Quince Fest continues
Atotonilquillo celebrates its quince harvest with the 23rd annual Expo Membrillo Saturday, August 13 and Sunday, August 14 featuring music, dance and gastronomy from 11 a.m. to midnight. at the the pueblo’s Plaza Centenario.
A visit to the town also offers an opportunity to explore the historical treats such as the ruined San Gaspar chapel and Atequiza’s handsome Porfirian-era theater.
Atotonilquillo is located adjacent to the Ocotlán-La Barca highway about 45 kilometers south east of Guadalajara, and 11 kilometers beyond the Santa Rosa overpass connecting with the roadway to Chapala.
Open Circle
Olga Kaplounenko will present “My Favorite Songs” at Open Circle on Sunday, August 14, 10:30 a.m. in the garden of the Lake Chapala Society.
Lakeside’s own Russian chanteuse will present her favorite songs from different periods of her life – songs reflecting an array of musical styles and tastes that include jazz, rock, bossa nova and others. She’ll sing in Russian, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and maybe Swedish.
Born and educated in Moscow, Kaplounenko earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering and worked as a process engineer in the field of superconductivity. She also studied jazz vocals at the Moscow Jazz College.
With her husband and son, she moved to Sweden to work at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. The family relocated to Silicon Valley, California in 1996, where they stayed 16 years. Olga worked as a process engineer and manufacturing planner for Coherent (laser company) until moving Lakeside in 2012. Here she has sung with Los Cantantes and performed in “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Tickle Your Fancy” at the Lakeside Little Theatre.
For more information, see opencircleajijic.org.
Pet control
Operation Compasion, which is based in Jocotepec, continues with its outreach program for pet sterilization in villages around the lake. They will conduct a free one-day sterilization clinic Sunday, August 14 at the Pro Mexico building across from the plaza in San Juan Cosala from 9 a.m. on. The medical service is offered at no charge to Mexican pet owners, although voluntary donations are gratefully accepted.
Appointments can be made at (331)219-6829 (cell).
Lakeside Freethinkers
Dr. Bill Warner, PhD in both Physics and Mathematics, has a life-long interest in religion and its effects on history. He founded the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI) and is its director. His books focus on Islamic law and he uses Islamic texts as his primary sources of evidence and draws scholarly conclusions from them. At the August 17 meeting, the group will have a video presentation by Warner on Islam.
The Lakeside Freethinkers meet at the La Nueva Posada restaurant on the third Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. Dinner and additional discussion usually follow.
The Lakeside Freethinkers define a “freethinker” as a person who as an atheist, agnostic, secular humanist or skeptic. They believe that individuals should not accept ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. They reject belief in the supernatural and rely on science and reason to guide their lives.
If you would like to attend or obtain additional information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Garden Club
Once seen as Grandma’s plant, the Coleus is now an unlikely YouTube hit gone viral.
Originally only good for hiding in the shade, hundreds of new sun loving varieties are bursting out all over the internet.
Now Lake Chapala Garden Club members can get to grips with the real thing on a tour of avid horticulturalist Jack West’s garden in El Dorado, (off the Libramento) on Wednesday, August 17, 10:45 a.m. West will demonstrate his showy results simply from Coleus seeds, as well as a whole new world of decorative grasses.
The Garden Club then retires to La Nueva Posada, where at noon Greg Ochs will offer a “show and tell” on his aqua gardening techniques during the luncheon meeting.
To find out more or join the club and receive an invitation to this event, contact Garden Club President Judie Keck at judiekeck@sbc global.net.
Immunization Day
The Lake Chapala Society (LCS) will offer shots of five-year typhoid fever vaccine and both lifetime and five-year pneumonia vaccines on Wednesday, August 17. The shots will be given in the LCS gazebo area from 9:30 to 1 p.m.
Early sign up in the LCS office is recommended as only 90 doses of the typhoid vaccine are available. Those who have signed up will be attended to first. After 11 a.m., walk-ins can obtain the typhoid vaccine, if still available.
The typhoid vaccine costs 700 pesos; the five-year pneumonia shot (Neumovax) 700 pesos; and the lifetime pneumonia shot (Prevnar 13) 1,600 pesos. Typhoid and pneumonia vaccines may not be taken on the same day.
All medical services and immunizations at LCS are open to the public.
Ixtlahuacan
Chapala’s nearby neighbor continues in fiesta mode Saturday, August 20 with a gala concert in the main plaza given by its own traditional mariachi group, the Orquesta Tipica de Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, along with a presentation by the town’s folk dance troupe.
Also on tap is the Señorita Juventud Mexico 2016 pageant and a presentation of the world’s largest cajeta de membrillo that is to be prepared the day before at Guadalajara’s Ex Convento del Carmen, where Ixtlahuacan will be represented along with 15 other municipalities at the Jalisco Festival of Colors and Flavors (see story page 4).
Crime reporting
You can formally report a crime with the Ministerio Publico (district attorney’s office) at the Lake Chapala Society, Wednesday, August 24, 10 a.m. A bilingual officer will be present to provide legal advice regarding your complaint.
If a crime goes unreported, officially it didn’t happen. Be part of the solution and report all crimes.
You must show up early as the officials will leave if no one is waiting.
What a bargain!
The Lake Chapala Society (LCS) board of directors is moving forward on the opening of ¡QUE GANGA!, a thrift shop and bazar located on the west side of Ajijic. LCS members will receive a 10-percent discount on all of their purchases.
¡QUE GANGA! is Spanish for “What a bargain!” or “What a deal!”
The new shop will be situated on the Carratera on the way to Jocotopec, just past Canacinta next to El Ancla Restaurant.
This store will provide another revenue stream to support LCS community projects.
Store hours will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday through Tuesday, closed on Wednesday.
The store also intends to serve Tapatios who flock to lakeside on weekends.
There will be a soft opening on or before September 5. A grand opening is scheduled for Friday, September 16, Mexico’s Independence Day, and the “party” will continue through the weekend. Expect super discounts for everyone.
More volunteers for the store are needed, as are donations of clothing, household items, furniture and kitchen appliances (in working condition). ¡QUE GANGA! will be open to receiving donated items after August 11. For further information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
San Antonio Expats
The late Nanette Phillips de Enciso and her husband Tony hosted the monthly meetings of the San Antonio Expats group over the last few years.
Phillips was a role model for wanting to be of service to her adopted community, even if it often meant going against the status quo.
Annie Green is taking up the challenge of keeping the group going. The original members list is lost. If you would like to be invited to the meetings, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The website, www.sanantonioexpats.weebly.com, will continue to function, says Green.
At the next monthly meeting to be held August 27, 6 p.m. at Cenaduria Elvira, Ramon Corona 127, in San Antonio (across from Mario’s restaurant), the group will discuss a plan to carry on with at least some of the couple’s various community projects. Feel free to join them.
Buddhists
The Heart of Awareness Buddhist Sangha meets weekly on Wednesdays. Noble Silence begins at 4 p.m., followed at 4:30 p.m. by a formal meditation period, dharma teachings and discussion. This week, on August 17, the teaching will be part three of a four-part video retreat titled “The Buddha and the Shrimper,” led by Larry Rosenberg.
Saturdays, August 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Heart of Awareness community will offer an Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation Practice. The course will be taught by Kevin Knox, a long-time meditator. Space is limited and registration is necessary.
The Dharma Movie Matinee “Saltwater Buddha,” where Jaimal Yogis journeys from jungle communes to zen monasteries, plays Monday, August 15, 3 p.m.
For more information visit heartofawareness.org, or call Janet Reichert, (376) 766-6069.