open
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Circle has watched them from the very beginning and has adopted them into our hearts as though they were our own. Let us continue to relish their music and do our best to assure their future. Reconciliation - It’s More than Just a Word Presented by Rachel McMillen Understanding the history of our interactions with the people who were the original inhabitants of our countries, can only take us so far on the path of reconciliation. Knowing what is happening in the present can give us tools to help, but to gain knowledge that can help us weather the economic and climate storms of the future, we need to learn from the traditional beliefs of our indigenous neighbors. Rachel McMillen is an adult educator with an Honors Arts degree (English language and literature) and the auRachel McMillen thor of the Dan Connor Mystery series, described by one reviewer as “mysteries with a conscience.” She and her husband spent thirty years sailing the west coast, meeting and working with the indigenous people who live there. How and Why We Remember Presented by Sandy Britton We humans define ourselves in large part through our memories, to the point where loss of memory feels like loss of self. Our memories also play an essential role in our survival. While memory has been studied by philosophers and scientists for centuries, it’s only been in the last fifty years or so that researchers have learned how subtle and complex memory really is. Recent research has added even more insight into how memory works—and how it can work against us. Come take a journey through this fascinating aspect of the human mind, and learn the latest findings on how to improve your ability to remember. Sandy Britton is from northern California. Her background is in software development but she’s always been fascinated by the computer between our ears. She combines her love of brain science and public speaking to Sandy Britton bring you this talk. Lakeside Little Theatre introduces ART: We are pleased to take a first step to Lakeside Little Theatre’s re-opening with the introduction of Ajijic Readers Theatre (ART) at LLT. Our first show is Women in Jeopardy, with September dates as below. COVID-19 precautions will be in place for rehearsals and performances. Operating as part of LLT’s Playhouse, and alongside our MainStage events, ART will expand our offerings to our patrons, and enable more opportunities for actors, directors, and support staff. While COVID-19 restrictions are in place, we will provide a safe environment by rehearsing and staging on the open-air Angel Terrace with seating for approximately 40 individuals while maintaining a minimum of six feet social distancing. LLT’s first ART show: By Wendy MacLeod Directed by Collette Clavadetscher September 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 2020 All shows are matinees, 4:00 pm Produced by special arrangement with Dramatist Play Services, Inc., NY. Tickets will be 150 pesos (Cuota de recuperación) and will be on sale at LLT’s Box Office Wednesday & Thursday, 10 am to noon, starting August 26, 2020. Also available by email at tickets@lakesidelittletheatre.com. Join us for this fun and flirtatious comedy! “Screw the midlife crisis; let’s solve some crimes!” Trading their wineglasses for spyglasses, imaginations run wild as a cohort of best friends try to discover the truth and solve crimes in a hilarious, off-road adventure. Perfect for when the midlife crisis just isn’t your speed! Reviews: “The laughs in Wendy MacLeod’s play come fast and furious … a new work that’s modern, lively, and loads of fun.” – Boston Globe
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The Father of Mexico By Herbert W. Piekow
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he Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla began the Mexican Revolution for independence from Spain by ringing his parish church bells at 2:30 AM on September 16th to call his parishioners, not to Mass, but to revolt against tyranny and bad government. Although his exact words were not recorded it is believed Hidalgo shouted some of the following; “My children . . . will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago . . .? We must act at once . . . Will you defend your religion? . . . Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government!” And with these words began an eleven-year bloody struggle for independence from Spain. Each September 15th at 11:00 PM the president of Mexico and every local mayor shouts “Viva Mexico!” three times to the assembled citizens, who repeat the greeting. The Mexican national anthem is usually sung after this and colorful fireworks fill the dark skies before a night of music and festivities. The revolt against Spanish rule was originally planned to begin in December, after the harvest season. However, word of the possible revolution against the Spanish was leaked and Hidalgo, a man of quick action, called his parishioners to announce that it was time the revolt against
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Spanish dominance begin. The Hidalgo family was typical of many Creole Mexican families whose fortunes were wiped out when, in 1805, the Spanish King Carlos decreed that all loans granted by the church in Mexico be repaid within a year. The Hidalgos, like so many other families, had borrowed from the church in order to increase their land holdings, which represented their wealth and provided income. However, to pay these loans in a year was impossible and unrealistic for almost everyone. Hidalgo’s mother died when he was nine, and he and a younger brother were sent away to school. His schoolmates called him “El Zorro,” or “The Fox” because he was clever. In 1778, at the age of 25, Hidalgo was ordained a Catholic priest. Because of his intelligence he immediately began teaching Latin grammar and theology at the Colegio de San Nicholas in Morelia, one of the most important educational centers in the Viceroyalty. At the age of 39 he became dean of the school. However, he lost this position when some university funds were missing. He was not an ordinary priest and was twice investigated by the Inquisition. In 1803, when Hidalgo was 53, he was assigned to the post of Parish Priest in Dolores, near today’s San Miguel de Allende. He arrived with
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his younger brother, two half-sisters, his mistress Maria and two of his nine known children by four different women. He might have been a priest who had taken a vow of celibacy, but he always chafed against rules, regulations, and some laws. Throughout his 28 years of teaching and preaching, Hidalgo taught his parishioners not only their religion, but how to be self-sufficient by using nature and people’s God-given talents. Against the laws of Spain, Hidalgo explained agronomy to his congregation. He taught them to plant and care for olives and grapes, to help the people make olive oil and wine, both prohibited by Spain who, for economic reasons, wanted to keep New Spain, or Mexico, dependent on the mother country and because economically Spain did not want ships sailing to the colonies without cargo. This policy, along with denying political powers to Spanish subjects born outside of Spain, created deep feelings of resentment and perpetuated a caste system. People of Spanish blood born outside Spain were known as Creoles, and although they owned vast properties, wielded economic power, were religious and local leaders, they were totally subject to the economic and political rules of Spain, only a step above the indigenous peoples. After nearly three hundred years of discrimination the people of Mexico, both Creoles and natives, were understandably frustrated and angry with the Spanish crown. Hidalgo was a Creole of Spanish blood, but because he and his siblings were born in Mexico their careers were limited and like all Creoles their voices were ignored. The Creoles were like prickly cactus growing in the desert with their limbs uplifted and pleading to be heard. No revolution occurs without an eloquent leader who emerges at the correct time to assemble and inspire followers. Although the Mexican Revolution for Independence began in a small pueblo, it soon exploded into a force estimated at over 80,000 followers armed mostly with machetes, sticks, and stones. As a volunteer army of mostly campesinos (country people) grew, so did the movement, and Hidalgo’s inability to govern his followers nearly undid the revolution. When he and his followers entered nearby Guanajuato, the local Spaniards and Creoles sheltered themselves in the fortress like granary. Unfortunately, the fortress was breached and the 600 men, women, and children inside were slaughtered and the treasury looted. This act cost Hidalgo and his movement the support of many Creole families and turned him into a wanted man with a price on his head.
