I still recall my very first glimpse of Lake Chapala as if it were yesterday.

It was a sunny day in March, 1973. I was riding aboard a second-class bus with my 83-year-old grandmother seated beside me, bouncing along on the final leg of a long day’s journey from San Miguel de Allende. 

We were coming for a weekend visit with a retired school teacher she first met there who later settled in Chapala. Muzzy, my mother’s mother, and her second husband had lived in Chapala for several years in the early 1950s and she was anxious to become reacquainted with a place of fond memories. At that moment neither of us imagined we would end up here for the rest of our days. 

As the rickety bus lurched over the crest of the hill above Ixtlahuacán, the sweeping view of Lake Chapala caught our breath.  The shimmering silvery water mirrored the clear blue sky above.  And the surrounding landscape was dotted with splotches of pale purple, hundreds of jacaranda trees in full bloom. 

The jacaranda is a magnificent species, one of Mother Nature´s prettiest gifts to the planet.  A native of subtropical zones of South and Central America and the Caribbean, the tree is distinguished by its gracefully twisting trunk and branches, fern-like foliage and the tufts of bell-shaped flowers that pop out in our latitude as a harbinger of Spring. The unique bluish-violet hue of the blossoms gives the tree an appearance of something found only in a magical fairy land. 

But the jacaranda is just one of the gorgeous flowering trees that dress up lakeside at the time of year when the mountain ranges and hillsides bordering the lake have all turned drab shades of brown and gray.

There’s the yellow primavera that bursts out with plump clusters of canary-hued blossoms through the early months of the year. Its smaller cousin, the pink primavera is cloaked with in lush bouquets of pink and lilac shaded flowers that closely resemble petunias. 

The clavellina, a variety of the so-called “shaving brush” tree, greets the season by breaking out in soft pink pompons with magenta centers.  The pata de vaca is known as the poor man´s orchid for the form of its pink and purple flowers. 

As temperature rise over the coming weeks, we’ll see other flowering trees in full glory. Branches of the lluvia de oro will drip with dense racemes of bright yellow, sweet scented  pea-like flowerets.  The flor de mayo will show off the fragrant flowers we call frangipani in shades of pink, yellow and white. Scarlet hued canopies will cover the umbrella-shaped tabachin. And exotic magenta blossoms will adorn the thorny trunks of the ceiba, sacred tree of the Mayans. 

Take a moment to view the vast expanse of the Lake Chapala basin these days. It somehow looks like a giant Easter basket, with a color scheme to match. Even the tone of the hillsides is a carbon copy of hard-boiled eggs dipped into one too many colors of dye. 

I know that lakseside’s warm-hearted people, their rich culture and laid-back way of life are what captured my heart to stay here.  But I can’t help thinking that it was the first sight of Chapala’s stunning Spring landscape that really sealed my destiny.