Ajijic

Ajijic, is a lakefront town and the site where many waters converge. In its picturesque streets, the original inhabitants of the town intermingle with the expats, the community of Lakesiders who have chosen to make this town their retirement destination. In much the same way, on a bookcase in any bookstore, like La Renga, the voices of hundreds of authors come together, and here they are read and discussed at the La Colmena cafe, as a soundtrack punctuates the narration: Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, The Pogues, U2, José Alfredo Jiménez, "The Boss" Bruce Springsteen, and a host of songs enliven the reading. In this landscape, painted (and sung) by the author, lives Bob, a character that stands out of from the norm with his brown skin and dog-blue eyes. Bob lives in the anguish of yearning to know his origins, of pursuing the lost part of the double-root of his life. Taciturn by nature, Bob spends his days secluded at home, going out only to stock up on books and readings that multiply his melancholy. This is how he spends his days, his years, until a conversation with Sugar and Niagara (two cheerful Lakesiders) makes him decide to face his destiny and leave for New York.

Caring for animals in a Mexican casa sounds delightful, but when Viviane uncovers rumors and scandals, fireworks at dawn may not be the only thing exploding. Turning sixty has Viviane Masters seeking adventure and travel. Against her daughter’s wishes, spunky Viviane resolves to travel the world as a house and pet sitter. Her first sit in a sleepy ex-pat town in Mexico sounds great, but on arrival she senses a disturbing undercurrent in the placid locale. When Viviane finds threatening notes at the casa, are the warnings for her or the homeowner? As she delves deeper into the mystery, will Viviane’s first adventure be her last? If you love travel, animals, and clean cozy mysteries, with a sassy senior sleuth, grab this short read that introduces you to Viviane Masters, a global house and pet sitter. You’ll like this series if you enjoy any of these authors or series:, Blaize Cement (Dixie Hemingway Mysteries), Adriana Lucio (the Homeswappers), Liz Dodwell (Polly Parrett Pet-Sitter Cozy Mysteries), Jennifer S. Alderson (Travel can be murder), Krista Davis (Paws and Claws Mystery), Heather Day Gilbert (An Exotic Pet-Sitter Mystery), or Susan Kiernan-Lewis (Maggie Newberry Mysteries), to name a few. Author promise: This series contains no profanity and no graphic descriptions of sex or violence.

In the swamps of Asmat in West New Guinea, Tobias Schneebaum--traveler, writer, painter, explorer--finds the way of life that suits him best. Secret Places reels readers into a world of storytellers and sorcerers, cannibals and carvers, a place where Schneebaum discovers his soulmates and his own soul. Looking back at a life of wild adventure, Schneebaum seeks in Secret Places to intertwine the varied strands of his experience, pondering the parallel universes of his experience as a gay Jewish New Yorker and his years among the Asmat. The result illuminates both worlds--as when he juxtaposes the Asmat celebration of the spirits of the dead with a New York City plagued by AIDS and its own sad spirits.

A growing number of Americans, many of them retirees, are migrating to Mexico's beach resorts, border towns, and picturesque heartland. While considerable attention has been paid to Mexicans who immigrate to the U.S., the reverse scenario receives little scrutiny. Shifting the traditional lens of North American migration, The Other Side of the Fence takes a fascinating look at a demographic trend that presents significant implications for the United States and Mexico. The first in-depth account of this trend, Sheila Croucher's study describes the cultural, economic, and political lives of these migrants of privilege. Focusing primarily on two towns, San Miguel de Allende in the mountains and Ajijic along the shores of Lake Chapala, Croucher depicts the surprising similarities between immigrant populations on both sides of the border. Few Americans living in Mexico are fluent in the language of their new land, and most continue to practice the culture and celebrate the national holidays of their homeland, maintaining close political, economic, and social ties to the United States while making political demands on Mexico, where they reside. Accessible, timely, and brimming with eye-opening, often ironic, findings, The Other Side of the Fence brings an important perspective to borderlands debates.

More than 600,000 Americans and 300,000 Canadians now live in Mexico. This authoritative and humorous examination of both the pros and cons of living, working, and doing business in Mexico is one of the bestselling guides out there.

In recent years, food studies scholarship has tended to focus on a number of increasingly abstract, largely unquestioned concepts with regard to how capital, markets and states organize and operate. This has led to a gulf between public policy and people’s realities with food as experienced in homes and on the streets. Through grounded case studies in seven Latin American countries, this book explores how development and social change in food and agriculture are fundamentally experiential, contingent and unpredictable. In viewing development in food as a socio-political-material experience, the authors find new objects, intersubjectivities and associations. These reveal a multiplicity of processes, effects and affects largely absent in current academic literature and public policy debates. In their attention to the contingency and creativity found in households, neighbourhoods and social networks, as well as at the borders of human–nonhuman experience, the book explores how people diversely meet their food needs and passions while confronting the region’s most pressing social, health and environmental concerns.

A directory of more than 225 English-speaking physicians and 50 of the best hospitals in more than 40 popular vacation spots in Mexico, this guide is suitable for the travellers who fall ill while on vacation there. It includes hospital listings, services and specialities available, English-speaking administrative and medical liaisons, and more.