From a distance  Hotel Tapatio looks like an ancient city covering a mountain.  Once you enter the gates, manned by security personnel day and night, you find rosy villas overlooking metropolitan  Guadalajara.  Cobblestone streets pass bugambilia frosted walls.  Both the historic center of Guadalajara and the international airport are short taxi rides away.  Taxis are always available at the entrance to the hotel.   Hotel Tapatio is a beautifully appointed resort  located  on Boulevard Aeropuerto which connects Guadalajara with Miguel Hidalgo International Airport.   The traditional arts and crafts towns of Tlaquepaque and Tonala with their spectacular market days and festivals are just below.  The villa is nestled into the side of the mountain.  Have breakfast on one of the broad terraces while listening to the gentle fall of water from the fountain.   Or walk up the street to the hotel restaurant where you find a delicious international menu.

Created from handmade Mexican materials, Villa La Golondrina  joins its spacious dining room/library to a large comfortable living room. by means of a unique light tunnel made of handmade colored glass bricks created by glass artist Javier.  The kitchen is completely tiled in the traditional way.  Frida Kahlo would have been happy sipping her coffee at the stove/bar.  A cupola rises from the kitchen’s tall ceiling.  French doors open from the master bedroom to a desert rock garden.  The bedroom has a blue tile floor and a working  fireplace sculpted by Don Chucho.  A full bathroom and dressing room adjoin this bedroom.  The bath is also accessible from other parts of the house.  The second bedroom is part of a guest apartment which has its own tree pierced balcony and bath with Jacuzzi tiled by national treasure Jorge Wilmot.  Lee Parsons, author and archaeologist, designed the mosaic in this bath.  The guest apartment/ second bathroom has a miniature kitchen area.  Stars can be viewed from a platform on the roof.  A comfortable  maid’s room with full bath is located off the lower terrace.  

The villa,  built into the mountainside several hundred feet above the city,  enjoys a climate that is cooler and air that is fresher.    It is surrounded by gardens planted with bananas, guavas, mangos, and little figs.  Broad tiled terraces provide views of the city below.  The lower terrace has a sheltered area and a mermaid sculpted fountain.  A Huichol artist fashioned a traditional mosaic floor on one side of the terrace, using natural colored stones.

There is parking space for two vehicles adjoining the villa.

The city of Guadalajara is home to banks and legal services that are very helpful to potential foreign residents.  Since the city does not fall within the coastal and border areas where foreign ownership is restricted, ownership of property is direct and uncomplicated.

 Hotel Tapatio is a full service luxury hotel complex with restaurants, bars, a large swimming pool, and tournament quality clay tennis courts with complete club staff.   

A few  minutes away,  Club Atlas, not affiliated with the hotel, provides fine golfing at reasonable guest rates.