Hidalgo intended to lead his peasant army into Mexico City. However, because it was well protected he came to Tlaquepaque where on November 26, 1810, the former priest proclaimed himself a supplicant general. At the nearby Guadalajara cathedral, he was received by the bishop, clergy, and reluctant city dignitaries who, with forced smiles and sprinkled holy water, blessed his cause. Hidalgo remained in Guadalajara until January 1811 and while he was here, in the Palacio del Gobierno, he signed his most famous proclamation that abolished slavery in all of Mexico. In the plaza behind the cathedral there is a statue of Hidalgo breaking the chains of slavery that had bound millions to a lifetime of servitude. Lincoln would not free American slaves for another 52 years. While in Guadalajara, Hidalgo also founded El Despertador, a newspaper that, although it only published seven issues of 500 copies each, spread the word of the revolution and caused intelligent people to talk about the endemic problems of being ruled by an unjust group of “foreigners.” The newspaper, which came out each Thursday, was recirculated throughout all of Mexico and its ideas permeated all social strata. It had a stronger voice than any from a pulpit or university. On January 25, 1811, Hidalgo was betrayed, and he and his volunteer army were defeated by the Royalists at the Calderon Bridge, 37 miles outside of Guadalajara. Hidalgo was captured, and on July 27,1811, he was defrocked, excommunicated, and found guilty of treason. Before his execution he thanked his jailers. His decapitated head was displayed at the Guanajuato granary that his followers had taken ten months earlier. Even today many people continue to believe that a body without a head can never enter heaven. Hidalgo’s remains are interred at the base of the famous gold “Angel of Independence,” in Mexico City. Hidalgo may have entered and left Guadalajara with the hope that Mexico would soon be free of Spanish rule, but his death did not squelch the desire for self-government that his peasant movement started. The struggle for Mexican Independence lasted eleven years. Today, although his actual rallying words may be forgotten, his voice is heard as the Mexican people gather in their plazas to hear their president or local leader shout, “Viva Mexico!” Herbert W. Piekow
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THE FUN SIDE OF THE WALL: Baby Boomer Retirement in Mexico Author: Travis Scott Luther A book review by Blue
discover that there are about 50% more single women than men. Travis presented three hypotheses in this book. First, Boomers leave the U.S. primarily due to their future financial concerns. Second, Boomers move to Mexico to escape age discrimination and the limiting stereotypes they perceive in the United States. Third, Boom-
from the Stone Age to current times. Travis is targeting his book to Mexican Boomers who are interested in some of the ideological aspects of retirement abroad as well as Boomers considering retirement in Mexico. For that reason, he includes cursory information on these topics: • How a couple can live on $2500/
ers move to Mexico in search of authentic communities that they no longer believe exist in the United States. Although many Boomers admitted their original motivation in moving to Mexico was to improve their lifestyle while saving money in their retirement years, 90 percent of those interviewed said they would not return to the U.S. even if they were given $1 million USD. The Boomers in the U.S. feel discriminated against. They don’t see people who look like they do in the media; they have difficulty finding jobs after age 55; they feel they are not treated with respect and concern in many senior facilities. In terms of community, Travis says, “More and more research shows that depression and personal dissatisfaction could be alleviated through cognitive exercise and good community, including meaningful opportunities for volunteerism and civic engagement. People who study senior cohousing identify mental exercise, civic engagement, group decision-making, and meaningful opportunities to participate within the community as important dimensions for community satisfaction. The White House Conference on Aging even ranked good community over affordability in its list of priorities related to retirement policy planning.” His research shows that Mexico Boomers retire an average of five years earlier than U.S. Boomers. Throughout the book, Travis inserts personal stories from Mexico Boomers who live in various expat communities and, in an interesting comparison, he shows how retirement has evolved
Month • Getting temporary vs. permanent residency • Choosing the right healthcare program • Employment eligibility • Mexico’s 200% lower cost of living Finally, in the appendix, he briefly discusses seven of the most popular Mexico expat communities: • San Miguel De Allende: The Heart Of Mexico • Mexicali: Boomers At The Silicon Border • Ensenada: A Pearl At The Pacific • Chapala: An Artist’s Retreat • Puerto Vallarta: Hogar Del Pie Salado (Home Of The Salty Foot) • Merida: The Capital Of Culture • Tulum: A Mayan Mecca The Fun Side of the Wall—definitely tongue in cheek—was a great read for me. Although many Lakesiders will be familiar with much of the material about Mexican Boomers, I found the wealth of information about the sociological and psychological aspects concerning Boomer expats fascinating. It’s not a how-to book; it’s a why-to book, and one you’ll want to encourage your friends and family north of the border to read. (Travis is 42 and lives in Colorado with his wife and two sons. He hopes to move to Mexico in eight years. He is a best-selling writer and award-winning entrepreneur. He is a former Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at MSU Denver where he also earned his Master’s degree in Sociology.) Mexicoblue14@gmail.com 766-5023
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search on Amazon reveals 111 books for “Retire in Mexico.” One of the most recent books, published in December 2019, takes a unique approach to the subject. Rather than a how-to book on retiring in Mexico, author Travis Luther delves deeply into the sociological and psychological reasons hundreds of thousands of U.S. Boomers are choosing the expat life in Mexico. “Why would U.S. citizens want to leave America?” was too broad for his Master’s thesis, so he focused on Mexico and took an intimate look at the lives of Baby Boomers already living there, discovering their motivations for moving there as well as why they stay. In addition to U.S. census information and other current studies, he has conducted over 500 interviews and surveys with what he calls “Mexican Boomers.” The surveys were divided into four distinct sections, with questions related to: 1. Demographic Information 2. Financial Information 3. Ageism and Alienation 4. Community and Civic Engagement. A significant part of the book discusses why retirees in the United States are leaving in greater numbers than ever before. It could be a dry read, but it is not, because of his personable writing style and openness about his own inaccurate preconceptions and his sur-
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prise at the findings. From his surveys, Travis included several graphs showing the differences between U.S. Boomers and Mexican Boomers regarding age, race, marital status, finances, and party affiliation. Here’s an example of one of the many charts included in the first half of the book: It shows that, as a percentage, Baby Boomers living in the U.S. have less income than those who live in Mexico. Conversely, he found higher income Boomers living in Mexico. Based on his demographic survey data, a typical Mexico Boomer would be: A married, 59-year-old, college-educated Caucasian with a higher-thanaverage income, who votes Democrat, is a liberal, well-traveled, adventurous, and has lived in Mexico for an average of five years. He also was surprised to
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Acts Of Kindness By Karl Homann
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s many of you know, despite the dire warnings against any type of travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic, I defied the odds and traveled from Mexico to Kyiv, Ukraine, where I spent a month taking an intensive course in the Russian language. I flew with Lufthansa both ways via Frankfurt and just returned to Mexico yesterday. At every stage of the trip— checking in, passing security checks, boarding an airplane, deplaning, and entering a hotel—I encountered the same health security measures, namely, measuring my temperature for possible fever, sanitizing my hands, and completing a health form indicating that I had not been in contact with any coronavirus-infected person nor was showing any symptoms of a possible COVID-19 infection. Social distancing was practiced only in deplaning by row number, but on the airplane itself, all seats were occupied. Besides learning some Russian (if you believe that Spanish is difficult, try Russian), I learned about Ukraine’s long cultural and historical significance, its recent revolutionary history and its uncertain political future, with the war in the eastern region of the country bordering on Russia and its desire to join the European Union. But what I mostly like to talk about is the kindness of its people, not only by my teacher and her colleagues of the English Department at the Kyiv- Mohyla Academy, one of the older and highly selective universities, but also about strangers. One day, when I arrived by taxi at my rented apartment with three bags of groceries, the workman who was renovating the entrance to the building ran after me to carry my bags to the door of my apartment and admonished me to take only one bag at a time into my place. He had noticed that I walked with a cane because of an injured leg. I thanked
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him in Russian with “Спасибо” (Spasibo). Offering him money would have offended him. He did what he did out of sheer kindness. It happened again with the young waitress in a restaurant. I had left her a generous tip, but she had not yet seen how much it was. Nevertheless, as I stood up to leave, she rushed over to offer me her arm for additional support to navigate my way out of the restaurant across a number of steps that lead up to the entrance. The taxi driver to the airport for my return flight was not allowed to park in front of the main entrance in order to find someone to help me with my luggage. So he parked his car in the parkade and carried my luggage to a little-used entrance into the airport terminal. In the Boryspil international airport of Kyiv, all security checks are done at the entrances, not later after checking in and proceeding to the gate, an intelligent solution in my opinion. Unfortunately, the taxi driver was not allowed to pass the checkpoint. The walk to the Lufthansa desks was still a good distance away and there was nobody to take my luggage, until one of the security officials saw me struggle with my baggage and said, “I help you,” although it certainly was not her job. She walked all the way with me to the Lufthansa check-in counters. Again, all that was required of me was a heartfelt “Thank you.” During my four weeks in Kyiv (that, by the way, is the way Ukrainians would like to see you spell it during the present de-russification effort), I did not see or hear other foreign visitors. That, to me, is a real shame because Ukraine and Kyiv hold many treasures, not the least of it being the kindness of its people. Karl Homann
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Word Salad
By Sally Asante
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recently contacted Richard Lederer, linguist, grammarian, author of more than 50 books, and humorist extraordinaire, and told him that my friends at Lakeside were a bit down in the dumps these days. Asked if he could offer any uplifting words, he promptly sent me the following essay. Enjoy.
Viral Words
On February 11, 2020, in Geneva, the head of the World Health Organization unveiled the name of a new disease: COVID-19. A little more than a month later, COVID-19 landed in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the fastest journey from conception to formal recognition in the company’s
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nearly 200-year history. The word COVID-19 is what linguists call a clipped compound. Each component of the word is shortened and strung together, as in Amoco (“American Oil Company”), AMVETS (“American Veterans”), and Nabisco (“National Biscuit Company”). In COVID-19, CO is a clipping of corona, VI of virus, and D of disease. The 19 identifies the year the outbreak began. Corona derives from a Greekthrough-Latin word for garland, wreath, or crown. The name refers to the characteristic appearance, under an electron microscope, of virions, the infective form of the virus. These virions exhibit a fringe of large, bulbous surface spikes that create an image resembling a crown, as in coronation.
