Alright! Finally made it to the other side of the lake.
Wanted to get that done, for two reasons: 1) I was kind of done with the north side and ready to leave anytime; 2) I was really hoping to find what I was looking for on the south side of the lake.  

Caught the 8:15 bus to Joco. Walked from Joco to the highway intersection where the bus to Sahuayo would stop. It's about a mile, and I had 15 min to get there. I kept looking for a local bus or a cab, but had to hoof it all the way (probably jogged about half of it, because that bus comes by only once an hour at anytime from 10 'til to 20 after). Got there at 8:58 and there were 6 people already waiting. Bus came by at 9:12.  

It's a 1 1/2 to 2 hour ride, so got there around 11 am. Wasn't really interested in Sahuayo (was just using it as a turnaround point), but I was a little tired of riding, so I went for a stroll through town. I was on the main hwy through the town and walked down it 'til I came to a main blvd.

The blvd had some sidewalk vendors, but as I walked down this 1 mile street, it became more and more crowded with vendors, all the way down to the central square.  

 Couldn't find out if Sunday was their 'market' day, but it certainly looked like it!  





























































 
 
Walked into a narrow eating area which turned out to be about 150 ft long by 80 ft wide with 3 aisles of vendors on each side cooking up their specialties. I couldn't believe there were so many people cooking in one spot (puts the largest mall food court to shame).  

There were two doorways on the left wall, connecting to a meat market which was the same size and layout as the food court. (Look at some pics - enough said!)  
















 







 






 
 
 On the left side of that large room was a door which opened on a narrow alley.  
 Across that alley was a bldg just as wide but twice as long as the previous one, filled with row after row of mainly vegetable and fruit vendors.  






 

 This place was about the size of an armory!  







 

Left all that and went back to the main hwy, found a small restaurant and had a couple of tostadas.  

 Then I headed over to the bus depot (there are 3 depots almost side by side) and found out there are NO buses going back the way I came - I would have to go thru Guadalajara to get back to Ajijic at 4 to 6 hours travel time!  

Well, the guy that had told me how to get there, also told me that he hitchhiked around the lake (he didn't say it was because there were no buses; I thought he was trying to save money).  

 
 
So I've been walking around town for at least an hour; then I spent an hour on the side of the road sticking my thumb out. No luck. As I was on the main road to Guadalajara, I decided to start walking towards the turnoff to the lake, about 3 mi down the road.  

All in all, I spent about 3 hours in the sun - without my hat!! I figured I'd just make the turnaround in Sahuayo and be on a bus back in no time. I hadn't planned on spending a lot of time in the sun. So my forehead got really fried!  


I went about half a mile on the turnoff, and these two older guys in an old pickup truck picked me up. The driver spoke passable english and informed me that there was a bus stop in the village he was going to (first village on this road).  

Sure enough, there were actually two bus ticket vendors (two bus lines go through to different places). The one I wanted was the same line that I used earlier; this bus was coming from Gd by the east end of the lake to the small towns on this side of the lake, then back to Gd from the west end of the lake.  

All the vegetation on the edge of the lake is caused by pollution. The entire lake is shallow, has no springs, and is only fed by a few rivers that have been polluted by the towns living along them. There are efforts being made to correct this, as this is the water source for a significant part of this country, but I wouldn't hold my breath on this. Bottom line: this was, and could once again be, a great lake to live on, but not in this guy's lifetime.  



Oct 18 - - just getting back to this entry and can't remember what happened after this. I know I decided I was done with Lake Chapala. Guess I got back and started packing.