Planning has begun!

We decided a trip to warm Central/South America would be welcome this winter.  But where to go?  We decided upon Lake Chapala, an ex-pat hotspot in Mexico, close to Guadalajara.  We have known about this area for years.  Harold's IBM team did considerable work with the R&D lab in Guadalajara, and IBMers were moving back and forth constantly.  One IBMer married a woman from Guadalajara, and he was the first person who mentioned the wonderful ex-pat community around Lake Chapala.  It's always been in the back of our minds as a winter location.  Now we are going.

As a plus, the climate in this area is supposed to be the second-best in the world, with an average yearly temperature of 72 degrees.  It appears that during the days, we'll have temperatures of 75 to 77 degrees, always with sun, and .2 inches of rain likely during the month.  We'll take it!

We will spend one month, around mid-January to mid-February.  We found a lovely airBnB location which has fabulous views.  It's also larger than we needed, and we are definitely paying gringo prices, but we did want a view, and we wanted to be within walking distance of the lake and of the downtown.  All were accomplished.

Here is our location within the village (look for the red "home" in the middle of the map):

We have a rooftop view of the water and of the mountains, and the place has 2 bedrooms and 3 baths.  Yes, indeed, bigger than we need!

Here is what some of the rest of the place looks like:

We plan to do a fair amount of relaxing, seeing the village, meeting and getting to know some of the ex-pats, traveling around the lake, touring around Guadalajara, and who knows what else.  That kind of planning is just beginning, but we have organized six day-long tours of places in the area.  You're welcome to be an armchair traveler with us!