This is the two week period before school starts, August 20th. Lots of families come for a week or two, and camp on the beach. I love seeing big families cooking, and eating, and visiting together.
Really, I think I am jealous. When I was little I had 8 cousins, 4 aunts and 4 uncles. We spent four official family hotlidays together. Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. It was fun playing with my cousins, but the grown-ups mostly drank alot and sometimes dinner would be at 11 at night. Good old bad old days.
I especially love watching families arriving at the beach. Often in a pickup, with the older ladies sitting in plastic chairs in the back. And kids crammed in everywhere. And stuff piled on top. When I first came here my reaction on seeing people riding in the back of trucks would have blinded me to the other aspects. Families together, smiling kids hanging on together, happy lovely faces anticipating a day at the beach. I love it that many of the kids have multiple adults who love them and care for themThe storm last week washed most of the sand away from the beach in front of the camping areas and south to area in front of Mar de Jade. Of course, the sand will come back, tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Or in a few months. And the boulders are kind of pretty, in their own way.
But unless some idiot developer or government official builds a breakwater or a marina, the sand will be washed back onto the beach. Until the climate REALLY changes. Someone told me the other day that they are already loosing the beach below the new marina on the way to Punta de Mita.I especially like the food vendors: ice cream, fruit stands, candy, sweet rolls, cooked banana desserts, etc. Actually, I don't really like the food. It's just the coler, and the entrepenurial spirit I enjoy.
There are four or five roaming bands who regularly play at the restaurants in Chacala on the weekends. They go from restaurant to restaurant. I think they usually get 50 pesos a song ($4.50). Sometimes two bands will be playing back to back in the same restaurants.
I don’t really enjoy that, but it doesn’t seem to bother anyone else. I am starting to think about trying to arrange for some hearing tests for local residents. It hard to believe they haven’t suffered hearing damage, probably from childhood.
Delphin’s in the restaurant next to the bigger camping area, on the beach. I have only had chips there. In fact, for all I know, that’s all they serve: chips and beer and pop (refrescos). But it’s very colorful and right on the beach. Nice setting. They used to have a horrible juke box there, but I think it’s disappeared.
Chacala has all kinds of relaxing options, like fishing, a massage, or whatever. But my favorite is the afternoon siesta. With a nice breeze blowing over me.
Everyone finds a place to kick back and relax. From Majahua to a hamoca in the camping area. 
People are swimming in the ocean from daylight until after dark. I love swimming in the ocean. When I first came to Chacala I didn’t realize someone was always watching every kid in the water. 
Smaller kids, say under ten. But now I can see who is watching which kids. Almost all the kids on the beach are visiting, not from Chacala. But many families have been coming here for years and years. They have there favorite spots, and bring everything they need to be comfortable. Tables, chairs, sunshades, coolers, food, etc.
Lately I have noticed more Chacala young people on the beach than I ever noticed before. It may be a change, or maybe I just didn’t notice them before. They are learning to surf, and skim board, and watch other teens, and wrestle and place futbol and swim. I love watching them. I know they are like teenagers everywhere, but they seem special to me, here in Chacala. Maybe because I know who they are, and remember them pre-teens, even younger.
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