With its attractive amenities, hospitable staff and perfect location at the heart of Chapala’s promenade (malecon), the Lake Chapala Inn rates as one of lakeside’s most appealing destinations for discriminating Mexican and foreign travelers.
The venue of this unique and luxurious B&B is one of the stately waterfront homes built during Chapala’s turn-of-the-century Golden Era. Today it houses four ample guest rooms, along with elegantly appointed common areas that include the sunny dining room where full breakfast is served daily, a spacious front parlor, a cozy library with fireplace and shelves stocked with books in three languages, a breezy second story roofed terrace overlooking the lake, and an intimate ground level garden patio complete with lap pool.
Operating under the slogan “English Elegance with Mexican Warmth and Charm,” Lake Chapala Inn reflects the nationalities and personal style of Alicia McNiff and her late husband Austin, the visionary binational couple who opened the business back in 1997.
Great Britain’s Austin McNiff left his homeland at 22 to settle in Canada. It was there that he met the petite Alicia, a sparky Mexico City native who had gone to Montreal for studies at McGill University. Immediately enchanted, he proposed a month after the pair met.
The love-at-first-sight phenomenon struck again on the couple’s first visit to Chapala in the late 1990’s. Instantly taken by the well-constructed and recently modernized Mediterranean style villa, McNiff wasted no time in signing a sale’s contract with the then American owners. Few modifications were required to turn it into a comfortable guest home. But it was a rather daring move at a time when Lake Chapala’s water level was dwindling at an alarming rate and the entire waterfront tourist zone languished in a dismal state of disrepair.
“He was a very smart man,” his loving widow says, recalling that his business acumen was well rewarded in just a few short years as nature replenished the lake and the city government launched a full renovation of the Malecon.
Curiously, the century-old edifice – originally named Villa Aurora – was once the residence of Paul Christian Schjetznan Hansen, another foreigner who grasped Chapala’s potential as a burgeoning tourist haven.
According to historical accounts, the Norwegian world traveler arrived in Chapala in 1908, just as the isolated and sleepy fishing village was coming into its prime as a holiday resort for both upper crust Mexican families and international travelers. Charmed and inspired by the area’s natural attributes, Schjetznan began dreaming up bold ideas to take advantage of the trend to develop a destination of an international stature similar to the French Riviera and other ritzy enclaves of the era like Newport, Rhode Island.First he brought in several steamboats to offer tourist jaunts in Chapala’s waters. Then he masterminded construction of the Yacht Club de Chapala. Built from prefab components imported from the United States, it was a huge wooden structure designed to operate more as gambling casino and party palace than serve as docking facility. The club first opened in 1910, but the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution caused the business to fold less than four years later. The structure was accidentally burnt down in 1917.
By then Schjetznan had cooked up an even more ambitious project: the development of a Chapala-Guadalajara railway line. He roped in investors from Mexico and abroad to form the tourism development enterprise Compania de Fomento Chapala, S.A. He teamed up with Guillermo de Alba, the renowned architect who designed and built the Gran Hotel Arzapalo, Chapala’s first top class hotel, and also left his stamp on many historic buildings that survive today, including the former Hotel Palmera (eventually renamed Hotel Nido) and a number of the splendid vacation mansions that dot the shoreline.
De Alba himself lived with his wife and daughter just up the street from Villa Aurora, in the quaint Victorian townhouse baptized Mi Pullman that he finished building in 1906. While the Schjetznan rounded up financial backing and government permits for the railway, the architect headed up construction of the Chapala train station and several small depots along the route.
Train service was finally inaugurated with great pomp and celebration on April 8, 1920. Sadly, the business collapsed in 1926 under the strain of a lethal combination of financial hard times, rising popularity of motorized travel and several years of severe flooding that put the station under water.
De Alba, Schjetznan and their cohorts lost their shirts in the debacle, but they left an architectural legacy for future generations to treasure. A few of those well-built historic works have been rescued and restored in recent years thanks to the efforts of philanthropic organizations, government agencies and a number of private citizens.
The train station has been fully renovated to house the Gonzalez Gallo Cultural Center. The former Hotel Palmera is now home to Chapala’s municipal government. Down the block, the Hotel Arzapalo has become a commercial complex occupied by an Oxxo convenience store and the new Beer Garden restaurant. The dilapidated Mi Pullman came into the hands of expatriate resident Ros Chenery, who reveals details of a challenging restoration project in the three-part series she penned for www.mexconnect.com.
Just steps away, Alicia McNiff and her loyal staff stand proud guard at Villa Aurora, better known today as the warm and friendly Lake Chapala Inn. Check www.chapalainn.com for detailed information and a visual tour of the premises.