Pet reminder
Snowbirds who are not taking their adopted pets with them when they start for home after Easter (shame on you) really need to make arrangements for another home for the furry friends – and not at one of the already overloaded animal shelters. Start looking for another spot for them NOW. Those of us left behind with your pets are horrified seeing them shell shocked, whining, crying and barking for their families – and these are the lucky ones that aren’t running the streets.
It’s the same every year. Animal shelters become overburdened because of thoughtless animal owners abandoning their pets. If you’re not going to give an animal a permanent home, don’t adopt it in the first place.
Democrats
The next meeting of the Chapala Chapter of Democrats Abroad will be held Monday, March 12, 4 p.m. at La Nueva Posada (Donato Guerra 9, Ajijic). The meeting will cover two main subjects: the upcoming worldwide Democrats Abroad primary and the need and process of re-registering for the election in November of this year.
Tea Party
The Lakeside Tea Party will meet Tuesday, March 13, 4 p.m. at Sunrise Café in Riberas del Pilar. The topic this month will be “The New Face of Terrorism,” presented by Gary Fuller, who has recently published a book on the subject. Fuller will discuss terrorism in Mexico, the Mexican drug wars and terrorism issue between the United States and Mexico.
Bill Lindley, a part-time Lakeside resident will briefly discuss the activities of the San Francisco Tea Party, of which he is a member.
For further information contact Karen Cage at 766-5047.
Dog and cat food
With the cooperation and help of Geoffrey Kaye of the Animal Shelter, several members of Animal Buddies will hold their monthly food drive for dogs and cats on Thursday, March 15 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Purchase extra food while you’re buying sustenance for your own pets and you’ll be helping the shelter animals as well as Anita’s Animals or your choice of animal rescue group. Local generosity to the animals has been a great help to those closely involved with their care.
If you can’t make it to the food drive, you can make a purchase of dog or cat food anytime and indicate your choice of animal rescue group to which it will go. The Animal Shelter will hold it for pick up. Let your animal rescue group of choice know that there is a paid food purchase waiting for them at the Shelter.
Tall tables
The Lake Chapala Society Singles Group’s next social will be held Friday, March 16, 5-7 p.m. at El Barco Nightclub (next to the Pemex station in Ajijic). Special drink prices for this event will be white wine for 25 pesos, red wine for 35 pesos, margaritas for 35 pesos and beer for 20 pesos. Sit around a circle full of tall tables with just a few chairs to encourage mixing and meeting (you could find “the one”). For information contact Jack Harris at (cel.) 333-727-1122 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
French
The Lake Chapala French Club will meet on Saturday, March 17, 1-5 p.m. at Posada Las Calandrias, on the Carretera at the corner of Juarez, opposite the Ajijic post office. Parking will be outside the property.
All French speakers and their partners are welcome. To make reservations for the meeting email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Navy League
The next scheduled meeting of the Navy League Lake Chapala Council is set for Saturday, March 17. However, since this is St. Patrick’s Day and Manix Restaurant, where the League meets is going to be a busy place, the gathering will not be a formal one.
Instead, it will be a “Council Comida.” The main entrée will be corned beef and cabbage. Other options are chicken Florentine or shrimp with pea pods and rice.
Manix Restaurant is located at Ocampo 57 in Ajijic. The lunch will begin at 1 p.m. Those who plan to attend the Council Comida should call or email Denny Strole at 766-0485 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before March 14.
One need not have prior military service to become a member of the Navy League. The only requirement is a desire to support the Sea Services (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine). The Council is open to all, regardless of nationality. Go to a meeting to get more information.
Dinner dance
Frank M. Valentine American Legion Post 9 in Ajijic throws their Annual Dinner Dance fundraiser on Wednesday, March 21, 2-8 p.m. at Hacienda Don Emiliano’s Family Restaurant. The event will feature live music with Noe Raygoza Villa, followed by the Bryan James Band.
The menu is a four-meat meal with all the trimmings. Look for door prizes and a 50/50 raffle.
Post 9 supports the La Labor School, Little League soccer and baseball, aids with food to Hope House and kitchen shelves for the Tepehua Community Center.
Tickets for the dinner dance are just 200 pesos and are on sale from Joe Ritchie at 766-3524, Abe Sanchez at 765-6245, Al King at 737-2548, Howard Milborne at 766-5328 and Vince Britton at 765-7299.
