Turismo

Enrique Alfaro Ramírez durante su última visita a la Ribera de Chapala. Foto: Sofía Medeles. 

Sofía Medeles.- El gobernador de Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez anunció que faltan solo cuatro meses para que se culminen los trabajos en el Auditorio de la Ribera, ubicado en la delegación de Ajijic, durante su última gira por la Ribera de Chapala, el 25 de marzo.

En total, la tres etapas de la remodelación del recinto, junto a la construcción de los edificios, tuvo una inversión aproximada de 70 millones de pesos, y fue parte del proyecto llamado «Cultura Cardinal» que pretende descentralizar la cultura de Jalisco con clases de diferentes disciplinas, oficinas de la Secretaría de Cultura, y presentaciones culturales en el auditorio. 

Por otro lado, el equipamiento mobiliario del auditorio, no se encuentra dentro de los 70 millones de pesos, según lo que comentó Alfaro Ramírez, quien también agregó que ya se encuentran buscando maneras de financiarlo.

El gobernador, junto con autoridades municipales, supervisaron los avances de la obra. Foto: Sofía Medeles.

 Construction of the second stage is expected to be completed by mid-April. 

Editor. A few weeks before finishing the second phase of the remodeling of the Auditorio de la Ribera in Ajijic, the Director of Planning, Linking and Sectorial Development of the State of Jalisco, Denisse Corona García, said that there is still no completion date or date for the beginning of the third and last stage of the project.

On March 9, state authorities gave a tour to a group of expat users of the auditorium, including course teachers, donors and cultural managers, to show off the work, which is 93 percent complete. 

Corona García, together with the architect in charge of the inspection of the project, estimated that the work will tentatively begin in early 2023. However, for the last phase of the project there is still no authorization from the State Secretariat of Infrastructure and Public Works (SIOP). According to his projections, the second phase will have to be finished by mid-April.  The last phase, which is the exterior areas, should not take more than six months.  

Inside the auditorium seats were added, the carpet was changed and air conditioning was installed

The attendees questioned whether it is possible to use the completed phase of the Auditorio de la Ribera before the full completion of the project. Denisse Corona stated that it would not be feasible due to the risk of having people enter during the ongoing construction. Also, the decisions of the Secretary of Culture of the state depend on the resolutions of the SIOP.

The improvements included an increase in the number of seats, from 429 to 436; change of the carpet, installation of air conditioning and, soon, ramps for wheelchair access. In addition, the dressing rooms and classrooms are being remodeled. 

During his last visit to Ajijic in September 2021, the Governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, announced that the total cost of the project would amount to 58.5 million pesos (about US$2.8 million) as part of the project «Cardinal Culture», which aims to decentralize the culture of the state capital.

Translated by Christalle Dalsted

Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).– The new mural, (title unknown), will extend along Niños Héroes for 148 meters (about 485 feet), starting at the intersection with Francisco I. Madero. Muralist Juan José Becerra Hernández, author of Prodigio del Agave (Prodigy of the Agave) is directing the mural.

The objective of the painting is to show a snapshot of daily life at Lake Chapala between 1900 and 1920. Some of the scenes of daily life include: the train and the station (now The González Gallo Cultural Center), fishing, the hills of Ocotlán, and the steamboats that used to transport food from one end of the lake to the other.

The artist said that the goal is to create a piece of artwork that reflects Lake Chapala. The magic of «Juanjo,” (short for Juan José), is partly due to his signature technique that makes you feel as if you are inside the painting. Ten students have participated in the work so far; only seven are still working on it currently.

Translated by Amy Esperanto

 Jacob Storms at LLT. 

Patrick O’Heffernan(Ajijic).- Jacob Storms came to Ajijic two years ago for dental work.  This week he is performing his award-winning one-man show ”Tennessee Rising” live at the Lakeside Little Theater.

“ I knew of your beautiful theater and submitted my play for consideration two years ago, but the season was too tight,” he told Laguna in an interview at LLT, adding that this year a friend got an email looking for plays, «we submitted and here I am.”

He is also moving his grandmother to Chapala this month, which made the scheduling much easier.

In “Tennessee Rising”, Storms becomes  the young Tom Williams , and  evolves into one of the most famous playwrights in the world in a 75-min solo show.  An audience member interviewed after Thursday night’s performance called it  “powerful and fabulous” and loved the Q&A with Storms after the play. 

Storms has  performed “Tennessee Rising”, directed by Tony-winning actor and director Alan Cumming ,  at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and cities throughout the US and in Mexico City. Storms performs “Tennessee Rising” at LLT March 10 -13, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 4pm. Tickets available at LLT’s website and at the box office.

Crisia Regalado sings opera rock

Patrick O’Heffernan(Ajijic).- The wildly popular Mexican-American singer Crisia Regalado will perform  two concerts in Ajijic this weekend. Trained in opera, jazz, mariachi, and synthesizer, she blends them together in operatic jazz, synth pop and rock, and traditional Mexican music. 

