The Guadalajara Reporter
Guadalajara's Largest English Newspaper
While wrapped in modern-day secular glitter, Christmas festivities in the Lake Chapala area still center on long-held customs that put the nativity story in sharp focus. For village children a big feature of the holiday season is taking part in Las Posadas, the neighborhood processions held from December 16 through Christmas Eve as living representations of the Holy Family’s search for lodging in Bethlehem.
Five officials representing different levels of the Fiscalia General del Estado (State Attorney General’s Office, abbreviated FGE) faced a crowd of about 50 curious Lake Chapala Society members attending the November 29 conference on Jalisco’s justice system.
Lake Chapala Birders will meet Wednesday, December 11, 8 a.m., for an observation walk along the San Antonio Malecón. The shallow lagoon and natural vegetation at this location is ideal for sightings of herons, egrets, ducks and kingbirds. The nature lovers will wrap up the experience with breakfast and note sharing at the nearby Sunrise Restaurant.
Just as our heads had begun to clear and trembling pets emerged from their hiding places under the bed after Ajijic’s noisy San Andrés fiestas, the daily roar of fireworks has started up again, this time blasting out at the west end of the village where the novenario honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe runs in full fury from December 4 through 12.
It takes of team of four to assist 10-year-old Ismael with his exercise routine at the Pepe Martinez Equine Therapy Center.
The Lake Chapala Society (LCS) recently gave first prize in their yearly Children’s Art Contest to 15-year-old Oscar Orlando Ibarra Lopez. The young artist from San Antonio Tlayacapan will see his artwork grace the cover of the society’s 2014 directory, which is due out in early February of next year.
Some 80 hearing-impaired children and adolescents from the lakeside area were fitted with hearing aids last week, concluding an intensive social service campaign spearheaded by the Texas-based Hearing Head for Latin America organization and the Guadalajara non-profit association Salud, Cultura, Desarrollo y Ecología (Sacudee).
The 10th Annual Lake Chapala Writers Conference, scheduled February 26-28, 2014 at Hotel Danza del Sol, Ajijic, will inspire veteran and novice writers alike.
On Sunday, December 1 Reverend Gene Raymer will reach a milestone, celebrating his first anniversary as pastor of the Little Chapel by the Lake, an assignment that came from a calling to rescue the area’s oldest Protestant church from the darkest hour in its 55-year history.