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
Virus began life as a Latin word with the same spelling that meant “poison,” specifically the venom from a snake or spider. Virus also signified “filthy, slimy,” referring to the foul, filthy, and slimy places that caused people to become sick from contact with contaminated water and refuse. Disease descends from Latin through Old French and originally meant “without ease.” The sense of sickness is not recorded until the very late 14th century. Another word we’re seeing and hearing a lot these days is quarantine. The first meaning of quarantine, from the Italian quarantina, was a period of forty days during which a widow had the right to continue living in her deceased husband’s house that was to be seized for debt. Soon the word took on a related meaning—the forty days in which a ship suspected of harboring disease had to remain in isolation. The arbitrary number was based on the notion that after forty days, the disease on board would either have run its course and ended any chance of contagion or would have burst forth its ghastly fury. Finally, quarantine broadened to signify any period of sequestering, and the reference to forty has vanished. Then there’s the word vaccinate. For centuries, smallpox was a scourge of humanity, scarring and killing millions. Edward Jenner, a British doctor, noticed that milkmaids did not generally get smallpox and theorized that the pus in the blisters that these women developed from cowpox protected them from the more virulent smallpox. In 1796, Jenner found that inoculating people with a serum containing the lymph gland fluid of cows infected with cowpox virus prevented the similar smallpox. That’s why vaccine, vaccination, and vaccinate contain the Latin name for “cow,” vacca. COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic. The word epidemic originated with the Greek epidemia, constructed from epi, “among,” and demos, “people,” as in democracy. The pan in pandemic means “all,” as in Pan American, panorama, and panacea. Following the analogy of pantheon, the poet John Milton welded together pan, “all,” and demon, “devil,” to forge pandemonium, which literally means “a place of all demons.” Because Satan and his company were noisy and mischief-making, the meaning of pandemonium has broadened to mean “uproar or tumult.” The pandemic has generated a growing lexicon of new words and compounds, including social distancing (I contend that physical distancing is a more accurate description), covidiot, “a person who behaves recklessly during the pandemic,” and zoom bombing, “an
intrusion into a video conference.” Following those viral facts, I’ll close with a pundemic of viral humor. I’m hoping that, for you, they’re inside jokes: • I’ll tell you some COVID-19 jokes, but you won’t get them for two weeks. • Twenty years ago, Steve Jobs was alive, Johnny Cash was alive, and Bob Hope was alive. Now we have no jobs, no cash, and no hope. Please don’t let Meat Loaf, Kevin Bacon, and Jon Hamm die. • Recently, John Travolta was hospitalized for suspected COVID-19. But doctors found that it was just a Saturday Night Fever, so he’s Staying Alive. • A famous film director is making a documentary about the stay-athome lockdown in New Jersey. His name is Trenton Quarantino. • Our cleaning lady texted us that she is now working from home. She promised to send us instructions about what to do. • Flash! Israel has developed a vaccine for the coronavirus. The antibody converts the virus to Judaism and then bar mitzvahs it. After the bar mitzvah, the virus never comes back. • Quarantine has turned us into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We want to run out of the house whenever the door opens. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about car rides. • World Health Organization has determined that dogs cannot contract Covid-19. Dogs previously being held in quarantine will be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out. • Prediction: There will be a minor baby boom in nine months. Then, in 2033, we shall witness the rise of the quaranteens. Their most popular first names will be Charmin and Scott. • Snow White is down to six dwarfs. Sneezy is now in quarantine. • These days, every day is Ground Hog Day. • These days, the trash goes out more than I do. • Is it too early to put up the Christmas tree? I have run out of things to do. • The spread of COVID-19 depends on two factors: (1) How dense the population is. (2) How dense the population is. • The Spanish king has been quarantined primarily on his private jet. So the rein in Spain stays mainly in his plane. • What does the 19 stand for in COVID-19? The number of pounds you’ll put on during your sheltering in place. (Reprinted with permission.)
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Communicating For Results From Daniel Acuff, Ph.D.
Do you ever wonder why it is that sometimes you seem to be treading water instead of splashing to the finish line of the results you want in your life? Whether the results you are after are in business, in personal relationships, or with goals like losing weight or exhibiting your paintings or winning a pickleball tourney, there are a variety of approaches to effective communication that will result in success if applied. If you were to diligently practice just these five “Keys to Effective Communication,” your success in communicating for results would be greatly enhanced.
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The first Key has to do with commitment: Key #1: COMMITTED SPEAKING AND LISTENING Fernando Flores (https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_ Flores), a Chilean engineer and linguist, discovered that there are certain types of language that are more powerful than others in bringing about results. These types of more effective language all have to do with commitment. “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. It is that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” William Murray COMMITMENT—ACTION—RESULTS Fernando Flores describes four powerful types of committed language that lead to action and results: Key #2: PROMISES. When you or someone else makes a promise, the likelihood of getting into action to complete on that promise is increased. The same to some degree if you make a promise to yourself. Promises can be as simple as a husband promising to stop by for a quart of milk on the way home or as life-changing as “I do” at the altar. Promises have power inherent within them because they potentially cause actions and results. Key #3: REQUESTS. When you make a request of someone, this is designed to put them into action to fulfill the request. Examples: Dad to drug-using son, “I’m asking you to get rehab help and do it now. Will you?” Employee to boss, “I deserve a raise. Twenty per cent seems fair.” Requests often work in tandem with promises. Boss, “My request is that you have the estimated conference expenses ready to present at our Friday meeting. Can you promise to have them done by then?” Employee, “Yes, I promise to have them ready.” It may sound a bit stilted to consistently use the exact words “request” and “promise,” but using them as part of a communication “technology” will aid in developing a committed speaking and listening culture. Key #4: DECLARATIONS: The most powerful form of language It’s no accident that the USA was founded on “The Declaration of Inde-
pendence.” John F. Kennedy declared that we would reach the moon by the end of the 1960s. All sorts of unimaginable results issued forth based on that one man’s declaration. Contrary to a few unbelievers who claimed it was all a hoax filmed at the back lot of a movie studio, we did. We reached the moon. Many were the hopefuls who are currently tossing their hats in the ring, declaring their candidacy for President of the United States. To use a darker example, individuals often make a powerful declaration after experiencing a trauma or emotional upset, something like, “I’ll never do that again!” It’s unfortunately far too common for someone to be betrayed by a friend or spouse or relative. The response is often to declare to yourself or others, “I will never trust them again!” After being abused in her teens by her uncle, Jennie declared to herself, “All men are predators. I’ll never let a man get close to me again like that!” She has made a powerful declaration that is likely to shape and limit her entire future. Take a look inside. You may have made such a strong declaration or declarations that have become foundational markers for the direction of your life. A victim of bullying at school declares internally that he will show him who is more powerful. “He’ll be the loser. I’ll come out on top!” And that victim goes on to become a multi-millionaire. The daughter of an alcoholic and abusive mother declares, “I will never treat my children the way my mother treats me!” Most career choices emerge from a declaration. Examples: “I’ve decided (I am declaring) that I will become a chiropractor.” “I am going to be a teacher.” The word decide is interesting in that it’s in the same family as “homicide.” One meaning is “to kill off alternatives.” Many of us as part of the senior set have declared ourselves to be retired. “I am retired. No more nine-to-five for me!” We’ve taken a stand. Just try to get us working again. Good luck with that. My mom, Maryanne, God bless her in
heaven, once declared to me: “I’m old now. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do!” Key #5 to communicating for results: COMMANDS If you are in a position of authority, you can get others into ACTION by commanding them to do something. Examples: Boss to employee, “Finish that report and have it on my desk by Friday.” Mom to daughter, “Your room is a disaster. Clean it up.” Homeowner to swimming pool construction company president, “Okay, green light on the project. Get started.” Money can make things happen. We include in these keys “committed listening” because success with these strategies is greatly enhanced if the initiator, witness to or recipient of a promise, request, declaration or command follows up to ensure that the commitment is fulfilled. “Honey, did you get the milk?” Dad, “I asked you to get into rehab. Did you call that number I gave you?” Boss, “It’s Friday. Is your expense report ready?” There are individuals in every walk of life who have a track record of making things happen. They know how to get things done. And for the most part their results are a product of their being able to effectively communicate to others in a way that everyone gets into
action. The precise use of committed speaking and listening terminology can’t be emphasized enough. Get used to employing the words promise, request, declare, and other words that convey that you are attempting to powerfully cause something to be done. While we typically don’t go around saying “I command” you to do such and such—unless we’re in the service—“Get it done” and “Do it” suffice. The invitation, or maybe I should say “request,” is for you to promise to put these five keys to obtaining the results you desire in your life into consistent use. Make them a habit. I promise you the results you are after if you do. Dr. Acuff’s doctorate is in philosophy, sociology, and education. He has been a seminar leader for a variety of personal enhancement courses in front of more than 3,000 participants. He is the author of fifteen books including three philosophical/spiritual works of fiction: God Lied – What’s Really Going on Here, The Mysteries of Quan, and Golf and the Zen Master. Daniel Acuff, Ph.D.
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July 26, 2020 An Open Letter to El Ojo del Lago To: Victoria A Schmidt, Editor-inChief Via email - elojodellago@gmail.com Greetings, As a resident of Lakeside since 2012, I share a deep love for my community with most expats living here. I enjoy living in an area that is diverse and highly tolerant of difference. I want our community to continue to be as inclusive of everyone as possible. I am very concerned with the extreme polarization north of the border and the outrage culture that has emerged. In this light I would like to express my concern with the article Idiocy and Pandemics by John Ward in the July issue of El Ojo. It is not the content of the article that troubles me. Rather, it is the tone of the article, the language and the insensitivity to others to which I strongly object. Like John Ward, I am not a religious person. But I am aware that there is a vibrant faith community in Lakeside. Weekly Worship in the Guadalajara Reporter regularly lists religious organizations which presumably have many members. They too are part of our community. Yet John Ward effectively dismisses them all as idiots. I can imagine how they feel reading his article. Like John Ward, I am no fan of the
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El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
current administration in the USA. I lean left politically as the majority in Lakeside seem to do. But there are some leaning right living here and they too are part of our community. Yet John Ward effectively dismisses them all as stupid. Again, I can imagine how they feel reading his article. Ward’s article probably resonates with most El Ojo readers. But I suspect that a significant minority would find it highly offensive. He is seemingly unaware that he is caught up in the culture war expressed with outrage. I urge you as the new editor-in-chief to insist on an appropriate tone for all articles in El Ojo. I urge you to help keep the dysfunction from north of the border out of our fine community. We are in challenging times which creates much tension and fear. Let’s all take a deep breath and a step back. Let’s keep the culture war out of Lakeside and be inclusive of everyone. Regards, John Stokdijk john.stokdijk@gmail.com John Ward’s Response: “Tone?... TONE?!... I’ll have to check my graphic equalizer.” [Ed. Note: Thank you for your note, I, too am concerned about the culture war overtaking our peaceful life here at Lakeside. I’ll do my best.]
