Yet again, another flawless day here in Ajijic. We had to get going a little earlier than norm as today was Rosie's first day of "maiding" here at Casa 50 She arrived exactly on time - nice girl with very little English. Apparently according to Arlene, she will be here for four hours at a cost of $200 Peso and we need to HAND her the money rather than just leave it on the table and she likes to work alone so we've been told to get out of the house.

Given that it's Wednesday, we've decided that we'll be off to the Ajijic market and then over to LCS (Lake Chapala Society) to see what's they offer there in terms of expat opportunities.
We grabbed a taxi from the security office and headed into town with our broken lock for the front door to see if we could find something like Loew's (really no chance of that happening here in Ajijic) that could fix our lock.

As soon as we entered the market, we say a key-cutter/locksmith - what luck. He fixed our lock as good as new in about 3 minutes for 40 Peso (or $3.50). The market is quite extensive with everything from CD's, DVD's, clothing, vegetables and even poultry and meats. While Deb and I made a few basic purchases (oranges, garlic, tomatoes, etc.) we just can't get there with this poultry sitting on a table in the sun as the vendor hacks away and throws them into plastic bags. We've checked with other expats we've seen in the market and they assure us this is no problem. I watched one local buy two kilo's of some fairly large shrimp and the total cost was about 150P or about $12.00 - can't beat than NOB.

From the market we found a local TELCEL place where we met Sandra (spoke good English so this is very important) and she hooked us up with a recharged cell phone so that we have this for taxi's or emergencies. She told me that she could break open my iPhone for about $30.00 so that I can use this here with a local MX sim. We're still considering this.

From there it was on the LCS (Lake Chapala Society) which is on the corner of Corona and September16th - it's a great place with lots of grounds for reading, a little lunch counter, book and CD/DVD rentals available. I think that this could be helpful to us going forward. While we were there we signed up with Red Cross (part of the LCS) for their Guadalarjara tour tomorrow. It leaves via large bus from Ajijic and goes directly to Guadalajara where all the passengers have the option of shopping at Price Costco, Sam's Club and the large retail mall. For $400P or $32.00 it will give Deb and I the opportunity to see what foods are available in these large box stores and get the chance to meet some other Gringo's who are local.

From there we went to Restaurant Jardin, near the square in Ajijic for some lunch - both Deb and I had cheesburgers, fries and some diet cokes - cost here was $148P or $13.00 and change. Both the food and service was very good and it looked like a hangout for the expats of the area.

We grabbed a taxi from the square back to El Dorado $50P / $4 as we had to be there in time for Rosie's 1:00 p.m. departure. Every day it seems easier, we pick up a few new words in Spanish along with a little more street smarts in terms of pricing and negotiation strategies.

We're here for the balance of the afternoon, with plans for a little swim and then over to Terry and Bernice's for some wine on their Mirador. Over the last couple of nights we've had some issues with our TV (Shaw) satellite system so we've resorted to Netflicks movies on the MacBook. It's ok, but it's not the HD w/surround sound that we've been used to since we got here. Hopefully I can get a hold of the property manager, Victor to give me a little assistance with getting this back on line.