I hesitate to write about the Ajijic area since so many readers of this newspaper are far more knowledgeable about the place than I am. Nevertheless, as a resident of Greater Guadalajara, I occasionally feel obliged to remind Tapatíos of what a treasure the Ribera is.
This conviction was strengthened and reaffirmed after a long week of cold weather and rain which interrupted our usually pleasant “dry season.”
When the sun finally came back out, an opportunity arose for me to spend a night at El Chante Spa-Hotel, located near Jocotepéc. By the way, the accent on that word is courtesy of my Spanish-teaching wife Susy, who wanted to go to the spa for a “girls’ getaway” with her sister. Somehow I managed to talk the Ibarra sisters into letting me tag along, only on the promise that I would disappear entirely and leave them free to do their own thing.
Well, the spa turned out to be hidden away in a quiet spot on the lakeshore, accessible only via streets barely wide enough for one car to pass – but the signs leading you there are well placed. This hotel has succeeded in combining the luxuriousness of a spa with the peacefulness of a Tibetan monastery. The fragrance of incense floats lightly in the air and around noon, you just might hear the haunting call of a conch horn gathering the staff together for a ceremony of thanksgiving to the Madre Tierra and the four cardinal directions.
This place has an outdoor jacuzzi, a temazcal, a nice pool and wide comfortable hammocks from which you can appreciate all the subtle hues of a typically dramatic sunset over good old Lake Chapala.
The next morning I was visited by Jim Boles, an American who organizes hikes in this area on a regular basis. Accompanying him were Laura Phypers, a Brit, and Canadian Duncan Poole. They had kindly offered to show me the way up to the Glider Launch lookout point, which promised a magnificent view of the lake. I asked Jim how long it would take to get up there “at a leisurely pace.”
“Two hours,” he said.
Off we drove to Las Fuentes where we parked and started hiking, first along old roads and then up a narrow, rock-strewn trail which switchbacks up the hillside. Our pace was not exactly what I call “leisurely,” which means I only managed to take 50 pictures instead of the usual amount.
In no time we were climbing over a locked gate in what Gerry Green calls The Skyline Meadow. Oh yes, of course I had a copy of Green’s “Walks & Trails around Ajijic” in hand and I had also downloaded the track he put on Wikiloc.com into both a GPS and an iPhone. From what I could see, both of those gizmos would get you to your destination, but, while you can carry spare batteries for the GPS, if that iPhone runs out of juice (which is quite likely to happen), you are entirely on your own … unless, as in my case, you have Jim, Laura and Duncan showing you the way and regaling you with tales of hiking and living in Mexico.
At last we came to the paraglider launch site and lookout point. As Green says, here you have “a spectacular 180-degree view” of almost the entire lake and its surrounding villages. I looked at my watch. We had been walking for 121 minutes. Boles’ prediction had only been one minute off. He knows his stuff!
We walked onto the grassy slope and gazed into the distance. Filling the horizon on the other side of the lake was Cerro el Garcia and off in the distance the snow-covered peak of the Nevado de Colima. Suddenly, splat! Something black and gooey landed on my shoulder. We looked up. A lone vulture circled high above us. “You have been blessed by the zopilote,” my companions told me.
No sooner had I received my Buzzard Blessing than who should appear on the scene but three paragliding enthusiasts. They tied a piece of flagging tape to a bush and soon determined that the wind was not strong enough for a launch. Too bad, as watching them take off would have been a treat.
After the hike, I strolled through Ajijic with the Ibarra sisters, looking for a place to eat, which was no problem as there were restaurants galore with little tables practically on the sidewalk. The weather was balmy. We had the lake below us and the tree-covered mountains above us. “This is therapeutic,” I told them. It’s just like being in the Mediterranean, but people here are lots friendlier.”
So, if things are getting you down, head for Lake Chapala. It’s the perfect Mediterranean Escape – minus the price of the plane ticket.
How to get there
El Chante Spa is located at Ribera del Lago 170-1, El Chante, Jocotepec. Tel: (387) 763-2608/09 and their website is elchantespa.com. The El Chante hike is in Gerry Green’s Walks & Trails Around Ajijic and you’ll also find the track by going to wikiloc.com and searching for “Fuentes-GliderLaunch-Chante Loop.” If you are interested in participating in some of those exciting hikes in the hills above Lake Chapala, you might want to contact Jim Boles: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..