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COLUMNIST
PROFILING TEPEHUA By Moonyeen King President of the Board for Tepehua
moonie1935@yahoo.com
T
epehua Centro Comunitario AC is finally taking the plunge and diving headfirst into the potable water business in response to the plight of the villages calling out for help as the people are losing young loved ones to kidney failure. As things stand now the choices caregivers are given is dismal: water, food, or medicine. The pandemic is throwing a long shadow over all. Poco y Poco organization is struggling with a similar choice at this time: food and potable water this week for the many in San Pedro, or medication for one young man who is dying from kidney failure. The prolonged life of
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one or the well being of many. No one should be forced to play God. A water distribution center on the grounds of the Tepehua Community Center will go a long way to easing these problems for the villages. The center has pledges of donations and grants from the private sector and Rotary International to assist in the machinery for the reverse osmosis and cleaning station, and we should be up and running by the end of the year. The purpose of this is to be able to sell
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
water at an affordable price for the villagers, and keep the cost of water low. This is not just for Tepehua barrio. This is especially for villages like San Pedro, close to the end of the line on the north side of the lake, separated from Poncitlan by the mountain ridge. Having taken a survey as to what the barrio people call a price they can afford for potable water, the Tepehua team are positive we can do this. There will be a “dry” run for a while whilst we figure out how much our overhead will be vis-à-vis how much we can charge to keep the water station sustainable. And it must be sustainable. Giving away free water has to come to an end because it is not solving the problem. It is just a Band-Aid. Knowing that the polluted well situation will not be coming to an end any time soon, we have to do this now to stop another generation of dying preventable deaths. It is not just corruption, because money doesn’t trickle down from the top. The wells have to be moved to high terrains to stop water having to traverse over volcanic rocks, on top of which there is human and animal waste, pesticides, and so many other things, especially arsenic that builds up in the body. All of these are undermining the health of the young and babies in their moth-
ers’ wombs. Most of the wells were dug lake level, probably for cost and convenience or lack of large machinery that would be needed for volcanic terrain at the top of the mountains. Although this looks like a dismal picture, it is not. It portrays a people who are tired of waiting and is forcing change to pick up its pace. There are areas where there is still no indoor/ outdoor plumbing—Tepehua is one of them—so “open defecation” is still used. As in Afghanistan, where they are trying to pass a law by 2025 to make “open defecation” illegal, to force the people to build their own toilets. The first toilet that followed the “potty under the bed” was built in 1596 . . . and this is 2020! You might wonder what’s taking so long. Poverty. This is a generation that knows all the “how to do its,” but they cannot get the tools because of the uneven playing fields around the world. In this author’s lifetime Venice was still using the potty-under-thebed system, then tossing the contents out the window early morning into the ever sluggish canals that carried tourists to adventures in gondolas. But I digress. How we are guilty of polluting our own nest is another column. We can all get together to solve the immediate health dangers at Lakeside if just a few of us become the many. We need this water problem solved. It is doable. We have to help feed the people until the pandemic allows them to return to the workforce. We also need to help get medical attention to the masses, especially for the maternal health program, where pre/postnatal health will assure healthy babies and solve the high mortality rate of both mother and child in the barrios. Or for young men like a man called Christian . . . needing medicine his family cannot afford. Poco y Poco’s contact is kariinmexico@gmail.com or Pat at mayulaugh@ gmail.com. You can always contact Moonie for information. We can do this.
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From the Compilation “The year of Living Dangerously”
and a Rio of pain between the heart and soul of a desert flower ripped apart.
By John Thomas Dodds
¿que pasó? mi amiga so much la señora letting the Frocks and Gringos spoil your sunshine suck the nutrients from your once proud breast
que pasó The wonder no longer passes through here the absentee landlords of your uniqueness disembark, assemble your wives and children into cadres of convenience satisfied they return to their corporate havens in the fat and familiar It leaves one looking for answers elsewhere & elsewhere it is I felt sorry for Paso Del Norte the portal to the American Dream for those who loved her witnessed the foreshadowing of dry wells
for centuries you watched the rape of your children’s playground your men passive, autocratic, scavengers of the visitors waste: half shells neatly spread on a bed of economic promise There were pockets of complaint when I knew you sticking their heads up when the buffet was served and bowing when three syllable words complimented their perceived rise above minimum wage. No one got angry— the sky dyed Asarco grey, the water table turned to dust the foundation of your name crumbled under the onslaught of nations vying for temporary possession of your soul. It used to be you could shit anywhere and nobody noticed. Left alone, everyone eventually got used to a common odor. Fifty years have passed. The past remnants of a time of innocence: mountains, sunshine, desert linger in the mind— music, Mexico, and sweetbread memories are all that remained until that is today Bienvenidos! No longer hangs on the entrance. The welcome mat a concrete slab where Niños y Madres reach out to one another separated by a Trumped up aversion to the other— and a wall of hatred stands where El Paso del Norte, the pass to the promised land, is temporarily out of order while Lady Liberty is blindfolded
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El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
I Am The One Poetry by John Sacelli
I am the Father, I am the Son I am the Mother, I am the Nun I am the Father, I am the Sun I am the Mother, I am the Moon I am the bullet, I am the gun I am the Many, I am the One what’s below, and what’s above I am the Crow, I am the dove I am the wind, and the window’s pane I am the past, come round again I am the drought, I am the rain I am the sun, I am the moon I am the midnight, I am the noon I am the Word, and I am the Tune I am December, and I am June I am the Beginning, I am the End I am the stranger, I am the friend I am the pure, and I am the blend I am the straight, and I am the bend I am the caught, I am the free I am the bought, and I am the fee I am the thought, I am the dream I am the dam, and I am the stream I am the hunter, I am the game I am the wild, I am the tame I am the ice, and I am the flame I am the hale, and I am the lame I am the mountain, I am the cave I am the coward, I am the brave l am the barrel, I am the stave I am the birth, I am the grave I am the Master, I am the Slave I am the day, and I am the night I am the wrong, and I am the right I am the blindness, I am the sight I am the great, I am the slight I am the courage, I am the fright I am the Father, I am the son I am the Mother, I am the Nun I am the ballot, I am the gun I am the Many, I am the One
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The Ojo Crossword
Pulling on the Leash By William Franklin
L
ACROSS
DOWN
1 4 9 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 24 25 27 29 32 35 36 38 40 42 44 45 47 49 50 52 54 55 56 59 63 67 69 71 72 73 74 75 76 77
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 21 23 26 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 37 39 41 43 46 48 51 53 56 57 58 60 61 62 64 65 66 68 70
Federal government (abr.) Ridge Unborn life Downwind Concerning Greek ‘Z’ Building addition Strength Dynast Continent Crazed Lysergic acid diethylamide Medical practitioner North American nation Meditating god Tennis’ Graf Wear Beginning of career or course Merits Furrow Wise people Sit in a car Doled Made a pot Palter Cooking instructions Interstellar gas Possessive pronoun Trinitrotoluene Metronome marking Water pipe Every Birds “thumb” Synthetic fabric ___ shot (2 wds.) Half man, half goat Eye reflex Sport’s official War-horse Marsh plant Spoiled
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Animal insect Snaky fish Cafe Workplace Improves College head African antelope Bunsen burner See before Flightless bird Relate Gets older Animal oil Attention-Deficit Disorder (abbr.) Acorn Unpaired Far away Botch Consolidate Reduce Tough Ruffle Asian country Dam Expression Perceive High __ Smoldering Bruce Willis movie West by north Not amateur Southwestern Indian Singing voice Small ground plot Muffle Globes Cabbage cousin Among Big hairdo Musical treble __ “I’ll __ and I’ll puff...” Caustic substance Stretch to make do
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
ike the village of Santa Poco in Three Amigos, I too have a skill. I’m good at gaining weight while watching TV. I’ve got it down, it’s an art form and I’ll take my 40 days in the desert—or my 40 days of rain or my 40 days of purification by quarantine—sitting down. When I get up it’s to go to the fridge to eat a little more and pass the time. And if I’m feeling energetic, I can count the steps to the fridge with a pedometer. It’s ten paces to the kitchen, it’s two paces to the bread, and another two to get out the mayo and sliced cheese. If I can’t find the coffee filters, that can sometimes be another fourteen steps. That’s exercise the quarantine way and I’m getting plenty of it. Yesterday I summoned my courage and went to Vons to risk my life shopping. I thought of Arjuna as I reached for the Cheerios and Joan of Arc when I tiptoed to the deli. Next, and not exactly triumphantly, I added milk to my cart and, noticing how crummy I felt breathing into my holdup mask, I decided to leave. I thought maybe my prophylactic luck could be thinning so I rushed to the checkout counter only to be told to go back about six steps. This isn’t Mother May I? I thought. This is our current version of real life. But dutifully, I went back to the end of the line I didn’t know about and couldn’t see very well, damn mask, and I went to a safer section of the aisle next to empty shelves of where there should have been Clorox. There, sheepishly, I waited my turn. I actually risked my life twice that day. It was raining, which reminded me I needed a garden hose, and so I went to the Ace store on University. The perfectly helpful clerk went and found and handed me a 50-ft. hose and in the process, I touched his finger. I had exhausted all my bravery in Vons and I had none of it left when I was manhandled by this guy in a mask and apron. By “manhandled,” I mean that the tip of his finger touched the part of my hand reaching for the lousy and probably radioactive garden hose. I’ve been touched I said to myself. I’d been touched, I knew. So, I’m letting you know right now that if the Thing starts closing in on
me, it started at Ace Hardware. It’s not the ending I wanted nor does it have the drama I had imagined my ending might have. I thought maybe I could qualify for something somewhere in Sweden where maybe I’m pitted against someone in black around a chess game. Something good and final and directed by Ingmar Bergman. No, this was nothing like that. Nor was it like anything coming from maybe the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel where the hand of God is reaching out and, in my case, reaching for me. No, nothing great and cinematic was in it. Just some clerk in Ace Hardware who hadn’t thought to toss me the hose or flip it over. He had to hand it to me. Which reminds me of a thing we used to do as kids. Now it’s maybe important enough to be added along with the Ten Commandments. Number Eleven should read: Keep Your Cooties To Yourself. When I was young, for Easter we would dye eggs and call them Easter eggs. Somehow, in my infantile mind I thought if we dyed them, and if they were hidden and we had to find them, they should turn into chocolate eggs. Why would we go to all that trouble just for any kind of milk man eggs? Why did we dye them? I remember really hustling to discover as many as I could so I could put them in a plastic grassy basket and take them home from the park and have a chocolate feast. But when I got home they were just hard boiled eggs with no chocolate to them. At the time I didn’t know how to express my sense of the holiday rip-off very well. I do remember my mother thinking she’d gone way out of her way planning for the Great Easter Egg Hunt. She thought it was fun. We did usually have a bunch of yellow and light blue eggs nesting for about a week in the family fridge after that. Not sure how many steps that one was from the couch.
