# Comprehending The Fundamentals



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Because we live in Chiapas for about six months a year and Lake Chapala the other six months more or less, we are concerned about security here and there. Now, in Chiapas this is not a problem because our close-knit neighbors, all Mexicans, watch our house and all other houses in the área and will kick anybody´s ass making off with our or other´s belongings. In San Cristóbal, the folks who call the totally crooked pólice are usually the miscreants seeking help from locals whipping their asses in full vigilante action and damned seriously.

At Lake Chapala, on the other hand, we live in a neighborhood mostly made up of foreign retirees who could not give a damn one way or the other what happens to their neighbors in typical NOBBER fashion so we have this 24 hour monitored alarm system that, if violated, sounds an alarm resembling the hounds of hell and the alarm company management is obligated to send company personnel to make sure there is no break in at the house. As it happens,, should we not be there and local Chapala police are necessary, they will call the Chapala pólice to aid in their investigation. They have standing instructions to never allow the Chapala cops into our home without escort. These guys would steal the fillings from your teeth if given the opportunity. We keep large and unpleasant dogs and a housesitter as alternative protection. 

We know these methods from 15 years of living here at Lake Chapala and tell newbies to regard these precaurions seriously. If you do not, it´s your ass, not ours..


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Lake Chapala sounds like hell; full of expats, nobody cares, burglary prone, you have to keep and care and clean after large dogs...
Do you really like that place?


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> Lake Chapala sounds like hell; full of expats, nobody cares, burglary prone, you have to keep and care and clean after large dogs...
> Do you really like that place?


I once spent a few days in Chapala/Ajijic. It has great weather, a big lake to take walks along, and, and . . . 

P.S. Actually, I did have a nice time while I was there thanks to Hound Dog, citlali and RV. Also, I was there over the Día de Muertos holiday and really enjoyed the traditional celebration of this holiday in Ajijic.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

GARYJ65 said:


> Lake Chapala sounds like hell; full of expats, nobody cares, burglary prone, you have to keep and care and clean after large dogs...
> Do you really like that place?


Many people enjoy the various Lakeside communities. Probably most expats who are there part/full time really like it. But some people do look for the problems ... scratch and the 'scabs', and they're unhappy. Others enjoy life and their friends ... new and old. But there are expats whom their peers don't want to have anything to do with. They didn't move to Mexico to listen to someone complaining all of the time. I've seen that situation in expat-popular communities other than around Lake Chapala. Familiarity breeds contempt. Life abroad isn't for everyone. Probably not for most expats.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Longford said:


> Familiarity breeds contempt. Life abroad isn't for everyone. Probably not for most expats.


Using the broad brush-stroke approach here leaves us little to consider other than your speculating on the unknowable. :confused2:


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Hound Dog just likes to talk and tell his whole story on every post. Gran of salt and learn how to skip to possible facts


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

sparks said:


> Hound Dog just likes to talk and tell his whole story on every post. Gran of salt and learn how to skip to possible facts


Cite some "facts", Sparks. I anticipate profound silence.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Just for the record. we live in Mexico full-time. We have lived here since 2001. While we love the climate and the large lake and extraordinary deserted beaches in the Chapala Municipality, this place is about as Mexican as Orange County, California so we moved to Highland Chiapas for part of each year just to get away from Peoria-By-The-Sea but also because Chiapas is a fun place to live - not that Lake Chapala isn´t as well. One needs variety and too much time spent in Lake Woebegone can alter one´s mind and pretty soon one has joined the Rotary Club and started attending the Sunday services at the local Presbyterian Church and joined the Lake Chapala Society and driving to the Gallerias Mall in Guadalajara to shop at department stores and buying exotic cheeses at Super Lake and on and on but to each his/ her own. However, for those of you unfamiliar with Chiapas, it is fundamentally a part of Central America culturally speaking and a place of great beauty but this is not an invitation for your presence there. That´s your decision.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

And how come you never visit the US?
Never ever ever?
Was your Country so bad to you that you had to take that decision?

