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18-470: Ajijic ( Spanish pronunciation: [axiˈxik] ) is a town about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west from the town of Chapala , part of the municipality (also named Chapala), in the State of Jalisco , Mexico . It is situated on the north shore of Lake Chapala , surrounded by mountains. Ajijic enjoys a moderate climate year-round. The population of Ajijic was 11,439 as of the 2020 census. Ajijic

36-566: A good source of water. It is one of the oldest villages in Western Mexico. By 1833 it is said to have had a population of no more than 2,000. Ajijic has attracted foreign artists and writers since the 1890s. Englishmen Nigel Millet and Peter Lilley settled in Ajijic before World War II and under the pen name of Dane Chandos wrote Village in the Sun (1945, G.P. Putnam's Sons), about building

54-416: A house on the edge of the lake in nearby San Antonio Tlayacapan. Using the same pen name, Peter Lilley later teamed up with Anthony Stansfeld (an English academic) to write House in the Sun (1949), which concerns the operation of a small inn in Ajijic (now known as the “Old Posada”). These books were written when the main road from Chapala was unpaved, ice was delivered by bus from Guadalajara, and electricity

72-477: Is 28 miles (45 km) south-southeast of Guadalajara , on Mexican Federal Highway 44 . It is located at 20°20' North, 103°10' West. Although there are several theories as to the origin of the city's name, the most likely is that it comes from Chapalac, the name of the last chief of the Nahuatl -speaking indigenous people of the region. Chapala became an official municipality on September 10, 1864, by decree of

90-634: Is 793 millimetres (31.2 in). Even during the rainy season, precipitation generally occurs during the evening or at night. December and January are the coolest months, with nighttime lows just above 4 °C (39 °F). May is the hottest month, just before the beginning of the rainy season. Overall, there is very little temperature variation year round: daytime highs in January are around 24 °C (75 °F); while daytime highs in May range from 27 °C (81 °F) to 32 °C (90 °F). Up until

108-518: Is good swimming." Since the 1960s, Chapala has been frequented by both Mexican and international tourists. Among the area's cultural attractions is mariachi music, which originated in the state of Jalisco. While many fine mariachi bands have been based in Chapala, the most famous groups are based in larger cities nearby. The most famous mariachi in Mexico is Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán , founded in

126-448: Is held there each fall, mariachis from throughout the world (including Europe and Asia) regularly participate. Tony Burton describes early tourism in his book “Lake Chapala through the ages: an anthology of travellers' tales.” Chapala, along with its namesake lake, is well established as a weekend getaway destination primarily for inhabitants of the city of Guadalajara . Most of the area's immigrant population (originating primarily from

144-541: Is located 1,538 metres (5,046 ft) above sea level in Mexico's Volcanic Axis also known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt . The Chapala Lake basin has a year-round average temperature of about 19 °C (66 °F). Due to Ajijic's tropical latitude and relatively high elevation, it is seldom unpleasantly hot or humid. The rainy season begins in June and lasts until October. The average rainfall

162-680: The Jalisco State Congress. During the First World War, in 1915, Norwegian speculators intended to make Chapala a luxury resort town. A railway was to be built, with race segregated carriages. In addition to the railway, the speculators would also provide two motor vessels to navigate the lake with connections to the other small towns at the lake shore. A first class hotel was to be built, as well as an automobile club with attached casino. An extensive dam, 8 kilometers long to provide dry land with plots for luxury dwellings. What

180-550: The United States and Canada) reside not in the city proper but in and around Ajijic , a village of approximately 11,000 inhabitants located approximately 5 miles west of Chapala. Many of these residents stay for a long time, and some try to make Chapala like "home." Pueblos M%C3%A1gicos Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

198-686: The arrival of the Spanish, the region was occupied by nomadic Indian tribes, probably the Coca people that settled the northern shore. There seem to be many explanations, and meanings for the names Chapala and Ajijic, all of which are Indian place names, probably derived from Nahuatl , the native language of the area. Ajijic, formerly spelled Axixic , means “place of water” or “place where water bubbles up” in Classical Nahuatl . Don Andres Carlos and Fray Martin founded Ajijic in 1531 because it had

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216-498: The best runners/climbers. Hundreds are attracted each September to the unmanned Hot Air Balloon event (Regatta de Globos) where local groups enter their homemade tissue paper balloons some as big as 200 cubic feet. The biggest local event of the year is the San Andreas Fiesta dedicated to Ajijic's patron saint. The Fiesta dominates Ajijic's central plaza and surrounding streets for nine days in late November and attracts

234-476: The cooking competition and chili eating, it attracts scores of vendors selling a large variety of items including art, crafts, clothing and novelties. Ajijic's “Chupinaya Carrera de Montana” attracts about 500 males and females from all over Mexico each July for a grueling 13.8 kilometer foot race to the summit of Cerro La Chupinaya (2,400 meters, 7,874 feet) and back to the Ajijic Plaza in about 90 minutes for

252-584: The late 19th century in the southern Jalisco city of Tecalitlán , but now based in Mexico City . Although mariachi music is believed to have originated in the town of Cocula , the greatest concentration of mariachis can be found in the city of Guadalajara , located about 30 miles north of Chapala; it is considered the city that most epitomizes the external concept of Mexico propagated by the international mass media (characterized by charros , tequila , sombreros , and mariachis). A worldwide mariachi festival

270-495: The local population. As the economy becomes more reliant on tourism, many businesses struggled when that population did not arrive in full strength due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ajijic is a very festive village with many holidays, special events and parades about once a month. Mexico's National Chili Cook-Off has been held in Ajijic since 1978 and attracts thousands of Mexican and international visitors each February. In addition to

288-410: The majority of Ajijic residents. On 1 December 2020, the town of Ajijic, located on Lake Chapala, was designated as the ninth Magical Town of Jalisco ( Pueblo Mágico ) by the federal tourism government. [REDACTED] Media related to Ajijic at Wikimedia Commons 20°18′N 103°17′W  /  20.300°N 103.283°W  / 20.300; -103.283 Chapala, Jalisco Chapala

306-647: The shareholders in the company, "Compania di Fromento di Chapala" received, was only photographs of railway carriages and locomotives. See the book; Gullfeber by Kr.Fr.Brøgger, published in Oslo 1932. In the late 1940s the American writer Tennessee Williams settled in Chapala for a while to work on a play called The Poker Night , which later became A Streetcar Named Desire . As Williams explains in his essay " The Catastrophe of Success ," Chapala offered him an ideal place to work, "a remote place among strangers where there

324-425: Was just being installed. The Ajijic population of about 11,000 excludes the hundreds of visitors from Guadalajara (55 kilometres (34 mi) north) who spend weekends and vacations there. Many retired Americans and Canadians now live in Ajijic, with an estimate that immigrants make up more than half of the population in the winter. The influx of large numbers of immigrants has been received with mixed feelings by

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