Vendors operating commercial stands at the periphery of Chapala’s waterfront Malecon will be prohibited from selling hard liquor as of next year, according to city hall business license chief Luis Ernesto Lopez Amavizca.

Following recent municipal reforms, the Chapala city council has reinstated popular referendums to elect the administrative delegates for the satellite towns of Ajijic, San Antonio Tlayacapan, Santa Cruz de la Soledad, San Nicolas de Ibarra and Atotonilquillo.

A select group of veterinarians from Chapala and Guadalajara honed their skills in performing fast, safe sterilization surgery on domestic pets during a three-day training workshop conducted November 9 through 11 at Chapala’s DIF Family Development center.

Elders decked out in full-skirted adelita outfits drew warm applause as they danced along Avenida Madero in Chapala’s traditional Revolution Day parade, a colorful spectacle that ran for more than two hours.

On November 25, 1816, a ragtag band of Indian rebels surrendered Mezcala Island to General Jose de la Cruz, commander of Royalist troops assigned to hold the Lake Chapala region. The truce closed a remarkable though obscure chapter in the story of the country’s independence movement.

On hand for the opening of the Festival de las Aves, prominent lakeside birders John and Rosemary Keeling (center) joined event organizers Alejandro Juarez and Julieta Reinaldi to show off paper placements given out as souvenirs to encourage conservation of winged species like the roseate spoonbill, northern shoveler, white pelican and long-billed dowitcher.