I said I own a trailer because I am a contractor at this time of my life, In fact I own some trailers, and whenever I want to bring something bulkier I take it.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


GARYJ65 said:



And how come you never visit the US?
Never ever ever?
Was your Country so bad to you that you had to take that decision?

I said I own a trailer because I am a contractor at this time of my life, In fact I own some trailers, and whenever I want to bring something bulkier I take it.

Click to expand...

_I didn´t mean to sound rude, Gary. Forgive me off came off inappropriately.

I have no problem with people who own trailers and if I gave that impression, I regret that missconception.

Why do we not return to the United States? Well, it happens that my wife, who is a French and Mexican citizen, lived and worked in the U.S. out of San Francisco as an executive for a major wine importing company for some 40 years and held a "Green card". She also worked as a teacher in Alabama before that and the reason she never became a U.S. citizen is that she, along with other applicants, was treated with total disrespect by immigration authorities in San Francisco so she gave up that idea.

When we moved to Mexico after retirement in 2001, the U.S. Government cancelled her "green card" bacause she no longer resided there even though she had lived in Alabama and California and held responsible and important employment positions for some 40 years. 

If, today, we wanted to retun to reside in the United States, she would have to apply for a permanent residency visa all over again from scratch. Insane bureaucratic nonsense.

You couldn´t pay us to live back in that God-forsaken place.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

Hound Dog said:


> You couldn´t pay us to live back in that God-forsaken place.


I think this quote shows all you need to know.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Meritorious-MasoMenos;7224426]I think this quote shows all you need to know.[/QUOTE]_

Just a reminder of proper English grammar. When one partially quotes another person in writing, the appropriate method, when editing the quoted comment is to precede the supposed quote with three dots as in "..." and end the edited quote if leaving off words in conclusión with four dots as in "...." 

Is this fundamental rule of elementary courtesy and proper diction over your head?


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## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

Unlike Hound Dog's constant carping about the downsides of living in a beautiful old town like Ajijic on Lake Chapala, my motto after spending many years moving from Pillarcity to Posttown due to job and other considerations is:

BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED. 

Works for me. There are always interesting people and things to do. People just have to seek them out. Hound Dog's description of life in the Lake Chapala Area is true for some people, but not for many others. Rotary Club? Churches? Dogs? Red Hat Ladies Lunches? If that's your cuppa, drink.
Not mine.

I wouldn't mind a bit if fate boomeranged me back to the Monterey Bay area. My feet LIKE sidewalks that aren't Fallen Women Traps. My car and I aren't happy when it hits the potholes. Most of the drivers are either nuts, macho aggressive or have defective vision and reflexes. Worse than the L.A. freeways.

The truth is that I can't afford my current lifestyle in retirement that I have here if I were back in my old home towns, so that's that for the foreseeable future. Also, there are downsides to living back in the U.S.A. that go beyond affordability, and I prefer life without them. Anyone wondering what those might be can check out the posts on the U.S. Politics thread. I'd add the Consumerist culture to that.

Pass the fertilizer.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

lagoloo said:


> Unlike Hound Dog's constant carping about the downsides of living in a beautiful old town like Ajijic on Lake Chapala, my motto after spending many years moving from Pillarcity to Posttown due to job and other considerations is:
> 
> BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED....



In my experience, those who bloom where they are planted wilt rather quickly and unremarkably. Further, if Ajijic or the muddy sump catchment of the Lerma Basin called Lake Chapala, the shores upon which it sits, are your standards of beauty, I suggest you look about and re-think your values.


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## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

He didn't get it, but he did pass the fertilizer.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

I think Bubba is lonely....er....Hound Dog is lonely in that far southern locale with poor winter weather. Of course, he can easily afford two homes, as we are frequently reminded, and does suffer from a disease that I share; wanderlust. Nevertheless, after over 13 years living in Ajijic and Chapala, we never did meet, which proves that not all circles intersect; nothing more.


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