Description of Chacala

Map of Chacala
The little beach is Chacalilla and the big beach is Playa Chacala.
The wide line across the top is the paved road.
You approach Chacala from the middle of the top of the photo.

I had occured to me lately that it isn't just people who have visited Chacala who read this blog. Andthat it might be helpful to have an idea of the layout of town. So I am going to describe the lay of the land a little. And my version of some of the history.

At the north end of Chacala is a smaller beach called Chacalalli. The smaller beach and a large section of land between the two beaches was appropriated by a former Govenor of the state of Nayarit (who went to prison for other deeds), and eventually ended up in the hands of the current developers.

Now the history of Chacalilla has faded into the past, at least for the new landowners in what is now called Marina Chacala, and high-end development. The entrance to the walled, fenced, and gated "community" (to use the term loosely) is at the north end of the paved road to the Marina (also built by the Govenor during his term of office). Large construction vehicles, truckloads of workers, and the residents entering and leaving the Marina (not a marina, there is no marina) honk their horns all day and most of the night, in order to get the "security" guards to let them in.

All beaches in Mexico are public property, and open. But the Marina owners, like owners of other rich people developments have blocked public access completely, except from the ocean side. So local people now come to Chacalilla beach by boat. Works for me.

Okay, next, at the north end of Chacala beach is the muelle. Or little harbor, where the local fishing and tourist boats tie up to a large cement dock that is also used to load and unload large shrimp boats that show up occasionally. The Fishing/Tourist coop has a building here. There is a little sandy beach here, with no waves, and lots of families with little kids, and local folks, swim there.

Then then is a Malecon, a wide pedestrian, dirt path that goes around a small headland to the larger part of Chacala beach. Casa Tortuga, Isreal and Chata's Mirador rentals and home are here, as is Casa Azul, a new gringo mini-house, and four vacation homes owned by people from Guadalajara or elsewhere in Mexico.

Once you are on the main beach, you will see Alvaro's ( expect on the petroglyph's and Huitchol tours) house. Then Mingo's (former) restaurant, and open space where fishermen load and unload their boats to repair and paint them. Then there are a string of restaurants about a third of the way down the beach.

Then there is the coconut grove area, claimed by El Delphin's, where people camp (RV's block the area off in January and February), a couple of more restaurants, and about six small, jerry-built homes. Most of these places offer camping spaces and toilets/showers for campers.

Then down at the south end of the Chacala beach is, first Majahua's shady beach club area, then Mar de Jade (a hotel and retreat center/spa) and then, about 20 feet up from the beach, and tucked into the jungle, the small Majahua resort, spa and restaurant.

My version.

Adventures on the beach, walking to Majahua, Chacala

I have used this photo before, but I love it so much, I couldn't resist.

Feeling the need to download Mac updates on my little laptop, I decided to walk over to a neighbor's early this morning. I left the house about 7am, with Chiquita as my guard dog. When we got down to the beach road we cut over to the beach, joined by Luccki, Ventura's dog. Lucci used to be tied up all the time, and I would take him for beach walks. But he doesn't need me anymore, so when he sees me he runs up and says hi and gives me a lick and tears off again. I am so glad to see him on the loose. There was quite a bit of plastic on the beach in front of the restaurants, of course. And in front of the big camping area too.

It was the perfect time of day to walk to Majahua. From the house where I live this summer to Majahua is the longest walk in Chacala, and I love to walk when the sun is shining on the ocean, but not yet on the beach or the road. The sand was soft and squishy and the water was so warm I didn't even notice how warm it was until a larger wave came out of no-where. There was a little family sitting on a little sandy ledge, and we all got surprised. I was carrying my laptop in my little backpack, so I'm glad I didn't get knocked over. Chiquita was neck deep and paddling like crazy, being dragged out into the ocean, when I noticed her and snatched her up.

