Although the 40-day period of Lent is meant to be a time of penance and fasting, one of the guilty pleasures of the season is savoring the wonderful culinary specialties Mexican cooks whip up only at this time of year. 

At Ajijic’s Hacienda del Lago you enter a spectacular centuries-old world of Spanish mission and colonial architecture – broad arched entrances, an arcade running the length of one wing while an elegant rectangular dining room complete with fine 19th Century furnishings and elaborately sculpted fireplaces makes up the other wing, both flanking a courtyard-like central garden with its working well from the 1800s. Heavy carved wooden doors, ornamental  moldings, decorative iron work, tower-like chimneys all complete the trip back into Mexico’s past. 

There’s a bright, youthful, sporty quality about Gaucho Tequila restaurant. A soccer game was on the TV; young people were nuzzling away in intimate nooks on the outside patio. This appeared to be territory for the young, or for the “young at heart.” 

Robert’s restaurant at the west end of Ajijic, mountain side, is laid out over many tiers beginning with a handsome garden setting and continuing up easy-to-manage steps to a level overlooking the garden and then to an elegant interior with a cozy fireplace.

Possibly the most original and authentic menu in Ajijic can be found at Johanna’s. 

At Yves’s restaurant, Saturday night, my partner and I had a splendid experience from seating to our final chat with the restaurateur, Yves, himself.