After a night of good friends, good conversation and more than enough libations, I was a little slower than normal getting out of bed today. Laying in bed with my eyes shut, I heard the gate intercom go off with what seemed to be a much louder ring than normal. Jumping out of bed, pulling on some shorts it was our good friend John to give us updates on the Chapala cruise scheduled to take place in the next hour or so.

We had agreed that with the overcast day and the choppy waters on Lake Chapala we'd cancel it for today - the next plan was to head to Ajijic for a little shopping and walk the downtown area and the Malecon. The commercial district downtown here is not large, but it is colorful. All the buildings are painted in vibrant colors with narrow sidewalks on both sides of the street. When you meet someone coming in your direction invariably you need to step off the sidewalk into the road so that they can pass. The "gringo's" here typically need their big SUV's. So it's quite comical to see a big Chevy Suburban try to make the corners with cars parked on one side, all the while dodging some young mexican riding a horse heading home. These gringo drivers regularly have to tuck their mirrors on both sides just to make it down the street without incident.

The main shopping area for gringo tourists is on the street called Colon. As we walked southbound towards Lake Chapala, you need to keep a good eye on your feet or you could quite easily turn an ankle or even worse. Dropping into the various stores, well not stores - they're more like small units - a restaurant with three tables - a grocery store with one or two shelves, even one store that sold designer chocolates and provided tequila tasters - "what a country" as Eloy always says. John even took us into one of the edgier bars on Colon - apparently a transvestite cabaret bar that puts on different shows each week - this was a pass.

Once you get to the end of Colon you reach the Malecon - which in most Mexican towns is a long public walkway that usually runs parallel to the water. Lots of the locals frequent these malecon's on national holidays and weekends to picnic or play music. Ajijic by the way has a very nice Malecon. We were scheduled to go to dinner with Ron & Maggie so we headed back to the casita for our 5:30 commitment. Tonight was Thai. Yes Thai - it's a newer restaurant here in Ajijic just five minutes from our casa called Taste of Thai. They apparently have a Thai chef on staff.

This place is a winner - I asked for a "grande lemonade" and I got not a large glass but a huge pitcher. I order the standard #15 - Pad Thai and it was fantastic. Likely better than I've had previously - I would never have guessed this here in Mexico. Everyone was quite happy with every dish that came to the table.

Right on schedule the rains came which required Ron (with umbrella in hand) to walk back to the house to get the SUV - so it was back to the house for a little wine and some great conversations - just another great day here in Mexico.