Nuevo Vallarta to Ajijic
After a week at my own timeshare resort – the Velas Vallarta, I headed up the highway about 15 minutes north to take advantage of another trade – this time at the mega resort of the Grand Mayan. I had acquired a huge condo here in my trading – really really huge for one person. I was thinking I should go back out to the street and bring in some other homeless types like myself as my unit was a two bedroom that slept eight. Yup, eight. It was so decadent it even had its own swimming pool on the balcony. The resort itself is massive – so large you take little trains from building to building or pool to pool. There is no question it is stunningly beautiful it is just not my kind of place. It was extremely expensive at the resort - $30 just to use the safe in the room ( I didn’t) and $15 to do one load of do-it – yourself laundry in their Laundromat ( I didn’t). For a cheapskate like me that is just no fun at all. The pain in my elbow and triceps was just starting to dissipate, but not enough that I could swim or play tennis so it was fortuitous that they have a ‘lazy river’ – a long water park type of ride that involves laying on an inflatable tube and floating around the resort. Every half hour they put on the wave machine to liven up the experience……..yeah…….I liked that!  

 My friend Leslie – Leslie from Calgary and not the Leslie I met the week before in PV, arrived to enjoy a couple of days of ‘lazy river’ action before we headed off across the Sierra Madres Mountains to Guadalajara. I had done this PV – Guad trip three years ago – the last time I was in PV.
Les and I took a fancy first class bus from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara –( 5 hours, $31) which included a lunch and a drink.  

The trip is really nice – the mountains are primarily a series of volcanoes and the highway winds through fields of Algarve plants – the plant that is used to make Tequila, past pretty rural Mexican towns and small farms.    We arrived in Guadalajara mid-afternoon and caught a taxi for the 45 minute trip to the little village of Ajijic on Lake Chapala. ($30)
I had heard of Ajijic as a retirement haven for Americans and Canadians for years and when I decided to come to Mexico to start my adventures this winter, it seemed like the perfect time to check it out for myself. I had heard mixed reviews of the place. I rented a condo online for the month of December – through VRBO:  this full month rental was the answer to my concerns about travelling during the super busy month of December. As an independent traveller I didn’t want to find my own story of “no room at the Inn” around Christmas. I also figured staying here for a few weeks would allow me to get a really good feel for the place. Another plus was Josie had mentioned that she might want to come back down over Christmas so I found a pretty two bedroom unit in a nice condo complex – The Birds of Paradise.