Lake Chapala

Lake Chapala spreads about eighty kilometres across the Jalisco highlands - the largest lake in Mexico - and its northern shore has been a refuge since the Porfirian era, when Guadalajara society built villas at Chapala town for the climate: mild, dry and famously steady, which later drew one of the largest foreign retirement communities in Latin America to Ajijic. The shore reads as a string of villages. Chapala has the grand old hotels, a long malecon and boats out to Isla de los Alacranes for fried charales under palapas. Ajijic, a few kilometres west, is the pretty one - cobbles, bougainvillea, entire lanes painted with murals, galleries, cafes and a lakefront plaza where the weekly market fills the streets. Jocotepec at the western end stays workaday, with sarape weaving and Sunday markets. Migratory white pelicans arrive in winter and mass at Petatan, one of the region's great bird spectacles. The lake's water level and quality have swung dramatically over the decades, and the ecology remains a live regional issue.

What you actually see

• The malecones - lakefront promenades at Chapala and Ajijic.
• Ajijic's lanes - murals, cobbles and galleries.
• The pelican flocks - winter arrivals massing on the water.
• The boat trips - islands, fried charales and long views.

When to go

November to May for dry days and pelican season; the lake's climate is mild year-round, which is precisely its selling point. Weekends bring Guadalajara crowds to the malecon.

Honest expectations

Swimming is not the draw - water quality varies and locals treat the lake as scenery and fishery. Ajijic is heavily foreign-resident and priced accordingly. Weekend traffic on the shore road is slow.

Nearby

Guadalajara lies an hour north; Mazamitla's pine country and Tapalpa are each two hours away.