RVing in Mexico with Raymondo y Marsia 2012

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Friday, 27 January. Yesterday, we moved a few miles north to Playa Chacala mostly off the tourist map and unique for its quiet solitude. This tiny village is 19 miles north of Rincon de Guayabitos and has no RV parks. A local guy used to let RV’ers park under his palms on a lovely section of the beach. There were no services provided. He was a somewhat inattentive landlord coming by only occasionally to collect rent. Well, the big rigs abused his generosity and began digging holes in the sand to dump their black (sewage) tanks. Now, nobody is allowed to camp here.

There are numerous full service campgrounds within easy driving distance of Playa Chacala where these inconsiderate jackasses could have checked into a campground and paid a one night fee and legitimately dumped their sewage instead of despoiling the beach where Mexican families used to pitch their tents. It is unimaginable to me why Canadians and Americans would do such a thing. Everywhere we’ve traveled Ray and I are constantly aware of the fact that we are, in a small way, ambassadors of the U.S. and that our behavior reflects on the impression people of the cities and countries we visit have of Americans in general.

We were very disappointed but after being turned down twice, our polite requests rewarded us with overnight parking in front of the Quezada palapa restaurant only a few feet from the beach. Our landlord did not want any money but accepted Ray’s tip plus we gave a smaller tip to the young man, Rudy, whose job seems to be bringing people into the restaurant then serving as head waiter. Because of their generosity, we actually tipped more than our usual nightly camping rate has been plus we ate both almuerzo (lunch) and cena (dinner) in our host’s restaurant and gave Rudy propinas (tips) for his meal service. As we said adios, Rudy told us to come back anytime. We told him we'd tell others about the place.

Chacala residents clearly take pride in their community and keep it clean. One young woman seemed to be continually spraying the main street with a hose to keep the dust down and we observed an older lady, the proprietress of a shop, sweeping the cobblestones in front of her store. One man constantly rakes the sand in front of the main street restaurants. We have never seen such groomed sand.

The beach is also very clean. No bottles, cans or butts in sight. There are a few hotels but very few visitors. There were a couple of Mexican families enjoying the beach and a few gringo tourists who had mostly come in by boat and taxi just for the day. Chacala would make an ideal low budget honeymoon destination. Lovely, quiet and not much to do but you know what!

We did meet one family staying in a hotel, Boe, his wife and kids from Alaska. Boe is the brewer and a partner in Denali Brewing Company, Talkeetna, Alaska - http://denalibrewingcompany.com .For the past few years, he and his family have vacationed here for a couple weeks each winter when business is slow.

We also visited with Emilia and Arturo. Emilia, from London, was working in Guadalajara when she met Arturo. They have been together for nine years and are expecting a baby in May. They lived for a time in England. Arturo said he liked the weather there. Emilia operates a property management business plus being partners with Arturo in their coffee shop which is growing into a restaurant. www.chacmoolcafe.com. Arturo serves an excellent Mexican chardonnay for 50 pesos a glass.

There are about a dozen large produce (mostly fruit) stands along the carretara (Mexico’s Highway 200) just outside Chacala. They do not seem to be attracting many customers. Wonder who buys all this fruit! Ray was looking for some pieces of coconut but did not want to buy and crack the entire (green outer and hard brown inner - you'd need a machete) shell so we settled for a delicious coconut bar. The vendor offered us a small (we think tamarind) candy instead of change which we accepted but did not care for – too bitter.

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