When we got down toward Mar de Jade the sandy beach is still all washed away. So we picked our way through the rocks to get to the path to Majahua. As we approach Mar de Jade both dogs came out, and I picked up Chiquita because one of the dogs sounded very agressive. He was very agressive and I was scared. Someone up in Mar de Jade started yelling at the dog, but he was circling us and trying to nip at Chiquita, who was not a happy camper. I finally reached over for a rock and the dog backed off. I don't remember being attacked by a dog in front of Mar de Jade before. I couldn't remember if it was the same old dog or a new one.
I read a Mac magazine at the airport yesterday, and one article really emphasized doing updates regularly. But on my dial-up connection it can take three or four hours. Ugh.

Majahua is looking especially beautiful right now, lush and green. I looked at their website the other day, and there are a bunch a nice pictures of their lovely new spa. I am definitely a fan of Majahua. Too bad it's a little out of my price range.

I walked back down on the path that goes through Majahua jungle and then alongside the back of Mar de Jade and down to the Majahua parking lot. There is a brand new addition to the Mar de Jade property. A six foot tall chain link fence with another three lines of barbed wire above the chain link. The whole (very long) fence is built on a knee-high new stone wall. Very striking and very, very ugly, and out of place, in my opinion.

I'm not sure what the goal of the long fence is. But my best guess is that it was built in reaction to the flurry of break-ins and burglarys that took place last spring. I was really surprised to see the fence though. It must have cost a fortune. Very ugly. Very ugly fence. The jungle is already starting to cover it up. And in one place the wire has been pulled and bent down. Prbably it will be covered with vegetation in a few months.

About the beach in front of Mar de Jade. I don't understand the rhythm of it, but seasonally ( I think) within a few days all the sand disappears on the very south end of Chacala beach. Leaving solid rocks and no place to swim. And then, sometime later, (days, weeks, or months) it all returns, very quickly. And there's a lovely, sandy beach again. It's a new phenomena to me. Last winter the sand in front of my campsite started to disappear one day, and then about three days later it all came back. But in front of my camp only some of that sand washed away and it was still fine for swimming. Very strange.

Blogs about Mexico

Waiting for a whack at the pinata

I have spent a number of hours the last couple of days reading other people's blogs about Mexico. I got started after looking more closely at Mexico-in-English . That's the blog that just had an article about this blog. The author, Ellen...., has a nice list of all the blogs she has reviewed. Some of them I was familiar with, but a bunch were new to me.

If you like reading about gringos in Mexico, take a look. My two favorites at the moment are (1) about a family making a extended exploration of Mexico with their kids. And (2) living in San Miguel de Allende. This one isn't actually a blog. It's a website about living in San Miguel de Allende from the point of view of a couple of women living on higher-end Social Security.

Or some long, lonely night go to Rolly Brook's website. He includes everything you ever wanted to know about Mexico, including a list of websites for gringos. And blogs. A great job. Information you can count on.

Just found another living in Mexico blog, about Life in Guaymas http://brendaandroygoingtomexico.blogspot.com.

Glorious Green Day in Chacala, with Snakes

An echevveria I am searching for tomorrow, on my bus ride to plant nurseries around PV

It's early afternoon and I have spent the morning puttering around, being careful with my back, which is recovering from the hammock collapse a few days ago.

The weather is perfect. Hot and breezy. Everything is fresh and green from the two hour thunderstorm last night. The rain was so heavy and loud I couldn't have heard anyone talking. Fortunately there was no one in the house except me and Chiquita at 2am so it didn't matter.

There is a point in the center of this house where you can see outside in every direction.

To the south, the paved road is now covered by the palms, mangos and other lush greenery. Can't see the Marina gate. A blessing. Still hear the horns beeping for the gate to open, of course.

To the west is the sky, the ocean, and lots of green stuff. The ugly little concrete block blunker built by the man with a red pickup/gold canopy shell is almost blocked by the trees and shrubs. Hoorah!!

To the north, the construction moonscape is covered over with grass, vines and shrubs and to the northwest, the view of the neighboring large house, and the endless sound of people talking and babies crying is buffered somewhat by all leaves.

And to the east, all the trees and shrubs are growing fast, and soon I won't be able to see the paved road. I hope.

The sun is bright and the air is clear and the sky is soooo blue. Perfect day to stay on the veranda and putter with plants. Too hot out there. Nice to look at though.