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Rachel McMillen —A Life of Sea Changes By Keira Morgan
A Life in Three Acts Rachel McMillen is a familiar face in the Lakeside community. Many know her from the Introduction to Lakeside course she conducts; or perhaps her Creative Writing course. Or as managing editor of the Lake Chapala Society’s monthly newsletter, Conecciones. In her spare time, she is an active member of a biweekly writing group, a member of the Orchid Society, and of course the dog rescue group. And, just a minor thing, she’s a successful author of four mystery novels set on the Pacific coast of Canada with another novel in the works. But that’s all for, as she says, she is retired now. Act 1: Cruising Through Youth Born Rachel Taylor in England, when she was six, she and her mother boated to Australia on a cargo ship, landing in Melbourne where
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Rachel McMillen
she grew up. After completing high school at 15, she cruised through an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Melbourne at 18. Dreaming of travel, she took teacher training. Since Australia was actively recruiting immigrants, especially from Italy and Greece, she uncovered a perfect Australian government job plying the seas on a cruise ship from
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Australia to Greece, and teaching English to Greek families who were moving to Australia on the return journey. After two years the government finally realized this was not cost-effective, so Rachel beached herself in Greece for the next three years, teaching conversational English to Greek professionals and rambling through neighboring countries with her fellow ESL teachers. One sunny day, she decided she’d had enough drifting with the flow, so she returned to Australia that September. Offered a permanent teaching job in the north-western city of Darwin starting in February, she moved immediately and found work as a cook on a boat serving two aboriginal missions to tide herself over until then. Life has its own currents. Bud McMillen, a Canadian chemical engineer, had taken a two-year leave of absence from his job on Vancouver Island to travel the world. On the wharves of Darwin, in Australia, Bud and Rachel met and romance blossomed. Two streams became one and before Rachel started her permanent job, Bud suggested that she might prefer to continue her journey with him. She agreed. Westward they meandered, through Timor, Bali, Jakarta, and onward, holding hands and adventuring the local transportation from buses to ferries to trains. They married in India, worked as movie extras in Bollywood, trekked through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Austria before arriving in Germany, where Bud’s two-year leave ended. They boarded a plane for Canada and in Port Alice, on the remote north end of Vancouver Island where Bud worked, Rachel discovered her first home in Canada. Act Two: Swimming Upstream through Maturity Rachel started writing stories as a child and this gift is a central part of her persona. By the time she, Bud, and their sons moved to Kamloops, in British Columbia’s interior, where they roosted for the next thirtyish years, the currents of her life had shaped themselves into a fast-flowing stream. It consisted of a warp of family (a daughter joined her tribe), adventure, learning, laughter, and writing woven with a weft of birding, travel, sailing, arts and theatre, dogs and animal rescue, training and teaching, communications and computers, accounting, board membership, weaving, ham radio operating, boat building, business ownership, management consulting, and other work and hobbies that entered and left as time passed. Variety, adventure and fun as
a wife, mother, grandmother, and friend were the hallmarks of her life during this long flowing period as she travelled from young wife and mother to co-captain a sailboat and sail the Pacific shore from Alaska to Cabos with three teenagers for weeks or months at a time while pursuing her own career in adult education and communications. When their hatchlings left the nest and Bud rose in the hierarchy, she captained her own businesses, first in retail sales and later in consulting and training. Throughout, she wrote weekly and monthly columns on theater and the arts, on yachting, on travel, on you name it. Rachel McMillen is a woman of boundless interests, ability, a fascination with learning new subjects and sharing what she has learned with the world. As this phase of their journey reached sunset, she and Bud talked about where their sailboat would beach. Then, just before Bud planned to retire, tragedy struck, and he died of a fast-moving cancer. Act Three: Writing Up a Storm Rachel did not let the loss of the love of her life destroy her passion for adventure. Accepting that their dreams for two didn’t fit her single life, she moved to a Gulf Island and wrote her successful series of novels set on the Canadian Pacific coast and starring her dashing RCMP sailing hero, “Dan Connor.” Dark Moon Walking, Black Tide Rising, Green River Falling, and Gray Sea Running, are all available at Amazon and other booksellers. But this wasn’t enough. She travelled to Mexico and other spots she loved, visited children and grandchildren, wrote, birded, wove, gardened, rescued dogs, and generally did more than most, but found that the chilly, wet West Coast Canadian winters were dampening her spirits more and more. Time for a change, she decided. She loved Mexico, and she’d heard good things about Lake Chapala’s weather. She came for a couple of months one year. The next year she rented for six months. Ten years plus later, she’s an integral part of the Lakeside community. We are fortunate she chose us. Keira Morgan is a writer who now lives in Comala, Colima, after departing the cold of Ottawa, Canada, in 2010. Her area of particular interest is French Renaissance historical fiction, but she also writes articles and short stories. She is part of a small community of English language writers in the primarily Spanish-speaking city of Colima.
