Basic housing in Mexico

I drove out to the dam on the Marabasco river behind Cihuatlan the other day as some friends were spending the afternoon cooling off in the river on someones birthday. Turns out they were there but on the other side of the river and I didn't feel like a crossing the "spillway" adventure so I missed them.

The dam creates irrigation ditches on either side of the valley, one for Colima and one for Jalisco. Along the canals well past Cihuatlan are a number of very basic housing situations that grabbed my attention on the way back. Some of the most basic housing I have seen in Mexico.

They have a bridge over to the road

Jocotepec - an overbuilt weekend getaway?

There's been lots of concern and controversy over the thousand plus houses and apartments being built just beyond Jocotepec in El Chante. Most of the concern has been about how the permits were issued and can the treatment plant handle that much sewage and keep the lake safe. Who knows?

They have thought of the traffic this will produce and have a nearly completed Jocotepec bypass road on the hillside north of town. They are also widening highway 15 from Joco out to highway 54 and the entrance to Guadalajara. This new road may end up being better than the existing road into Chapala and therefore adding even more traffic.

Since there is no major shopping in the Joco area I can't imagine what Bodega Aurrera and the centro market will be like weekends or vacations let alone in town driving. This is a large part of why I'll probably be moving back to the beach towards the end of the year. A tourist escape so close to a city the size of Guadalajara is not what I came here for.

Hill side of the highway some of the 1000

Lake side of the highway some of the 1000

A little further towards El Chante building more

And here is an apartment complex that could number another 1000