The main drawback to being visually isolated from the few houses at this end of town, is that the varmints in the neighborhood feel free to wander right up to the house. Last night C. and I were walking up the driveway just as it got dark, and she went nuts. Barking and trying to climb a big shrub. I got close enough to see what looked like a small wildcat with a sharp pointy nose, sharp looking teeth, and a big tail. Dark and light colored fur. Snarling and hissing. Chiquita wasn't scared a bit, but she should have been. When I opened the front door, it took a minute for her to decide to come it, but she did.

A few morning ago C. was doing something out of the gravel driveway when I went outside. It turned out she was torturing a long, skinny snake. Which was still alive. I left her to her business.

I don't know anything about snakes in Chacala. A couple of weeks ago someone told me a story about when she was pregnant. She dreamed a giant snake was in very belly. She was very upset when she woke up and told her family. Finally someone when over to the bed and found a giant giant snake coiled up in the mosquito netting hanging over the bed. She said she thought it wasn't poisoness, just horrifying.

I only where flipflops here, so it's a little scary to walk off paths and driveways and roads. In fact, I don't do it. Too many creepy crawlies. It makes it hard to weed around the house, but I will probably find someone to help me. It's not so scary when someone else is right there with me.

I'm kind of waiting around for the electric people to return and finish putting in the wires, etc. But, no one has shown yet.

Invasion of the Blog-Snatchers

One of the Henspetter's with her dinner

A few weeks ago I got a strange, threatening-appearing email from person who lives in Chacala. When I saw the email I was in Morelia, and not on my own computer. It was clear from the title (and the person's address was right there, on the "from" line), that it was not a friendly email. So I deleted it and trashed it without reading it. At the time, I was glad I didn't open it on my own computer, in case it has some virus in it, or something else.

But, it turns out I probably should have saved it. Because since then someone/something has been messing around with this blog. It doesn't show when you are reading it, but it is very destructive, and may result in the blog crashing and burning.

I reported the problem to Google, Yahoo, and Technorati, via email, not really expecting any help. Surprisingly, within about an hour of my "help!!" emails, all three had responded. Actual human beings, with names, and email address, responded to my plea for help. Amazing.

Apparently what is happening to this blog, is the latest thing in weird "spamming" efforts. And all three companies are apparently hot on the trail of whoever is doing this kind of stuff. They wanted to know if anything weird had happened lately in my emails. I told them about the threatening email I had deleted, and also that I had received three odd emails to the same address about a week later. The computer identified the emails as spam. They seemed to come from someone I knew, but they didn't look right. I deleted them, but hadn't emptied the trash yet.

The Google people actually came into my computer from outer-space, with my permission, to recover those emails. What a weird thing. I feel like I am in a science-fiction story. One of them had already wrote me that they think it is coming from Southern California. Oh well, what can you do? Just wait and see what happens, I guess.

Blogger on a Hot, Tiled Patio

Okay, here's my list of handy hints for life the Chacala.

1) Keep your garbage in the freezer section, neatly compressed while it's in the kitchen, to avoid ants and other pests. Take out the frozen packages to the trash can when the freezer is full. Those plastic shopping bags work well for garbage. If you are too tired to wash a dirty dish or pan, stick in the the fridge overnight.

2) Keep a spray bottle of 50% white vinegar/50% water in the kitchen, for spraying the counters.

Orange juice lady, early one mornig
during during Easter week

The ants don't care for it, and go belly-up and croak when you hit them with it.

3) Keep a broom right outside all external doors, so when scorpions, cangrudos, or lizards, or whatever, try to come in to visit, you can easily give them a good whack. Good for rude neighbors too. Just kidding.

4) Make sure the water in the shower is running BEFORE you put shampoo on your hair.

5) If you are too cheap, like me, to keep the gas hot water tank going when it's never colder than 75 degrees, keep a garden hose (attached to a hose bib) rolled up and hanging on a sunny wall for a daylong supply of hot water. I have mine next to where I handwash clothes.

6) There is NEVER a good reason for running out of toilet paper. It goes on the top of every shopping list. I suppose this hint is good for where ever there's an as........... to be kept clean. Another bad joke.