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Service - EL OJO DEL LAGO Tel. 376 765-3676
Pag: 51
* ANIMAL CLINICS/PET SHOP - BIO MAXCOTA Tel: 376 762-1486, Cell: 332-115-0076 Pag: 10 - CLINICA VETERINARIA SAN ANTONIO Pag: 06 Tel: 376 766-0808 - LAKESIDE FRIENDS OF THE ANIMALS AC Pag: 13 Tel: 376 765-5544 - MASKOTA’S LAKE Pag: 32 Tel: 376 766-0287, 33-3448-2507 - PET PLACE Pag: 40 Cell: 333-1964-150 - PET FOOD AND GROOMING Pag: 34 Tel: 376 766-3062
* ANTIQUES Pag: 12
* ART GALLERIES/HANDCRAFTS - ALFREDO’S GALERIA Tel: 376 766-2980 - DIANE PEARL COLECCIONES Tel: 376 766-5683
Pag: 12 Pag: 08
* AUTOMOTIVE
* BANK INVESTMENT Pag: 07 Pag: 09
* BARBER SHOP - CHRISTINE’S BARBER SHOP Tel: 376 688-1846, Cell: 332-174-8733
Pag: 43
Pag: 22 Pag: 37 Pag: 39 Pag: 31
* BED & BREAKFAST - CASA TRES LEONES Cell: 331-350-6764
Pag: 11
Pag: 39
Pag: 47
* BOUTIQUE / CUSTOM SEWING - LA BELLA VIDA Tel: 376 766-5131 - SO CHIC BOUTIQUE Tel: 331-762-7838
Pag: 21 Pag: 40
50
- STEAM CLEAN Tel: 33-2385-0410
- TRANSITIONAL DIRECTIONS - Life Coaching Tel: 766-2928, +52 331-435-7080 Pag: 11
* COMMUNICATIONS Pag: 03
Pag: 37
* CONSIGNMENT SHOP - TEPEHUA TREASURES Tel: 376 763-5126
Pag: 11
- QUIROZ-Impermeabilizantes Tel: 376 766-2311 - QUIROZ-Pinturas Tel: 376 766-2311
Pag: 42
- COMFORT SOLUTIONS Tel: 33-1228-5377 Pag: 16 - GENERAL HOME SERVICES - Amancio Ramos Jr. Cell: 331-520-3054 Pag: 26 - PISOS Y AZULEJOS DE LA RIBERA Cell: 331-250-6486 Pag: 40 - SIKA Tel: 376 766-5959 Pag: 40 - WARWICK CONSTRUCTION Tel: 376 765-2224, Cell. 331-135-0763 Pag: 40
- CASA INARG Pag: 41 Tel: 376 766-5397 - FERRETERIA Y TLAPALERIA GALVEZ Pag: 54 Tel: 376 766-0880, Fax: 376 766-2440
* HEARING AIDS - M.D. CARLOS ALONSO FLORES VALDOVINOS Pag: 11 Tel: 376 766-5126, 376 766-4435
- AJIJIC DENTAL Tel: 376 766-3682, Cell: 33-1411-6622 Pag: 22, 43 - C.D. SANDRA ANAYA MORA Cell: 331-218-6241 Pag: 21 - DRA. ANGELICA ALDANA LEMA DDS Tel. 376 765-5364, Cell: 33-1351-7797 Pag: 14 - CHAPALA DENTAL CARE Tel: 376 765-5584, 376 766-3847 Pag: 27 - MOJO DENTAL Tel: 376 688-2731 Pag: 35
- STEREN Tels. 376 766-0599, 376 766-0630
Pag: 29
* FISH MARKET - COSTALEGRE Tel: 376 108-1087
Pag: 16
- FUMIGA Tel: 376 688-2826, Cell: 331-464-6705 - MOSQUITO CONTROL Cell: 331-498-7699
Pag: 37
Pag: 38 Pag: 33
- AUTOMATIC GARAGE DOOR OPENERS Tel: 376 766-4973, Cell: 332-213-8933 Pag: 37
El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
Pag: 35
* LIGHTING Pag: 30
* MALL / OUTLET - CENTRO LAGUNA Tel: 376 766-5514
Pag: 02
* MARKET - SPICE MARKET Cell: 333-662-2521, 331-294-5271
Pag: 26
* MEDICAL SERVICES - ALTA RETINA - Dr. Rigoberto Rios León Ophthalmic Surgeon Tel: 376 688-1122, 376 688-1343 Pag: 20 - DERMIKA Tel: 376 766-2500 Pag: 09 - DR. BEN - CERTIFIED PLASTIC SURGEON Tel: 376 766-4871, Cell: 333-105-0402 Pag: 10 - DR. HECTOR G. MIRAMONTES - SPECIALIST IN COSMETIC SURGERY Tel: (332) 203-6398 Pag: 12 - DRA. CLAUDIA LILIA CAMACHO CHOZA Tel: 33-3403-3857 Pag: 27
- BEST MEXICO MOVERS US/CANADA: (915) 235-1951 US Cell: (520) 940-0481 - LAKE CHAPALA MOVING Tel: 376 766-5008 - STROM-WHITE MOVERS Tel: 376 766-6153
Pag: 24
- MALE CAREGIVER - Beto Lopez Cell: 33-1907-6883
Pag: 38
* PHARMACIES - FARMACIA MASKARAS Tel: 376 766-3539 - FARMEX Tel: 376 765-5004
Pag: 39 Pag: 31
- JOSÉ MARTÍNEZ RUBALCAVA Tel: 376 688-2683, Cell: 332-255-2040 - DESPACHO CONTABLE Cell: 33-1237-3370
Pag: 34 Pag: 26
* REAL ESTATE - AJIJIC HOME INSPECTIONS Tel: 33-3904-9573 Pag: 45 - AJIJIC REAL ESTATE Tel: 37 6766-2077 Pag: 15 - BAUERHOUSE PROPERTIES Tel: 33-3038-1803 Pag: 33 - BETTINA BERING Cell. 33-1210-7723 Pag: 19 - BEV COFELL Cell: 33-1193-1673 Pag: 24 - CIELOVISTA Tel: 33-2002-2400 Pag: 05 - COLDWELL BANKER CHAPALA REALTY Tel: 376 765-3676, 376 765-2877 Fax: 765-3528 Tel: 376 766-1152, 376 766-3369 Pag: 56 - CONTINENTAL REALTY Tel: 376 766-1994 Pag: 31 - CUMBRES Tel: 33-2002-2400 Pag: 05 - DESARROLLOS AAA Pag: 24, 43 - ESTHER WHITSELL Cell: 333-181-5717 Pag: 39 - FOR SALE BY OWNER Cell: 332-339-7230, 664-375-8393 Pag: 47 - FOR SALE BY OWNER Cell: 331-433-3599 Pag: 43 - JUDIT RAJHATHY Cell: 331-395-9849 Pag: 17 - LAKE CHAPALA REAL ESTATE Tel: 376 766-4530/40 Pag: 55 - LORELI NUÑO Cell: 333-830-3023 Pag: 40 - LORI FIELSTED REALTY Cell: 331-365-0558, 33-1845-1523 Pag: 21 - MARGARITA AVILA Cell: 331-268-3927 Pag: 38 - MICHEL POMMIER Cell: 331-399-8267 Pag: 36 - RADISSON BLU Ajijic Resort, Spa & Residences
Pag: 06 Pag: 03 Pag: 11
* MUSIC / THEATRE / EVENTS - BALLET MEXICO FOLKLORICO - D.J. HOWARD Tel: 376 766-3044
Pag: 11
Tel: 376 766-4525, Cell: 332-255-5972 Pag: 29 - RAUL GONZALEZ Cell: 33-1437-0925 Pag: 03, 37 - VISTA ALEGRE Tel: 33-2002-2400 Pag: 05
* MOVERS
* GARAGE DOORS OPENERS
- GARDEN CENTER Tel: 376 765-5973
* LEGAL SERVICES
- L&D CENTER Tel: 376 766-1064
Pag: 45
* PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
- HEALTH INSURANCE Tel: 376 766-0395, 1-888-449-7799 Pag: 13 - LAKESIDE INSURANCE - EDGAR CEDEÑO Cell: 33-3106-6982, Tel: 33-1594-7897 Pag: 18 - PARKER INSURANCE SERVICES Tel: 376 765-5287, 376 765-4070 Pag: 09 - PROTEXPLAN U.S. Toll Free 1-800-608-5743 Mexico Toll Free 01-800-681-6730 Pag: 22 - TIOCORP Tel: 376 766-4828, 376 766-3978 Pag: 14
- SOLBES & SOLBES Tel: 331-520-5529, Cell: 333-676-6245
Pag: 22
* PERSONAL ASSISTANCE
* INSURANCE Pag: 31
* COMPUTERS - LAKESIDE - CompuShop + Repair Tel: 33-2340-7501 / 376 668-1354
* PAINT
* HARDWARE STORES
* COACHING
- ISHOPNMAIL Tel: 376 766-1933 - MACDONALD SERVICES Tel: 415-121-9266
Pag: 25
* GRILLS - NAPOLEON Tel: 376 766-6153
* OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT - MAQUINARIA Y HERRAMIENTAS PROFESIONALES Tel: 387-763-1232, Cell: 33-1892-2142
Pag: 35
* GARDENING
* BUTCHER SHOP - LOS 3 - BUTCHER SHOP Tel: 376 688-4142
* CLEANING SERVICES
* FUMIGATION
* BODY SHOP - BODY SHOP AJIJIC Tel: 376 766-5246
- DR. LOWELL BIRCH, Chiropractor Cell: 331-319-1799, Tel: 376 688-1244 Pag: 12, 23, 37, 45
Pag: 34
* GOLF - ATLAS COUNTRY CLUB Tel: 33-3689-2620
* CHIROPRACTOR
* ELECTRONICS/ TECHNOLOGY
* BEER & LIQUOR STORES - BETO’S WINE & LIQUOR Cell: 333-507-3024
Pag: 41
DENTISTS
* BEAUTY - CHRISTINE’S Tel: 376 106-0864, 376 766-6140 - CRISCO SALON Tel: 376 766-4073 - EDITH’S SALON Cell: 33-1310-9372 - NEW LOOK STUDIO Tel: 376 766-6000, 33-3950-9990
- RAINFOREST Cell: 331-241-9773, Tel: 376 766-4534
* CONSTRUCTION
- MULTISERVICIO AUTOMOTRIZ ESCALERA Tel: 376 765-4424, 333-440-2412 Pag: 45
- INTERCAM Tel: 376 766-5978 - MULTIVA Tel: 376 766-2499
DIRECTORY
- LONAS MEXICO Tel: 376 766-0045, Cell: 33-3956-4852
* ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
- ALFREDO’S GALERIA Tel: 376 766-2980
directory.chapala.com
* CANOPIES
* ADVERTISING / DIRECTORY
- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Tel: 376 766-5961
EMERGENCY NUMBERS EMERGENCY HOTLINE 911 CRUZ ROJA 376 765-2308, 376 765-2553 FIRE DEPARTMENT 376 766-3615 POLICE Ajijic 376 766-1760 Chapala 376 765-4444 La Floresta 376 766-5555
Pag: 41 Pag: 41
* RENTALS/PROPERTY MANAGEMENT - AJIJIC HOMES 4 RENT – Property Management Tel: 33-1520-1980 Pag: 43 - COLDWELLBANKER CHAPALA REALTY Tel: 376 766-1152, Cell: 331-386-7597 Pag: 47 - EAGER REALTY Tel: 333-137-8447, 376 766-1917 Pag: 24 - FOR RENT Cell: 333-667-6554 Pag: 32 - FOR RENT
