Tonalá

Although it did nor rain much after Monday, the level of Lake Chapala has really risen. In the lakefront park, there is a low ledge that sticks out about 3 feet in front of the concrete wall. That ledge was sticking above the water by a foot or more. Now, it is completely submerged and the water level is some inches up the wall. In fact, in 3 areas where the wall drops down to ground level in the park, they have had to put sandbags to keep the water out of the park. There seems to be more waves than we are used to seeing and some of the waves splash over the fence. In addition to the direct runoff from the mountains surrounding it, the lake is fed by rivers and streams from farther away. We must be seeing the effects of earlier rains farther away just reaching the lake now because we have not had heavy rains for some time. Even the water running down the street to the storm drain beside our house is drying up and is only a trickle now.

Barb has been wanting to go to Tonalá; it is another old city to the east of Tlaquepaque which has become part of Greater Guadalajara. It said on the sign that the population of Tonalá (emphasis on the last syllable as indicate by the stress mark) is 500,000. It is especially known as a manufacturing city, ceramics, clothing, etc. Barb had been told that china, ceramic pots etc. are much cheaper there. It was raining this morning and we decided to go. There is an east-west highway through Guadalajara. We go this route all the time: go straight ahead to Tlaquepaque, turn left to go to Costco etc. and this time we turned east to go to Tonalá. In the latter, there is a central shopping area with some streets being pedestrian only, like in Tlaquepaque. This was very disappointing and not nearly as nice shops as in the latter. However, we did get a large, blue & white, teapot in one of the stores. There is a main thoroughfare just a short distance away which were taking to return home. This is where we should have been looking. There seemed to be many large shops all along this main drag. If and when we go back, this is where we will go to shop. BTW, it had stopped raining before we got to Tonalá and by afternoon, we had sun in Ajijic.