We Love Chacala
14 December 2011 | Chacala
Ellen
We dropped the anchor in Chacala a week ago planning on spending a few days. Well we are still here and are thinking maybe to move along by Saturday... maybe. It really is one of those places that grows on you the longer your here. It's laid back, beautiful, has good restaurants and friendly people. The beach is one of those very very lush tropical settings that are few are far between. It does have some development on it, but there is still lots of jungle surrounding the beach. If there is one downside here it's the anchorage can get rolly if the swells are large. This is enough to keep many boats from staying more than a night or two. But if you do stay longer, the reward is that it usually calms down for several days and then its blissful. We find a stern anchor really helps keep the rolling to a minimum.
The beach itself, is a place that the Mexican's who live in the area frequent. On weekends and holidays there is a lot of families on the beach enjoying themselves and their families. It's great to see.
When you need to provision, it's a 20 minute ride to Las Varas in a van called a Collectivo which is a really cheap taxi van that picks up people till its full. Cost is a dollar. There are a few more towns that you can get to via Collectivo's and we are hoping to explore a few in the next few days.
We had a nice surprise when we first arrived, Cam and Mariann from Bluewater Cruising in Vancouver, were staying with their family in one of the houses on the water. They hailed us on the vhf radio and so we had a few good visits with them. There are lots of rental properties for anyone who would like to come down and stay in this beautiful place.