Cell: 33-3196-9679 - FOR RENT Cell: 33-1194-4519 - FOR RENT Cell: 33-1587-1397 - FOR RENT Cell: 33-1075-7768 - FOR RENT Tel: 376 766-4331 - VILLAS DEL SOL Tel: 376 766-1152
Pag: 40 Pag: 48
Pag: 41 Pag: 42 Pag: 39
* TAXI / TRANSPORTATION
Pag: 07
- DANIEL’S PERSONAL DRIVER Cell: 33-3662-9990 - OMAR MEDINA Cell: 33-1281-2818 - TAXI-Arturo Fernandez Cell: 333-954-3813
Pag: 18
Pag: 43 Pag: 41
* STREAMING TV
Pag: 03
Pag: 35
Pag: 42 Pag: 48 Pag: 45
* TREE SERVICE Pag: 33 Pag: 21 Pag: 27 Pag: 17 Pag: 35
* SATELLITES/ T.V. - AJIJIC ELECTRONICS S.A. DE C.V. Tel/Fax: 376 766-1117, 376 766-3371 - SHAW SATELLITE SERVICES Tel: 33-1402-4223
- GANESHA SPA Tel: 376 766-5653, Cell: 331-385-9839 - TOTAL BODY CARE Tel: 376 766-3379
- 7000 WIFI TV Tel: 387-761-1101
Pag: 47
Pag: 29
* SPA / MASSAGE
Pag: 54
* RETIREMENT/REST/NURSING HOMES - ALICIA’S CONVALESCENT Tel: 376 766-1194, 376 766-2999 - CASA ANASTASIA - Care Home Tel: 376 765-5680 - CASA NOSTRA-Nursing Home Tel: 376 765-3824 - NURSING HOME LAKE CHAPALA S.C. Tel: 376 766-0404 - SUNNY TOWN - Tulum
- SUN QUEST ENERGY Tel: 376 766-6156, Cell: 333-117-9126
Pag: 45
* RESTAURANTS / CAFES /BAR - AJIJIC TANGO Tel: 376 766-2458 - GO BISTRO Cell: 33-3502-6555 - MOM’S DELI & RESTAURANT Tel: 376 765-5719 - THE HOT DOG SHOP Tel: 376 766-3807, Cell: 333-662-9990 - YVES Tel: 376 766-3565
* SOLAR ENERGY
- CHAPALA TREE SERVICE Tel: 376 762-0602, Cell: 33-1411-0242
Pag: 30
* WATER - TECNO AQUA Tel: 376 766-3731, 376 688-1038
Pag: 26
* WRITING SERVICES Pag: 47
- PROFESSIONAL WRITING SERVICES Tel: 33-2303-2619, Cell: 33-238-9030
Pag: 38
Pag: 42
* SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS - LOS NIÑOS DE CHAPALA Y AJIJIC Tel: 376 765-7032
Pag: 51
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CARS
FOR SALE: VW2002 beattle nice reliable, automatic, 4 cylinder, usb, a/c Mexican, all paid, new tires, winshield. 2.0 motor 124 kms, s.roof drives perfect, is a 2002, call only if u like to buy 333 0346 557. Am the owner $59.999. Firm WANTED: Golf cart, rhino, just to putt around in. Moving to Ajijic mid Sept. Want something to just putt around in 4 seats min. FOR SALE: 2017 ford figo 40k with factory warranty. My wife and i are moving to Canada so we’re looking to sell our car. Still under warranty until dec 2020. Only has 39,500 kms. We will be doing the 40,000kms service for you at ford. Car is in 8/10 condition. Has a few minor scratches on the body. Looking for 120,000 pesos or cad equivalent. FOR SALE: 2011 all white suzuki sx4, most all options, 69000 kls. Nice shae book price $5000 u.s. Will sell for $4500. US. Email artandgail@yahoo.com , phone 7660792. FOR SALE: Pontiac G6 Hardtop Convertible 54,000 Km 148,000, Hardtop folds into the trunk. 3.5 liter V6 with automatic transmission. Cruise control. Keyless entry. Leather upholstery. Entertainment system controls on steering wheel. Electric seats. Accident-free. Perfect paint. E-mail me at bisita@gmail.com or call me at 55 64 26 37 20. FOR SALE: 2016 mazda cx-3, original owner, well-maintained, 80,000 km, all records, great car! $230,000 pesos (price reduced!) $220,000 MXN Pesos. You will love this car! It’s agile, sporty, the perfect size, and it’s been serviced at mazda every 10k. The car was purchased by me, in Mexico. The plates are from the state of Mexico. (estado de Mexico). I live in Ajijic, and can show the car anywhere in lakeside, or in Guadalajara. It’s the highest trim, so it has a sunroof and a backup camera. I have all of the records, and i am the original owner. You can send me a whatsapp if you’d like a test drive: +15136028835.
FOR SALE: 1995 Ford Aerostar. The Good, the bad and the ugly. The Good: Mechanically very dependable. V6 engine, automatic tranny of course, good tires, good brakes, no leaks, no body damage, Jalisco plated, Raised top, 4K watt built in inverter, Rear seats removed and tile “floor” put in. LP Colman type stove, sink, cabinet for storage, front “overhang for storage. I will pay for the transfer and current license fees.The Bad: A/C needs recharging; electric sliding door doesn’t work, but it opens ok by hand. Not currently registered for 2020. No insurance. The ugly: The hood and right side need repainting to match. The rest of the paint is good and polishes up well. I’m asking $25,000.00 (That’s Pesos). That is $1,250.00 US or $1,529.00 Canadian, $1,000.00 Euros. E-mail: 1988jeopardychampion@gmail.com FOR SALE: Classic 1987 Mercedes Benz 300 SDL Turbo. Champagne Beige, 154,200 miles. Great condition. $5000 USD Can have US plates. e-mail mexpat2002@yahoo.com FOR SALE: Do you want to go back to Canada but don’t want to fly? We have an Alberta plated car for sale. We are looking for a buyer who wants to drive back to Alberta or anywhere in Canada. $72,000 pesos (negotiable) 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe SE 3.3 liter V6 drivetrain AWD, 5 passenger with lots of room to pack items, 200K kilometer, Leather interior, Heated seats, Sunroof, A/C, Cruise Control, Anti-lock brakes, Electronic Stability Control, Excellent Condition. FOR SALE: Honda CR-V I-style 2WD 2016 (Moyoyo) One owner, 69.000 kms, Honda maintenance, 4 cylinders 2.4L, backup camera, Bluetooth, $295.000 pesos. Call me, Rafael 331-269-2696. FOR SALE: Honda CR-V EX 2014 (Moyoyo). Another excellent CR-V EX 2WD 2014, one owner, with 81.000 kms, Honda Maintenances, 4 cylinders 2.4L, backup camera, cruise control, Bluetooth, new brakes. $245.000 pesos. Call me, Rafael
331-269-2696
COMPUTERS
FOR SALE: Logitech X-230 Multi-media computer speakers with gaming subwoofer. Excellent condition. 1500 pesos or best offer. contact Dan 376-766-2722, leave message. FOR SALE: Acer 14” Touch Screen Laptop for Sale!!! Acer Aspire R R5-471T-51UN Ultrabook, Intel Core i5 6200U (2.30 GHz); 256 GB SSD (instant boot); Intel HD Graphics 520 Shared Memory; 14” Touchscreen Windows 10 Home 64-Bit. (Backlit keyboard, camera, microphone, sd card reader, etc) See https://www.cnet.com/products/ acer-aspire-r14-r5-471t-51un/ for complete specs, Folds completely flat to work as a tablet, Perfect condition EXCEPT for a one single line of the screen is bad (reflected in asking price), $150 USD or $3,350 MXN with charger and case, Respond by email or phone 33 2637 9332 WANTED: Apple computer, I would like to buy a not too old apple computer. PM me if you have one. FOR SALE: Printer Cartridges for a US HP Office Jet Pro 8710. Only for US HP Printer a 2 pack of black cartridges, Paid $60.00 US make offer. Tel: 376-763-5664.
PETS & SUPPLIES
FREE: The vet recommended Thundershirt for calming your dog during thunderstorms, fireworks, separation anxiety, etc. Size XL fits dogs from 65 to 109 lbs. and chest size 30 to 37 inches. FREE 3317857185 WANTED: House and pet sitter available, Long time resident available for short term house and pet sitting, Jan-March 2021 WANTED: I need a donation of home flea spray, if any can donate this to me, I live in Ajijic, 332 219 3667. Does anyone know where I can get Cedar Oil which is supposed to be non-toxic to pets? I have a 700 peso cat flea collar, but the cat didn’t like it, best for indoors cats. If anyone needs one I can exchange that for some house flea spray.
