After dodging the bullet earlier this month, serious gasoline shortages began hitting the lakeside area one week ago.
Fuel deliveries to all local service stations have become unpredictable and highly irregular.
Service station managers report that tankers filling their orders often arrive on 20 to 30 minutes notice, delivering no more than 20,000 liters at a time to storage facilities capable of holding well over double that amount.
Anxious customers commonly line up for hours at locations where fuel is periodically available, forming lengthy queues along the side of access roads. Despite frustrations, most clients have remained calm while waiting their turns. Local traffic police and gas station employees have become increasingly adept at directing motor vehicles to maintain order.
At midday Wednesday, January 16, four stations between San Juan Tecomatlán and Ajijic were pumping gas; by 9:30 p.m. all were out of fuel and only two others were back in operation. Early Thursday there was no place to go until central Chapala’s Pemex station was resupplied in the afternoon.
The gas crisis has taken its toll on the local tourist trade, with local merchants lamenting a sharp drop in business last weekend. Gas station personnel have likewise suffered, losing out on customer tips for washing windshields, checking tire pressure and measuring motor fluid levels to expedite service and keep vehicles moving.