THE STREET -RIBERAS del PILAR

This area is beautiful and is up in the mountains across the road from the lake.  There are some stunning views from the homes that are up there.  Usually a lovely breeze keep the residences cool year round. However the mountain is not that stable and some of the property up there I would be concerned about.  

At the entrance to Riberas is the golf range and club.  This area is also a bird sanctuary.

In the 1960 most of this area was not developed.  There were many well-to-do Guadalajara families that maintained vacation homes with lakeside frontage.  The government had given the land as an incentive to have the area developed.

Then in the 1980's Americans, Canadians and Europeans looking for a place that they could retire began discovering the area in very large numbers.

Some 6,000 non-Mexicans live permanently along the North shore of the lake.  Then there are another 6,000 visitors that come from Canada, the U.S. and other parts of the world during the months of November through April to vacation.  

Riberas has been taking off the past 10 years of so.  The location is hilly and that allows for a lot of privacy.  The roads up and down are sometimes a challenge but just put your foot down and hope you do not fall into a pot hole or off the cliff.  If I can do it so can you. 

In past years this was considered a low cost of living area.  The climate, the cost of living and the price of property is what attracted the Expats originally.   

Today the cost of living in any village on the lake is not low cost and is comparable to state side.  The supply and demand concept.  All in all it is less expensive but not by much.

Because there are so many non-Mexican's here, you have to remember that this is not the US and it is Mexico.  Actually this is considered "OLD MEXICO".  It is not a resort area, and living here requires an openness to differences and a willingness to change.  And there are many changes you will have to make.

I think that we were here about or four months and I realized that Mexico is truly a foreign country and the reason why it is called a foreign country is because when you come here - everything is foreign.  Everything.  From going to the bathroom to the market to walking across a street...nothing is like home was.  I do not think that I really assimilated the meaning for Foreign into my brain before I came to live here. 

At 7:00AM the church bells ring in every village.  Then you have mass over the loud speaker system.  One Canadian lady got so mad at being woke up by the bells and mass, she went to the church and turned off the speaker system.  Boy was that Priest mad.  You are in a foreign land and you need to adopt to the foreign ways.