The Lake Chapala area is in the throes of an expat population explosion.

Over the last year there’s been astounding influx of newcomers arriving here on exploratory trips or taking the total plunge to pull up roots in other parts of the world with the idea of settling down permanently here.

Local social media are overloaded with rookie queries about handling immigration issues, transporting  themselves, pets and belongings across the border, dealing in real estate business and addressing health care matters. But no matter how much homework they accomplish ahead of the move, nothing will fully prepare them for many quotidian realities they’ll face in the transition to lakeside living.

Folks from the U.S. may be perplexed by going metric. Lengths and distances are measured in centimeters, meters and kilometers instead of inches, feet and miles. Calculating temperatures on the Celsius scale rather Fahrenheit degrees is far harder to fathom.

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