I was lucky to get a front row seat for a trip down memory lane with Michael Eager, guest speaker at the November 15 meeting of the Lake Chapala Garden Club.

The talk was presented in an engaging live interview format, with Rosemary Grayson prompting Eager’s recollections of family history and daily life in Ajijic going back over four decades.

In 1974, Mike’s parents Morley and Judy ventured on their first trip to Mexico. After a short and disappointing stay at a fancy Guadalajara hotel the couple hired a taxi driver to show them an “authentic” Mexican town. They ended up at the Posada Ajijic, a rundown local inn and watering hole managed by an eccentric American lady who habitually got sloshed before sundown.

They were entranced by the exotic atmosphere. Morley, a canny Canadian businessman with family background in the hospitality industry, saw potential for launching a winning enterprise and new chapter in life. He told his wife, “This is where we’ll spend the rest of our second honeymoon.”

At the end of their two-week visit he left his business card for Doña Josefina Ramírez, the property’s elderly owner, offering to buy or rent the Posada. Months later, back in Canada, they received a telegram with her proposal to grant them a lease. And before long the Eagers sold off assets, packed up the family station wagon and headed south.

After adventures and mishaps along the way, they arrived in Ajijic to find the Posada bankrupt, closed under lock and key. The property had been stripped, the grounds overgrown with weeds. Their Mexican paradise was in total decay. Undeterred, they dug in to revive the business, eventually turning it into the town’s social hotspot where the tight-knit expat community mixed it up with the local populace.

“Back then there were no more than 400 foreigners living here. Retired military officers, artists, hippies, everyone knew one another by first name,” Mike recalled.

It was a time when few inhabitants had cars or telephones. The Posada became gossip central, a party hub and the scene of village scandals such as the notorious bingo bust.

Morley and an American pal dreamed up a fund-raising scheme for a local orphanage. Once a week, dozens of foreign retirees gathered at the Posada to play bingo for charity. Apparently a disgruntled player notified authorities that illegal gambling was going on there. A heavily armed swat team was dispatched to raid the place. Morley and Mike were hauled off in handcuffs and thrown in the slammer for hosting illicit gaming and working without proper immigration papers. After a night in the slammer, the immigration chief let them off the hook when he learned that the enterprising Canadians were the town’s top employers.

Michael went on to trace the history of La Nueva Posada, the family business now approaching its 30th anniversary. The touching story revealed his deep devotion to María Elena, the village gal he married in 1977, and the five offspring they raised together while building up another successful landmark enterprise. No wonder the Eagers are recognized as local heroes.

Mike Eager, a community leader and raconteur par excellence.