Ghost Town

Dawg went into Bubba´s in Riberas this afternoon at about 4:00PM to buy some lunch and the place was deserted so, three hours later, I went to Hacienda Ajijic, which is a huge restaurant and I was the only customer the entire two hours I was there. OK, I get it; I need to brush my teeth or wash my panties more often.

On the other hand, perhaps people are freaked about this recent rash of violence. Chiapas beckons. This place is getting nasty.

Huh.........Everywhere I have been has been busy. Last night the area and restaurants around the Ajijic pier was hopping. Maybe you do need to wash those panties Mr. Dawg........

[quote="CanuckBob"]Huh.........Everywhere I have been has been busy. Last night the area and restaurants around the Ajijic pier was hopping. Maybe you do need to wash those panties Mr. Dawg........[/quote]

Dawg is very pleased to hear that CB and will presently wash my panties but, for now, I´ll treasure them in their putred state while I can. Life is filled with transitory pleasures.

I had my soul food fix of chicken fried steak at Bubba's coupla days ago and was aghast at the number of flies flying around my table, I counted about 50 just for fun. I hope the owners can come up with a solution to the fly problem. A lot easier than fixing the cartels. Owner is in danger of losing business to the flies.

Concerning Bubba's: went yesterday for his "similar to White Castle burgers". What a lousy invention. Good idea so poorly executed, that the item will keep people out of his restaurant.

hound dog wrote:Dawg went into Bubba´s in Riberas this afternoon at about 4:00PM to buy some lunch and the place was deserted so, three hours later, I went to Hacienda Ajijic, which is a huge restaurant and I was the only customer the entire two hours I was there. OK, I get it; I need to brush my teeth or wash my panties more often.

On the other hand, perhaps people are freaked about this recent rash of violence. Chiapas beckons. This place is getting nasty.

Although this does not account for all of this. It is still the slow season here. I think people here were freaked out Dawg but people are coming back and the
locals seemed more relaxed now. Local corner the guys are back to drinking and selling cooked corn or whatever. About a month ago I could look out on
a friday night and see nobody on Zaragoza or Colon by the plaza. People do seem to be coming back. Will check out how crowded Tango is on Sat which
is my measure of business here.

Z

Taggers are out doing graffiti again. Life is returning to normal. However, it appears to me we're coming up short when it comes to seasonal visits from the sunbirds. Tapatios seem more scarce than usual too.

HelperGuy wrote:Concerning Bubba's: went yesterday for his "similar to White Castle burgers". What a lousy invention. Good idea so poorly executed, that the item will keep people out of his restaurant.

Drove all the way fom West Ajijic to Riberas Bubba´s to commemorate good old times in Birmingham in the 1960s when, after Alabama football games at Legion field, games Bama almost always won when it was simply white boys against white boys by state decree (in that, thankfully, bygone era) , we would have sex and rum and countless Krystal Sliders (Southern White Castles) by the dozens at our Birmingham hotel before returning to Tuscaloosa the next morning. Well, Bubba may be advertising those little burgers of his as "similar to White Castle" but Dawg does not think so. I bought six of them which I figured I could handle at 70 years of age versus 20 of them when I was 20 but those dreadful concoctions were about as close to White Castle/Krystal cheeseburgers as Liberace was to Ella Fitzgerald. I will say this, however. Dawg has six dogs and after even one bite, I gave the six left-over "burgers" to them and they relished each one of the ersatz "Krystal /White Castle Burgers" with a passion.

Mainecoons wrote:Taggers are out doing graffiti again. Life is returning to normal. However, it appears to me we're coming up short when it comes to seasonal visits from the sunbirds. Tapatios seem more scarce than usual too.

It will take a lot longer than a few months to untarnish the damage done by that last go around in May. It will take years for Mexico to improve its image as a whole, if and when the drug war issues subside.

[quote="Mainecoons"]Taggers are out doing graffiti again. Life is returning to normal. However, it appears to me we're coming up short when it comes to seasonal visits from the sunbirds. Tapatios seem more scarce than usual too.
[/quote]

One of the things I like about Paris is that the taggers are truly artisitic and welcome heavy challenges. Not only is graffiti ubiquitous in Paris but much of it is very well done. The most impressive work one sees there is that displayed upon dangeous tall towers or freeway rights-of-way demonstrating extraordinary verve on the part of the ad hoc artists milling about the town at any given time.

However, CB, the Guadalajara Reporter had an article last week saying that the tourism agency believes Mexico is on its way to a record tourist year. But it does seem pretty quiet around here this summer.

What's it like in Chapala?

My family and I just got back from a couple days visit to Lakeside, we stayed at the Hotel Perico and ate out both days,took our nieces to the malecon,lots of people out and about,looks like things are getting back to normal we had a great time!Also ran into Big Daddy and got to meet his lovely wife.

Mainecoons wrote:However, CB, the Guadalajara Reporter had an article last week saying that the tourism agency believes Mexico is on its way to a record tourist year. But it does seem pretty quiet around here this summer.

What's it like in Chapala?

The taggers are back with a vengeance. We spent the last couple of work mornings cleaning previously cleaned areas, like the Municpal Market and the skateboard park. If anyone would care to join us, the Graffiti Busters, we are always looking for volunteers, left over paint or dinero for the cause. Please contact us at nochapalagraffiti at gmail.com for info.

I think this is the site......what time do you meet, etc.? tried to locate no luck?

Jim, you need to delete the email address in your post to prevent 'bots from grabbing it and filling it up with spam...

HelperGuy wrote:Jim, you need to delete the email address in your post to prevent 'bots from grabbing it and filling it up with spam...

