Red Cross medical chief gives advice on coping with emergencies
“Most people do not know how the emergency response system functions in the Lake Chapala area, and many are completely confused and unprepared when a serious emergency arises,” says Chapala Red Cross medical director Sam Thelin. Expatriate residents often face legal, cultural and language barriers that aggravate the situation, the doctor says. “However the emergency response system worked in your home country, it is probably different here.”
For thousands of years the flow of the 750-kilometer-long Lerma River was sufficient to exchange the entire water in Lake Chapala each year or two. The abundant excess of water flowed out of the lake and into the Santiago River where it continued past Guadalajara for its 500-kilometer run to the Pacific Ocean. 
Get ready for an afternoon filled with heart-throbbing action on Sunday, April 14, when 10 female equestrian drill teams will go head-to-head in competition at Ajijic’s Lienzo Charro.
You don’t need to be a scientist to recognize that Lake Chapala is shrinking at an alarming rate. The untrained eye can see sandy beaches hugging the shoreline getting wider day by day as the water line grows more distant.
Sometime during the Easter celebrations, Joel Fiedler and Steve Larson pedaled into Lakeside with an invitation to break their journey at the home of Moonyeen and Perry King.
“Go out to Chapala and make your presence felt.”