From Chacala to La Laguna/St.Maria del Oro

Today, my new friends who are visiting Chacala, and have a rental car, took me along on another day trip. This time to La Laguna and a lake next door, called St. Maria del Oro. It was a great trip. About two hours from Chacala, north of Chacala, and east of Compostella and Tepic. On the way to Guadalajara.

The lake was jam packed with kids enjoying a swim tournament. Which meant a guy with a loudspeaker was yelling non-stop. But the kids were having a great time.

Other than the the loudspeaker, it was very nice. I had heard about this place many many times, and was curious about it. I had loaned my friends a little travel book about West/Pacific Mexico, and the description of the lake caught my two friends interest. The book was written about 15 years ago, so things have changed. I liked it though.
We had refrescos/soda pops at this little stand at the Koala mini-resort. I really liked the atmosphere. Big trees, and a very family oriented and natural environment. It has camping spaces and little rental bungalows. The lake is very beautiful, but surrround by restaurants and private homes reached by a dusty bumpy road. Too touristy but nice.The lake is set down in a volcano created crater. And the town of La Laguna is about five miles away. We went back to the town of La Laguna for lunch and a quick look around.

It's a nice little town with a lovely church. And a nice restaurant with a delicious looking chicken being cooked on a grill out in front of the resturant. It looked soooo delicious, and our mouths were drooling. We went inside and we given a nice table in front on the corner windows. And guess what?

They weren't serving the chicken because 1) it wasn't cooked yet, 2) the chicken place was owned by someone else 3) they never serve chicken. All three of us translated the waitress's answer differently. So we hadvery tough carne asada, grilled beef. It was okay. This is the restaurant building. We had the corner table. Very nice.