7) Everything will rust, remember that.

Lost Souls in Chacala

Yesterday I had my second visit by a scary young man, who carried a donation can with him, asking for support for a treatment facility. He also carried a fake handmade ID that explains nothing. He came by last week, and unfortunately, he caught me while I was sitting on the patio, waiting for Chicho and Berta to come by to pick up me. It was the day we were headed for the plant nurseries. So Mike/Miguel told me his story, or version #1 of his story, which involves prison, drug addiction, deportation, etc etc etc.

I started getting uncomfortable with his being at this house, because he asked if I was alone, or married. I said, yes, "I am married", which I have never done before in Mexico. I said I am waiting to go to La Penita in a few minutes. Then Chicho showed up and Mike/Miguel assumed he was my husband. Chicho is very handsome about about 37 years old. More likely to be my son. Or grandson. So Mike/Miguel disappeared in a blink, and I was relieved.

Then yesterday morning, here he is again. I stayed in the house and talked to him thru the screened window. I said "we" were really busy, and he left. Ugh. Makes me uncomfortable. First time in Mexico I felt kind of exposed or something.

Then this morning E., a middle-aged Mexicana orginally from DF, now from Las Varas, came around, selling tamales. I went on out the patio and visited with her. She speaks some English. She has kind of followed me around Chacala for the last year or so, as I move from place to place. Telling me her tales of woe.

Finally told her I was working on some writing and had to finish. And off she went with her buckets of tamales.

My back still hurts from the falling hammock, but not as much as I expected. The weather is lovely. Clear and breezy, but too hot and humid to be outside, except in the shade.

Falling Out of the Wrong Side of the Hammock, in Chacala

The big news at htis house is that the government electrical people are here, installing the permanent electrical hookup. Two men are digging the four holes for the two huge cement power poles. They are digging the holes by hand. Two holes are for the guy-wires and two for the actual poles. The holes are about eight feet deep. It's amazing what is done by hand around here. I was very relieved to see them using a crane to lift the poles into the holes. Even so, I had a few scary moments watching the poles dangling and swinging in the air, very close to the house. But, no problem, the poles are in and some of the hardware is attached. Monday is the big day I think, when the actual electricity will arrive.

Spent the morning cleaning house, dusting the window screens, saving a green lizard from Death by Chiquita, and miscellaneious other pleasant and satisfying tasks. All went well until I fell out of the hammock and landed flat on the bottom of my spine/tailbone. Luckily I have quite a bit of padding back there.

Actually, I didn't really fall out. I re-arranged the veranda today, as planned, and moved the hammock to the other end of the shady area. Somehow, one of the metal hanging brackets collapsed, and I fell straight down onto the tile floor. Smack!!! I couldn't tell at first if I had cracked by tailbone or something. I don't think I did, but it's very sore and it's painful to move.

I read and puttered around for about three hours, waiting to see if maybe my tailbone was cracked. Don't think so, but it does hurt. Luckily I have small stash of a strong pain relievers. But I think they are starting to be too old. So I took two. And I can definitely tell they are working. I still hurt, but I feel kind of distant from the pain. I sort of did a mini-whip lash to my neck as I fell, and my neck is sore too. It happened so quick it's sort of hard to remember.

Right before I fell, I was looking up at the metal hangers, making sure they had settled into place on the rafters. And I flashed on my only other hammock-to-tile floor experience, which was in Huatulco. I was in a patio that had very high walls, and a locked door to the outside world, and as I lay on the floor, I thought, oops, I might be here all night, until the maid comes in the morning. But I was fine that time.

And I probably am this time too, but my lower back is pretty uncomfortable. The pain medication feels great though. If I was going to be an addict, I would go for pain pills probably. As it is, I am stuck with Coca Cola. Doesn't do anything for pain, but tastes sooooo good.

Talking to G and K

I have been fooling around with using Skype and SkypeOut for about a year, off and on. Currently I am using SkypeOut, where I type in my friend's phone number on the computer, and my friend answers on his phone. For the person being called it is a normal phone call, and it costs me, on the other end of the line, (using my computer and headphone with mike) about 1.5 cents a minute.

