Dave's visit to Ajijic

After more research on Lake Chapala, we determined that a little town called Ajijic would be a good place for us. So now Dave needed to visit. I would have gone too, but we had just used about every available babysitter (ie: Grandmas and Grandpas, Cousins, Aunts and Uncles) for our various other trips this year. Besides, Dave is a little more picky than I am when it comes to where we live, so I trust him. So we booked him a flight for the beginning of May to have a look. We arranged for him to stay at the Hotel Casa Blanca. Here is a video Dave made of the room while he was there. He's going to hate that I put this on here.


Turned out that the owner of the hotel picked Dave up at the airport, and Dave learned he had moved to Ajijic from California. They talked a lot about Mexico, the schools and raising kids there. Dave really liked him.
We also arranged for Dave to have a tour of Ajijic with Judy King, a resident expert. She took him for 4 hours to see various neighborhoods, the schools, the marketplace, the Chapala Society Headquarters and to meet some rental agents. She and her assistant Pam have been extremely helpful with our follow-up questions and the newsletter is great.
Dave was also there over a Sunday so that he could attend the LDS church service there, meet some of the members, and get their input. The congregation is pretty small, but in a nice building. There were about 40 people there and they did a bilingual service. The first meeting, Sacrament Meeting, was translated and the other classes were split up into English and Spanish. About 1/2 the members are Mexican, the other 1/2 white. Dave recognized one of the men there and they figured out that Dave's Grandfather Arthur Browne served in the church with him in Arkansas. Small World! Another member of the congregation was a Rental Agent and she has been really helpful in finding us a place to live. (Though we haven't found one as of yet)
Another day Dave toured some of the schools and looked at rentals. Of the three schools, Terranova was the nicest, but also the most expensive. Roosevelt and Loyola were fine, and Loyola was the cheapest, so we picked it. We haven't registered yet but will when we get there. There is an entrance fee of $200 per family and $700 per student, then the tuition is $200 per student per month. Much more expensive than we had heard, but they've got to go to school and it would defeat part of our purpose in going if I home schooled. (plus we might not survive)
Dave took some pictures with his iPhone while there but they weren't very good representations of the town, so we'll take some when we get there and post them.
Overall Dave really like it there and felt like we could do it without too much stress or hassle. Ajijic here we come!