Ajijic travel guide

Seven kilometres west of Chapala, Ajijic was settled in 1522, making it one of the oldest foundations in the country. It is a small, once indigenous village and, like Chapala, now has an arty-crafty expat community (first ‘colonized’ in 1925) of retired North Americans.

The village is pleasant, with cobbled streets, a pretty little plaza and many single- storey villas. One block east of the plaza at the end of Parroquia is the very pretty church of San Andrés, started in 1749 but not finished until 1901. On Colón, in the two blocks north of the plaza, are several restaurants, boutiques and galleries. Going south from the plaza, Colón becomes Morelos, crossing Constitución and continuing some five blocks to the lake with lots more restaurants, galleries and shops.

The lakeshore has receded about 200 m from the original shoreline and is a bit smelly. The Way of the Cross and a passion play are performed at Easter in a chapel high above the town. Local house and garden tours (T376-766 1881, Thu 1030, 2½ hrs, US$7) help to raise money for the Lakeside School for the Deaf.

Enormously popular with artists, the annual Ajijic International Film Festival is the most recent addition to the village’s numerous artistic events. A number of well-known writers have worked here. During the late 1930s, Somerset Maugham finished The Razor’s Edge here. In the 1940s, Tennessee Williams lived in town, hosting a nightly poker game that inspired a short story, The Poker Night, which he later expanded into A Streetcar Named Desire. In the last few years, four best-selling novels by Barbara Bickmore and several non-fiction books by Jim Tuck were written here. The famous Lakeside Writers Group serves as a venue for both established and budding writers to critique one another’s efforts.