The downside is is works much better if the computer is hooked up to a wireless or high-speed connection. This house has dial-up, and usually I walk over to a neighbors if I was to make a Skype call or download something large. Mildly inconvenient for me, but it's really nice to be able to talk to friends on the phone.

Last night my brother, my sister-in-law, and I, talked for a long time on Vonage. They live in Seattle. We tried the SkypeOut but there was too much of an annoying time-lapse. It was so nice to talk to them. They always make be feel good. Saying nice things about this blog and the gardening one too.

They are both very artistic, especially with decorating their apartment in Seattle. It's wonderland of clever things, recycled things, my brother's artwork, all kinds of stuff. You have to go there many times so see all the little special touches. And they are the nicest, sweetest kindest people you can imagine. When I used to go to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show I could sleep on their couch. It was so much to lie there and see so maybe special little surprises, all over the place. It makes me feel so good to talk to them. And, of course, I was the world's crummiest older sister. It makes me sad to think about what a jerk I was to Gus.

We talked some about what it would be like to live in Puerto Rico, mostly because it's US and Medicare works there. If you have Medicare, that is. I like the idea that Spanish is the primary language there, and that it's an island. I looked at PR alot when I was thinking about where to live. Never went there though. It's got the same drawback as Hawaii. If you to have alot of money to get there (on a plane).

But it's something to think about and I appreciate the idea of living next to family more than I ever did before. ( The importance of family in) Mexico must be catching.

Rainy Rainy Chacala

View from Las Brisas, looking south on Playa Chacala

Noticed a few new things around town today. Besides the flooded roads and the lake between the paved road and the little beat-up beach stores and restaurants. People say crocodile is back in the little lake, but I haven't seen it yet.

The small construction road that briefly served the new yellow house is no more. Filled in with dirt, and a new house foundation has been built next to it. And right next to Benjamin and Aurora's little cement block house with garden. Aurora said her father-in-law with a fat wife was going to be living there. But hopefully I missed some crucial piece of that conversation, because that sounds bad. We, Aurora and I, agreed to do a plant trade tomorrow. She has a nice hanging plant with purple under the leaves and sweet little blue flowers. And she wants a Desert Rose. Happily, I have some. Aurora and Benjamin seem to have one of those lovely Mexican relationships where she is isn't allowed out of the house without him, unless, of course, she is going to work. Whatever.

Haven't gotten the latest Telmex phone bill yet. It's usually hand-delivered by one of the kids. The bill for this house is paid automatically, but I want to make sure I didn't go over the 100 call a month Telmex limit. This bill will be the first bill that covers dates I was actually staying here. Telmex has a two month lag in billing.

Tomorrow is the weekly floor scubbing day at this house. Luckily, the owners have a little floor cleaning machine, like a vacuum cleaner. I am dreading it thought. The machine is fine. It's moving all the furniture back and forth that gets old. It has to be done though. The bug-guts really stick to the floor and sweeping isn't enough.

This past week or so I have had a bunch of contacts from old friends who I haven't connected with for a long time. Partly at my instigation, and partly out of the blue. The internet is amazing for finding old friends you have lost touch with. Nice to hear about other peoples lives, and makes me a little sad. I am having a brief moment of missing my old life and old friends. But I wouldn't go back to that life for anything. This is a much nicer life for me. More my style, I guess.
It's amazing to me how my expectations get in the way of my life. The bread truck vendor (sweet rolls and white bread rolls that I like for making little pizzas) didn't have any plain rolls when he came by last night. The driver, Lalo, has this new horrible horn that sounds like a European ambulance. So tonight, when I was waiting around for him to come by, I was listening for the horrible horn. But he just did the regular horn, and by the time I realized it was the bread truck, he was too far away to catch up with. Rats. No little fake pizza.

But if I had kept in my mind that he could use either horn, I would have had time to catch him. I should have known he wouldn't use it at this house because I was giving him a hard time about how loud it was when he came by last night. Never assume. My friend that lives in Patzcuaro says that alot. And it's true. All my stupid little assumptions tend to get in the way of what it really happening.