Regalado is on tour in México and agreed to take a detour from Guadalajara to Ajijic.  She will perform Friday night at Dharma’s Bistro on the Ajijic Malecón in her operatic synth-pop electronic persona, Sin Color, and Saturday night at Casa Domenech in LCS as CRISIA! Delivering operatic jazz, rock and traditional Mexican songs.

Crisia as Sin Color ready for takeoff

In a telephone interview with Laguna, Crisia  said “I am so excited and grateful for the opportunity to perform for the Magic Pueblo, Ajijic. Thank you México for receiving me with open arms!” adding that she is looking forward to touring the sights of Lakeside.

Regalado has 1 million streams on Spotify and over 13,000 followers, half  in México.   Performing since she was child, she has performed in operas, jazz and rock clubs, with mariachis and her electronic pop band.  She has released two albums. This tour marks her first live shows in México.

 Hundreds of Ajijic residents and visitors celebrated Shrove Tuesday 2022. Photo: Arturo Ortega.

Armando Esquivel (Ajijic).-  Hundreds of people attended the Ajijic Shrove Tuesday or “Fat Tuesday” parade and many ended up bathed in flour, including the municipal president of Chapala, Alejandro Aguirre, who accompanied the parade in a Can-Am van.  

The Ajijic Delegation float led the parade decorated with Chinese paper, fabrics and colorful balloons, with clowns onboard throwing candy and confetti.  Following were three golf carts with members of the Expat  community on board, who threw candy to the attendees. However, the Expats did not finish the parade because their electric cart batteries died.

Traditional masked Sayaca dances were performed from start to finish. Photo: Arturo Ortega.

The San Sebastian neighborhood, together with the Martinez family, participated with a cart filled with costumed people throwing flour and candy. Young girls dressed in carnival costumes followed in another cart.  The rhythm of two drum brigades and a band added flavor to the atmosphere.  The fitness community presented a float with gymnastic Sayacas, traditional masked characters usually dressed as women.  Another float had playboy «bunnies» throwing flour into the crowd. 

One of the most anticipated floats was the flour “cushion”, renamed the «covicolchón.” Characters wearing wrestling masks would carry the «victims» to the cushion to be covered with flour.  A cart with a papier-mâché bull and its rider, a mill with aides and another cart with revolutionary sayacos, carrying air rifles and a cannon that threw flour,  completed the colorful  – and flour-drenched –  parade, which ended with a score of charro riders mounted on horses. 

The president of Chapala, Alejandro Aguirre, was not spared from the flour. Photo: Sofía Medeles.

The mayor’s team set up a speaker at the last minute so his vehicle would have some music. He had popsicles to throw to the public. Many approached the mayor to greet him, make requests or even have their picture taken, although there was one who gave a whistle or two at him.

After an hour and 40 minutes, the contingent arrived at the main square, where a cloud of flour greeted the floats and the sayacos.  The large crowd cheered what many consider the best carnival of Lakeside.   

Sayacos dancing the «caballito» or little horse. Photo: Sofía Medeles.

There were minor incidents such as the separation and distancing of the contingent, the departure of the golf carts in the middle of the parade due to the low batteries, two vehicles that were not removed from the parade route and the report of a senior citizen who fell  in front of the horses at the end of the parade, which was not included in the Chapala authorities’ news report.

After the conclusion of the parade the streets of the Pueblo Mágico looked empty, with walls and cobblestones bleached by the flour and  and covered with colorful confetti which echoed the joy and desire of the inhabitants and visitors to relive the tradition.

The bull could not be missing in this edition of the parade. Photo: Arturo Ortega.

Detailed mask of a sayaco from Ajijic. Photo: Arturo Ortega. 

Even the pets enjoyed the carnival parade. Photo: Arturo Ortega. 

The flour cushion was one of the most awaited by the attendees.

Translated by Nita Rudy

On weekends, some drivers park their vehicles in the pedestrian walkway on Colón Street. Photo: Miguel Cerna.

Sofía Medeles (Ajijic).– Acting Ajijic Delegado Maximiliano Macías Arceo said the pedestrian zone currently set up on weekends along Calle Colón   will be re-examined because it is ignored and frequently illegally used for parking.

During weekends it is common to see how the walkway, which extends along Colón from the intersection with Hidalgo to the intersection with Del Paseo along the lake,  is not accomplishing  its purpose as it is not respected by tourists or local businesses. 

Macía said  that one of the main problems is the lack of traffic officers to supervise the area. The officers were helping Chapala’s tourism and speeding up the traffic on the Chapala-Jocotepec highway, at the height of Ajijic.

«At the beginning it worked very well but now it is out of control. People shamelessly move the cones and park, and since the officers are usually in the dock area they don’t notice these actions. We are going to talk to the municipal president to take the appropriate actions,» said Macías. 

Cars, motorcycles and advertising trestles have obstructed the designated pedestrian walkway. Photo: Archive.

The interviewee commented that previously a project was being managed to place more solid but removable delimitations in the walkway. These will be delivered to the president Alejandro de Jesús Aguirre Curiel to define if the pedestrian walkway will be reconsidered or removed. 

