Hot Babe Fairy Dust at Lake Chapala

By Kristina Morgan

Those of you who have read my past articles have read about the bromide here, a mineral in the volcanic basin of the lake that evaporates into the air. I call it our Happy Gas. But unless you live here you may not know about what I call the Hot Babe Fairy Dust, a phenomenon that occurs at Lake Chapala.

I feel like living in the Lake Chapala area has kind of taken me back in time. There’s the obvious fact that it is like stepping back 50-70 years here regarding the pace, culture and values but that really isn’t what I mean.

I’m turning 39 on March 8th but I look younger than I did when we moved back here in 2002. I feel younger now than I did when I lived in Colorado and I was in my late 20s and early 30s. I’m not the only one. Many of the people I talk to have had the same experience. Some people have chalked it up to this being a retirement area so there are always people older than us. I don’t think that’s it though. Because there are many young people who live here with their families, working or as entrepreneurs in businesses, or they have an internet business that allows them to work anywhere, or they are in the small percentage of people who came into money or retired very early.

The Maya speak About 2012 at Lake Chapala Mexico

by Kristina Morgan

2012Unless you’re completely out of touch and don’t watch the news or read tabloids you’ve heard of 2012. There’s even an action-packed movie by Mel Gibson that promises to scare the heck out of you if most websites about 2012 haven’t already. So is 2012 the end of the world? The beginning of a shift in spiritual consciousness that heralds the Golden Age of humanity? Or just a bunch of conspiracy-theorist hype?

A History Channel program titled "Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days" says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a "pole shift."

"The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster," a narrator proclaims. "Earthquakes would rock every continent; massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe."

Living in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico makes the Mayan prophecies that originated here particularly fascinating to me but I wondered what the Maya really think of their prophetic date and about being at the source of all this hoopla, especially where it concerns a prophecy that may be ladled out in heaping mugs of fact-distortion and fear—or mean the end of the world. So what do the Maya have to say about these interpretations of their calendar?

Are you taking a risk by coming to Lake Chapala?

by Kristina Morgan

I had two very similar conversations this week. Both went something like ths:

“I’m old now. I can’t take risks like I did when I was younger. It’s very important to me that I feel secure and I really don’t like change. I have basically had the same life for the past 45 years and I’m comfortable as I am. I am intrigued by the idea of visiting Lake Chapala to see if I might like it there but I really can’t see myself taking a risk by moving there to a foreign country….even if I like it.”

Both of these conversations left me questioning what is it about change that to one person feels positive and empowering and to another feels dangerous and uncertain?

What are the benefits in taking a chance?

Focus on Mexico, Friends and Lake Chapala: A life changing combination

By Kristina Morgan

I just said goodbye to two of my favorite people, Brad and Mary. They are both Focus Alumni I met on the Focus on Mexico program here in LakeChapala during my very first group (February 2-9, 2008) after I came on board with FOM as their Public Relations Director. An irony I’d like to share regarding our friendship is that we are all from Colorado but we had to come to Lake Chapala to meet!

Since their time here, they have bought a house and have plans to move here and have visited several times. They were here for a week this time and I always tell them, “A week isn’t long enough!” On our Focus programs, it is long enough to know that this is a great place to retire. But the subsequent visits feel like teasers from past participants who have become our friends and long to be here permanently.

Fearless Aging at Lake Chapala: A Love Affair with Life

By Kristina Morgan

Fearless-Aging May 2009Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!

Recently, I attended a seminar on Aging at Abbeyfield in Ajijic, a new assisted living home in the area that is affiliated with the Abbeyfield homes in the U.K. and around the world. At 38 years old I probably seemed like a pretty unlikely candidate to be attending a workshop on aging, but I am fond of saying I’m an eccentric old lady in training, and I wanted to find out why the elderly seem so different here at Lake Chapala than most of the elderly people I know from the U.S. My thoughts that the retirees here are different isn’t mine alone. Most everyone I know agrees.

The Lake Chapala Society: a Heroine’s Legacy

by Kristina Morgan

In order to tell you about the Lake Chapala Society (LCS), I must first tell you about Neill James, Ajijic’s “Fairy Godmother,” and the benefactress of the LCS, located in the heart of Ajijic, which is home to the largest expatriate society in the world.

She is a woman I would have dearly loved to know and so I hope I can convey just a bit of the spark that made her one of the most fascinating heroines I have ever had the pleasure to read about.

Neill James was a person after my own heart. Born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi, she was a well-educated woman who was a world-renowned travel writer. Briefly married and then divorced with no children, she became a fearless adventurer, fascinated by flying after she met Amelia Earheart.

Neill survived a disaster that brought her to Ajijic, which became, perhaps, the best thing that could have happened to her or Ajijic.

Jurassic Park: A Family Camping Adventure in Mexico

Before we came to Mexico I assumed that the entire country was either desert or coastal. Discovering Mexico’s diverse terrain—mountains, jungles, pines, plains and more—has been an absolute delight, and one of the things I love best about living at Lake Chapala is that this area is like the hub of a wagon wheel with many other fascinating and beautiful destinations just a few hours away: Colima, Guanajuato, Puerto Vallarta and Michoacán, to name a few.

Just recently my mom and dad suggested we go to the state of Colima, a few hours away, and check out a place they found on Google Earth with a waterfall. There are rivers and springs all over the place spilling beautiful waterfalls off the rocks.

We all piled in the car: my husband, Joel, and our three kids and Ruby the Great Road-Trip Dog. If you’ve traveled in close quarters before, you’ll know this was an adventure in itself. Let me just say that after an hour on the road, the kids weren’t the only ones saying, “Are we there yet?”!