Don Emiliano’s is located between the Acueducto and San Nicholas on the lake side of the highway.
Shriners
The Lake Chapala Shrine Club has revved up activity over their already full and active schedules.
They held their Annual BBQ Rib Fest on February 20 at Villa Encantada in Chapala. Five hundred guests attended in a fun afternoon of ribs, music and entertainment. Special guests were the Mocha Trumpet Band from London, Ontario, Canada. The band stayed on through the Anezeh Spring Ceremonial that was held on Saturday, March 3 at Hotel Real de Chapala. The Ceremonial was the first major event for the new Anezah Divan. Twenty-four new Shriners (nine from Guatemala, three from Guadalajara, five from Mexico City, one from Chapala, two from Veracruz and two from Chihuahua) were initiated at the ceremony, while 130 guests looked on. That evening they all regrouped for a Ceremonial banquet.
The Lake Chapala Shrine Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. at Hotel La Nueva Posada in Ajijic. Those who are Master Masons interested in the Shriners or someone interested in becoming a Master Mason (the only requirement to become a Shriner) you are invited to attend any of the Shrine Club’s meetings and learn more about the fraternity.
The main focus of Shrine Clubs around the world is still to have fun and to help children, which they do through their 22 children’s hospitals. For additional information contact a Shriner or talk to the current President of the Lake Chapala Shrine Club, Noble Denny Strole, at 766-0485.
Seminar
The March 13, noon, seminar, available for Lake Chapala Society members, will be chaired by Ron Mullenaux. It features (via TED Internet podcast) Daniel Goleman who asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Goleman, psychologist and award-winning author of “Emotional Intelligence,” challenges traditional measures of intelligence as a predictor of life success.
Deadline
Please send in any items for the Laguna Chapalac or Ribera Arts columns needed to be published in the April 7 edition to mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than March 21.
Unitarians
The Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will meet Sunday, March 11, 10:30 a.m. at Santa Margarita 113 in Riberas del Pilar. Lakeside writer James Tipton will be talking about the “ecstatic” poets, both Christian and Muslim, and then demonstrate how he has been influenced by them by reading from his most recent book, “To Love for a Thousand Years.” Tipton has published more than a thousand articles, short stories, poems and reviews.
A coffee hour will follow the service. For more information please call 766-1119 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The Fellowship is a welcoming congregation.
Christ Church Anglican
On Sunday, March 11, 10 a.m. Christ Church Anglican Fellowship will be blessed by a visit from The Right Reverend Lino Rodriguez Amaro, Bishop of the Diocese of the West in the Anglican Church of Mexico. He will celebrate Holy Communion along with the confirmation of Frances Marie Clemmons and Mina Rae Powers as Anglican Christians. He will also receive Inez Mae Dwyer into the Anglican Communion. After the service at Manix Restaurant (Ocampo 57, Ajijic), Bishop Lino will join the congregation of Christ Church along with friends of the congregation, and of Clemmons, Powers and Dwyer, for a luncheon at Viva Mexico restaurant in San Juan Cosala.
St. Andrew’s Anglican
Do you want to know what ticks Jesus off? Religion. That’s what! This is the theme of Father Winston Welty’s sermon at St. Andrew’s Church this week, as the congregation begins three Sundays of listening to incidents in Jesus’ life as remembered by St. John. The sermon is called “The Anger of Jesus” and it’s guaranteed to bring you up short in your Lenten observances. Then on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m., Father Welty continues his Bible study of The Gospel According to St. Mark, focusing this week on Chapter 4, in a session entitled “The Key is Faith.” Take a Bible, along with your questions and insights. St. Andrew’s is located at Calle San Lucas 19, just a block south of the Carretera in Riberas del Pilar. Worship on Sunday mornings is at 9 and 11 a.m., with a time of refreshments, welcome and fellowship between the services.
Presbyterians
Pastor Ross Arnold will continue his Lenten sermon series on Sunday, March 11. The title is “The Temptation of Christ,” coming from Hebrews 4: 14-16. Worship begins at 10 a.m.
Friday, March 16, 10 a.m. the interactive, open Bible study led by Pastor Arnold continues in the Book of Acts.
Lakeside Presbyterian church is located on the mountain side of the Carretera just west of S&S Auto and Bubba’s Restaurant.