GENERAL MERCHANDISE
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El Ojo del Lago / September 2020
WANTED: I need 2 new partners for my Shaw Satellite account. Share service at cost approx 575 pesos per mo, each. Call Mike at 376-766-2275 FOR SALE: Nikon CoolPix L24 digital camera - $2,200 pesos OBO, 14.0 Megapixels for superb image quality, 3.6x Optical Zoom-NIKKOR Glass Lens for sharp clear pictures, Big, Bright 3.0-inch LCD for easy viewing and sharing, Easy Auto Mode simply point and shoot, Vibration Reduction, Soft Carrying Case – Black, Including extra 16 GB SanDisk Ultra Plus memory card. (Color not as shown) Email: bfoster100@hotmail. com FOR SALE: Shaw HDDSR 600 receiver, Good working condition receiver for sale. Has remote but it probably needs replacement. $600 pesos, Cell. 3334615442 or PM. FOR SALE: 2 New Bar Stools, If you have a kitchen counter/breakfast nook and need stools, these are just the size! We’re selling 2 dark brown metal stools w/light tan velour cushions. We bought the wrong size by mistake and they’ve never been used. Height: 38”/96.5cm and the cushions are 16”/40.5cm. $400mxn each. 332-617-3588 or 376-765-5085. WANTED: Still looking for a basic DVD player with working a remote. Please send PM. FOR SALE: Wii Charge Station, Nyoko Charging dock and 2 rechargeable batteries
for the Wii remote in original package (does NOT include the Wii remotes). Includes 2 NiMH rechargeable batteries, 6 foot AC power cord and 2 rubberized battery covers. $600mxn. 332-617-3588 or 376-765-5085. WANTED: Looking for a high quality reclining chair is excellent condition. Thanks 3334615442 FOR SALE: Stationary Exercise Bike for sale. Almost new, Hardly used, In great condition. Asking 3,500 pesos. Please contact Norm at ntihor@hotmail.com or cel 331 431 7264. FOR SALE: Beautiful travertine dining room table for sale. Size: 42”x96”x2” Similar to marble, with matt black base also beautifully crafted. Sits 10. Wooden chairs optional. Asking 22,000 pesos for table and base only. Please contact Norm at ntihor@ hotmail.com, Cell 331 431 72 64. FOR SALE: Integra DTR 40.2 AVR and Aircom S7 fan, I have an Integra DTR 40.2 for sale. The unit was factory refurbished when I purchased it a little over two years ago. I also have an Aircom cooling fan if the unit is placed in a cabinet. Price is $4,000 pesos. FOR SALE: I am selling a queen mattress with a semi new base, perfect conditions little use. $5,500 call 3338565644 send email: brio_@outlook.es WANTED: Anybody have Wii Fit system for sale? Looking for complete system including balance board. 376-765-5046 FOR SALE: used, heavy duty Makita portable drill, New battery, works perfectly, several speeds and I think, a hammer-drill setting. Has charger that works fine and carrying case. This is a commercial grade drill. $1,200.00 pick up at Chapala Haciendas, #2 1988jeopardychampion@gmail.com FOR SALE: Versatile Kitchen cart, $900 pesos o.b.o Ready for immediate pickup. I’m in Zapopan. WANTED: Searching for used storage lockers/boxes, for shipping personal goods back to Canada. FOR SALE: DUMB TV, 46” Sharp Aquos 1080P LCD HDTV, In excellent condition, owner’s manual and remote control included, 7 input terminals including 3 HDMI, PC (PowerPoint photos), and digital audio output. Wall-mounting bracket, remote, and owner’s manual included. 5,000 pesos, (376)766-2264 or ajcastleman@yahoo.com FOR SALE: Moving Sale. Everything is ready for Immediate pick up! (Prices in pesos) Everything must go a.s.a.p! I’m in Zapopan. I will post other items and pictures as they become available! White wooden bookcase /Librero blanco de madera1.5 x 1.05 $800. Rustic Wooden bookcase/ Librero rústico de madera 1.8x1 $1,250 O.b.o. Hanging vases both for/ Jarrones para colgar ambos por $250. Map& frame / Marco con mapa $150. Wood & Gold trim frame $65. Small golden frame/marco chico dorado $30. Eiffel Towers (3) $50. Pizza stone $50. Blue frame & pic $50. Mirror/Espejo $150. FOR SALE: Home Theater / Audio Equipment, SpeakerCraft 125-watt 2-channel amplifier / AV preamplifier (drove home theater plus 22 speakers) --3900 peso, Pioneer DVD and CD programmable carousels (300 discs each) -- 2250 pesos each. Owner’s manual and remote control included for each piece of equipment. Package of all 4 components -- 10,000 pesos or USD $450. These quality pieces simply need a new home. (376)766-2264 or ajcastleman@yahoo.com WANTED: Looking for set of men’s
dumbbells. jmm46@gmx.com WANTED: I am looking for an AIR BIKE like the Schwin Aerdyne or Assualt BIke or something similar. michael jmm46@gmx. com FOR SALE: have a Stowmaster Tow hitch for sale. Used to tow my Jeep Liberty. Hitch, safety cables and cover. Asking $3,000 pesos. Or make offer. Email peteredwards052@gmail.com FOR SALE: Shaw Motorola model 605 HDD for Shaw Direct. Includes cables. Never used. $50 USD or $1100 pesos. FOR SALE: 2” Smart t.v. many features, free steaming movies y tube, haystack plex and many more. $2600 pesos, (paid over $4000). Like new end tables (3 drawers) $800 pesos ea. Electric air purifier ,add a little tee tree oil you will receive great fragrance $400 pesos. 2 kopokely chairs,black seats $500 pesos ea. kopokely wall figurines $400 PESOS. Dvd player,recorder,many features,including karaoke,$500 pesos. Translator Spanish to English, plus 40 other languages $100 pesos. LG smart microwave, many features,only 4 months old.$2500 pesos. (available when we leave). Gateway computer (windows 7) English keyboard induced $2500 pesos. Samsung laser printer $800 pesos. (computer and printer available when we leave). 3 mixing large bowls with lids $300 pesos. Vacuum cleaner brought down from Canada $2500 pesos. Vita mix blender $3000. Insta pot pressure cooker (from Canada) $700 pesos (vacuum,
vita-mix, insta pot available when we leave). Mexican clothes baskets (2) $150 pesos ea. Assortment of scatter rugs (5) $200 pesos, All wire clothes rack needs repair $50 pesos. FOR SALE: Whirlpool compact refrigerator. Barely used, like new. $2000 pesos. Also Daewoo microwave oven barely used. $700 pesos. Call 332.257.4889 or email, felipemx33@outlook.com FOR SALE: One Rheem 13 litre on demand boiler great condition. I bought a new that works with a solar tank. Asking 3000. Please email if you are interested. arrousser3@gmail.com WANTED: We are in need of patio furniture, anything for sale? FOR SALE: Pair of beautiful bookcases. Freestanding, architectural and very substantial. Can be configured in several creative ways. Cost $7000 pesos. Sell for $4500. Call 332 257 4889 for photos. FOR SALE: Beautiful 5 piece bar set. Classic Mexicana equipal construction. Top quality with burnt red leather. ‘L’ shaped bar, 3 high chairs with footrests and a barman’s stool. Cost $12,000 pesos. Sell for $7000. Call 332 257 4889 for photos. WANTED: Would like to find a reasonably priced Cast Iron love seat for the garden. Small chairside table would be nice too. Please Call Molly at 766-0688 -or- Carrol at 766-4338 FOR SALE: 2008 bmw 700 gs motorcycle. Excellent condition, well cared for, many extras, jalisco plated 79000. Km 88000.p. In
Chapala. Cell. 3331195494 FOR SALE: Antique style green glass and brass desk or reading lamps. Two similar lamps which could be used separately or as a pair. Asking 1200 pesos for pair or 700 & 600 separately. I have receipt for 1520 pesos from previous sale in January. Lightly used. FOR SALE: Dumb TV. 32” Works perfectly (eight) camera system. New in box. Everything you need other than a monitor. Price: $3,256.00 pesos. That’s 146.53 USD or $146.53 Can. Price firm (Really). Pick up in Chapala Haciendas 2. Email: 1988jeopardychampion@gmail.com FOR SALE: Buy it now, thank me later. CCTV Security system NIB, (eight) camera system. New in box. Everything you need other than a monitor. Easy install. Being realistic, you need this now more than ever. $5,000.00 (that’s pesos). That’s slightly under US$250 or Can. $308.00 Pick up in Chapala Haciendas 2. Email: 1988jeopardychampion@gmail.com FOR SALE: Honda Fit 2017 floor mats, I have a set of black carpet style floor mats for a 2017 fit. These should fit most years. Like new, hardly used. I bought all-weather mats shortly after we bought the car. No longer have the Fit. Asking 300p. I can deliver. FOR SALE: Microphone set up (I did an audio book with it) used once- comes with manual! Tonor brand studio microphone originally $70.00 USD. Make an offer! Cell. 333 903 6113
WANTED: Small chest freezer. Email: sunnyvogler@yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Original Prada Shoes, size 24.5 Mexican, Only 1 time was used, price $3,000 pesos. Call to Alma 331-005-3109 FOR SALE: Individual Brass Headboard, Price $2,200.00 pesos. Call to Alma 331-005-3109.
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El Ojo del Lago / September 2020