Since the installation of the pedestrian walkway on Colón Street in November 2021, there has been a weekly increase in encroachments by both motorists and businesses. In addition, Maximiliano Macias said that cones have been stolen, because of the 60 cones with which they started, to date there are approximately 45 left.

Semanario Laguna conducted interviews among the tourists who roamed the area, who said they did not know the purpose of the cones, due to the lack of signage of the walkway. Therefore, instead of using the walkway, they transit through the street to tour the downtown area of the Magic Town.

Translated by Sydney Metrick

Carnival Confetti, Magic & Fun on its way down Porfirio Díaz street. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

Héctor Ruiz Mejía (Jocotepec).- The first edition of the carnival «Confetti, Magic and Fun» was celebrated in San Juan Cosalá, in the municipality of Jocotepec.

In spite of some technical failures, floats that could not be presented and more than half an hour of delay, the parade in which more than 200 people participated, among them around 150 children, started at around 5:00 in the afternoon from Cardenal Sur Street. 

The main float of the parade ornamented as a peacock, from which confetti was flying. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

The contingent went through the main streets of the town to culminate in the main square on Porfirio Diaz. The parade offered about half an hour of laughter, colors and music, but, above all, a sense of calm.

According to its organizers, this new version of the Shrove Tuesday parade was created with the intention of allowing people to have a good time with their families, without the fear of being covered with flour, as there are always disagreements among the inhabitants about this custom.

One of the parade floats

«I thought this was a very good idea, the truth is that I didn’t like to attend the carnival because everyone gets covered with flour, but I think this one with confetti is a very good idea», commented Carmen López, who together with her small children enjoyed the confetti, the laughter and the traditional masked sacaya characters.

However, there were those who attended the event, who argued that the fun of the carnival is to get covered with flour, «that’s what’s cool, that’s why you come to throw flour,» said Ramón.

One of the soccer-themed contingents. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

At almost the same time as the confetti parade, there was another flour parade, which registered the participation of approximately 400 people.

With a non-family atmosphere at the other parade, the fierce flour battle painted almost everyone white, including pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists traveling through the delegation.

«They floured everyone, I was just passing by in my truck and they threw all the flour at me, look how they left me,» said a passerby who was trying to get to the municipal seat, but did not count that he would arrive «looking like Gasparin (Casper the Ghost)».  

A man in costume, sitting in the cab of the pickup truck that closed the parade caravan. Photo: Héctor Ruiz.

At the end of the confetti event, its organizers said that despite the short time they had to carry out the event, it was a success; and they hope that next year it will be held again, this time with more preparation and more participants.

Translated by Kerry Watson

María Alcalá Ortiz, Queen of Chapala Carnival 2022, during her coronation at the Lienzo Charro J. Jesús González Gallo.

Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).- Different but still  fun, this year Covid-19 was buried and the celebration roared back. After a year’s absence, the Chapala Carnival 2022 returned with lots of tequila, dances and charro (traditional Mexican rodeo) events, in addition to crowning the new beauty queen.

Chapala 2022 Carnival Queen, María Alcalá Ortiz, during her coronation on Friday, February 25. Accompanied by princesses Anahí Mora and Esmeralda de la Torre.

The festivities began on February 25 with the first reception in Chapala’s main plaza. While the attendees waited impatiently for a funeral box so they could begin with the burial of bad humor, the Palapa del Guayabo handed out complimentary vampiritos to set the mood for the public. 

María Alcalá Ortiz, Queen of Chapala Carnival 2022, and Omar Alejandro Esparza Urzúa, the Ugly King of Chapala 2022.

After 3:00 in the afternoon, the organizers managed to make a last-minute coffin, in which Felipe Ortega, King of Joy, lay down with a sign that read «Goodbye Covid», with the wish to bury the current coronavirus pandemic. 

The people of Chapala danced around the wooden box to the rhythm of the local band until beginning the tour led by the Ugly King, Omar Alejandro Esparza Urzúa and King David, Alejandro Selis López that concluded with the burning of the bad humor at the Chacaltita beach in front of the fishermen’s fountain on Chapala’s boardwalk with almost 200 attendees.

The “bad humor” was burned on February 25 at Chacaltita beach in the presence of almost 200 people.  

The King of Joy, Felipe Ortega lay down inside the coffin with a cardboard sign that read ‘Goodbye Covid’ symbolizing its ritual burial. 

Felipe Ortega, King of Joy 2022, who has been the Ugly King in previous years, during the closing reception in Chapala’s main square. 

Alejandro Selis Lopez as King David 2022 during the closing of the carnival in Chapala’s main square. The name represents the giants he has defeated during his life trajectory.

Mexico’s largest lake has lost 36 centimeters (about 14 inches) so far during the dry season. Photo: Archive. 

So far in the dry season, Lake Chapala has lost 36 centimeters, and is down to 95.75 centimeters, 71 percent of its capacity, according to the National Water Commission (CONAGUA).