Lake Chapala is Mexico’s largest natural lake, but more importantly, it was the location of the condo we had rented for a few days over New Year’s Eve.  Daydreams of elaborate meals,  prepared in a fully operational kitchen, served on a real table (“Maybe they will have some candles we could light!”), daily hot showers without the need for flip flops, laundry churning away in the washing machine and a full sized bed filled my head as we drove to the lake.

We unlocked the door and began the initial survey. Okay, the kitchen was a little lacking…microwave and a two burner stove, only one large pot…oh, but there was a blender! The furniture was not quite how it had appeared in the on line Airbnb ad….one of the barstools had ripped upholstery, the glass table looked all smudgy, the leather on the couches (filled with so many pillows you couldn’t even sit down) was not as luxurious as it could be. The bed was a full double, so about the same size as the one in our camper. The place was supposed to have been cleaned just before we arrived, but the towels looked dirty and the place overall needed a good scrubbing.  But the washing machine, oh, the washing machine…heavenly!

And the view…..

We settled in, bringing much of our own gear in from the camper. Derek bucket washed the truck (when was the last time you did that on New Year’s Eve?). We attempted to rotate our tires but found out that our high-lift jack is not very convenient for lifting the truck for rotating tires (we later made a trip into town to buy a bottle jack to replace the one that we had decided to leave at home). We did laundry.

At one point Derek went to get something from the truck and was taking a long time, so I went out to see if he needed help. I found Derek chatting with a man and his girlfriend. They had seen our Alberta license plates, stopped their car, and had greeted  Derek with a “Hey there, neighbour!”. Derek said it was weird because it sounded so familiar that he thought this must be someone that he knew.

Introductions were made. Lawrence was originally from Alberta (and so is why his greeting sounded so familiar) and his girlfriend, Veronica, was from Guadalajara. Derek asked what area in Alberta he was from. “Do you know where the Big Rocks are?”……um, yeah, they are like 3 km from our house. Turns out his family had owned a large parcel of land around the Big Rocks, then later moved to High River. Small, small, enormous world we live in.

New Year’s Eve we cooked ourselves a nice dinner, and then sat outside to await fireworks. Before long, Lawrence joined us, and then his next door neighbour Charles came over. Charles is a retiree from Florida who recently bought his condo and has moved to Lake Chapala. And so, we had a little unplanned New Year’s Eve party on the lawn of our condo.

Here are some of the fireworks photos…I was experimenting with my new tripod and remote shutter release on my Nikon. Keep in mind that these were all set off by people like you and me…someone who has decided to buy some fireworks and give their neighbours a show.

The rest of our stay at the condo was pretty relaxed. Our generous neighbour Charles gave us a ride into Chapala so we could do some shopping. We then walked into the nearby town of Ajijic to stroll along their malecon (concrete walkway along the water front), and we did some planning for the next week or two of our trip.

The condo ended up not being all we were hoping for in terms of a luxury respite, but it was fun to have some neighbours with which to celebrate the new year.  We left Lake Chapala with clean clothes and a sparkling truck, and a refreshed appreciation for our little camper.