Where you are

You are in Raquet Club, a residential development on the hillside above San Juan Cosalá, on the north shore of Lake Chapala — between Ajijic to the east and Jocotepec to the west.

It is a development of several decades' standing, with houses in a Mexican colonial and rustic style and streets named after tennis players — Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King. It has its own clubhouse with tennis courts and a pool, and the house has its own pool and a view over the lake.

What it does not have is shops or restaurants inside it. This is a residential hillside, not a town center — and that one fact shapes most of the practical advice below.

On foot, the world here ends quickly: the streets of the development, and not much else. If you are hoping to use the club — the courts, the pool — ask us what applies for this house. The hot springs, the restaurants, the supermarket and the pharmacy are all outside — down in the town or over in Ajijic.

Raquet Club is also spread out and built on a slope. It is not a flat five-block historic center where everything is around the corner.

So the honest answer is that you'll want a car here, or you'll want us arranging your rides. With either one the whole lakeside opens up. With neither, every outing — lunch, groceries, the pharmacy — starts with a phone call.