Done.....still can't locate.......took this off their post HG????? They posted on preceeding post.

Jim W wrote:nochapalagraffiti gmail.com I think this is the site......what time do you meet, etc.?

We go out as a group 3 times a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. until noon mas o menos. Sounds like a long day but we manage to have some fun in there as well. Meeting place was outside the American Legion in Chapala for a while but we are going to meet around the taxi stand by the Municipal Market on Monday morning in order to try to attract some more attention. You can't miss us. We are the ones with rubber gloves wearing paint and cement spattered clothes carrying bottles thinner and cans of paint. Please, please if anyone has a few extra hours in the week to give to us, we can, and have, made a huge difference. It is not an all or nothing deal. If what you have is 3 hours on Wednesday for instance, we would love to see you for those 3 hours. We are without several of our snowbirds and could really use some help. Has anyone been through Cristiania Park lately? That's the work of our Chapala group and we are not completely finished. As Maincoons stated, the taggers are back so what we are doing now is going back over territory that was tag free. We all would be thrilled to have some new volunteers. We are a pretty social group so the time passes surprisingly quickly.

Jim W wrote: I think this is the site......what time do you meet, etc.? tried to locate no luck?

Sorry I wasn't clear. This is our e-mail address. We are an extremely low budget group, often self funding, with nothing left over for a web site after we buy all the stuff we need.

When I lived in Venice Beach, California, many years ago, we had a serious graffiti problem. The solution to this problem was to create a "graffiti pit" at the beach, where graffiti artists could freely practice their art on the walls of an unused picnic ground. Today, there is very little graffiti in Venice and the pit has become a tourist attraction.

The double-decker tour bus trolley-thing that leaves from the Beer Garden in Chapala goes right by our house in Ajijic. It was full this afternoon/evening. (I wonder what the guide has to say on that ride?) It only runs when it has a reason to, and I haven't seen it in a while, so.....whatever that means.

Tango was busy tonight. Not PACKED with a waiting list....but busy, as you would expect on a Friday night.

Other than that though, I notice the same thing as in the original post. We normally eat our big meal in the afternoon (today was an exception), and the restaurants have been very empty during the day.

CanuckBob: "It will take a lot longer than a few months to untarnish the damage done by that last go around in May. It will take years for Mexico to improve its image as a whole, if and when the drug war issues subside."

Agree.

After years of research, we were coming to the Lake this year contemplating a move. However, after the recent violence, that's not happening. There are still a few years before a move takes place, but for now, the Lake is off the list of likely retirement destinations. We hope the situation improves, but the unexpected and sudden decline in safety was stunning.

From a house buying point of view, it was like watching an unimaginable earthquake destroy Denver. After such an event, who would buy a house in Denver knowing the vulnerability of your investment to sudden catastrophic loss in value? Current sellers should consider this when pricing their properties. Although it's difficult to compare properties based on Internet listings, it appears property in Merida is priced below that at the Lake and Merida has little history of violence. For many retirees, the real estate at the Lake is in direct competition with the Yucatan, Baja, etc. since vibrant expat communities are growing throughout Mexico.

Again, I hope things improve at the Lake and a few years from now the recent violence turns out to be an anomaly. Until then, don't expect tourism and property sales to rebound rapidly.

A lot of the other places in Mexico lack the temperate "year round" climate, close proximity to an International airport and big city amenities. I can't see too many "fulltimers" moving to the coastal areas in the same numbers that live here in Chapala as it is waaaaayyyy too hot and humid in the summer months. It seems the violence is a moving target. What is calm and peaceful today could erupt into a street war very quickly. If I was worried about this sort of thing I would cross all of Mexico off my list for now.

steve2542 wrote:

From a house buying point of view, it was like watching an unimaginable earthquake destroy Denver. After such an event, who would buy a house in Denver knowing the vulnerability of your investment to sudden catastrophic loss in value? Current sellers should consider this when pricing their properties. Although it's difficult to compare properties based on Internet listings, it appears property in Merida is priced below that at the Lake and Merida has little history of violence. For many retirees, the real estate at the Lake is in direct competition with the Yucatan, Baja, etc. since vibrant expat communities are growing throughout Mexico.

Apples and Oranges.

Merida, Yucatan and Baja are totally unlivable 7 months out of the year due to high humidity. The prices there reflect that and always have.

Zedinmexico wrote:

hound dog wrote:Dawg went into Bubba´s in Riberas this afternoon at about 4:00PM to buy some lunch and the place was deserted so, three hours later, I went to Hacienda Ajijic, which is a huge restaurant and I was the only customer the entire two hours I was there. OK, I get it; I need to brush my teeth or wash my panties more often.

On the other hand, perhaps people are freaked about this recent rash of violence. Chiapas beckons. This place is getting nasty.

Although this does not account for all of this. It is still the slow season here. I think people here were freaked out Dawg but people are coming back and the
locals seemed more relaxed now. Local corner the guys are back to drinking and selling cooked corn or whatever. About a month ago I could look out on
a friday night and see nobody on Zaragoza or Colon by the plaza. People do seem to be coming back. Will check out how crowded Tango is on Sat which
is my measure of business here.

Z

Tango was very crowded last sat night. Lines of people waiting to go in. Yves was busy also.

Z

Tango is usually crowded. A decent product for a decent price. But who wants to put up with the DIN from everyone talking. You can't carry on a conversation 6 feet across the table. They jammed more tables in to get more business. Greedy. After OUR experiences they can keep it.

Bruno's and Hacienda Ajijic are actually better.