Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Further along the beach from where we were camping we saw this beautiful home.  Just a little further along there was a beautiful lot for sale.  It was a corner lot and had a gorgeous view of the marina and the beach you see below.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

This public beach is very popular with the locals.  We only had to pay 50 pesos ($5 CAD) per night and there were no services (water, power, sewer).  We knew this before we got there so we made sure to have sufficient water on board and empty grey and black water tanks.  The price and location we perfect and so we stayed for the whole week.  We learned, however, just how busy it can be.  When we arrived it was a Saturday and there were wall to wall people there.  During the week though, it was very quiet.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

One the road entering the beach area there were all of this little stores and restaurants set up.  This gentleman was cooking fresh fish over an open fire.  Oh, it smelt so good.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

At this end of the beach there were a few permanent homes, however, much smaller homes than the large one you saw at the other end of the bay.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

This was their little church.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Across from the church we saw this huge termite nest.  We have seen all kinds of them on our travels, however, this is the closest we have been able to get to one.  Now you should be able to see it clearly.  It is over 24 inches tall.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

We just love this picture.  There is an old, old abandoned building with some walls and this archway remaining.  The stone work is gorgeous, however, take note of the root system on the right side of the arch.  Isn't that something?  We have never seen anything quite like it.  Also, take note of the hammock hanging there, it looks like a nice place to relax in the shade.  There was a man inside repairing his fishing net, you can see it strung below the hammock.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

This is at the marina at the north end of the bay.
 

Near Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

We get quite a kick out of the old, rusty signs we keep seeing in Mexico.  However, this one takes the cake!  It is not only old and rusty AND it is covered with vines making it even harder to read.

We are often driving along and one of us will call out "Look at that sign!", and then we have a good chuckle.
 

Near Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

On a bit of a more serious note.  We often see piles of garbage, discarded right on the side of the road.  It is very sad to see.  We also see people walking along and dropping wrappers and other garbage right in the public areas.  We are so surprised and disappointed to see this.  However, like everything else, we are getting used to it.

We have asked some Mexicans about this very serious garbage problem.  Their response was that it has been going on for a very long time.  The idea of NOT littering has just not been a part of the Mexican culture and society.  We inquired if there is a change in this psyche and learned that it is very slow to change.  One of the big problems is a lack of infrastructure to deal with the garbage.  We do see lots and lots of signs, 'No tir basura', no littering, so there is hope.  Many of the small towns and villages that we visit are very clean.  But right outside of town, we can see something like the photo above.  And, some towns are very littered, so it seems to be localized and dependant on local pride and municipal infrastructure.

 

Las Varas, Nayarit, Mexico

Chacala is a 'very' tiny place, so one day we took out scooters into Las Varas to look around and do some shopping.  This is their church.
 

Las Varas, Nayarit, Mexico

This little sweetheart was playing on the steps of the church, and was just too shy to look at us or the camera. 
 

Las Varas, Nayarit, Mexico

Las Varas, Nayarit, Mexico

We snuck up to her on our way out of the church to try and get a picture of her face.  Isn't she adorable?
 

Las Varas, Nayarit, Mexico

The town square in Las Varas.
 

Near Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

On the way back to Chacala we stopped and took a picture of this banana palm grove.  Notice the trees are shorter and the leaves are thicker than the coconut palms.
 

Near Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

In memory of...
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

While in Las Varas we decided to buy a whole chicken.  The key word here is 'whole'.  They cut it up for us and included the feet.  Speaking of feet, who has nicer feet in this picture, Barry or the chicken?  What a hoot!  We realized Barry's feet were in the included after we saw the picture on the computer.

Also, notice how yellow the skin looks on the chicken.  We found out that they feed the chickens marigolds to make the skin yellow.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Can you guess what kind of fresh fruit this is?  The are mangoes.  We love them and used to eat a lot of them in Canada, however, they did not look anything like these mangoes.  These were absolutely delicious.  If you look out the window in this picture you will see our new friends and their RV, they were gracious enough to give us all of these mangoes.  We actually had to peel and cut some and put them in the freezer.  They freeze beautifully.

You will meet our new friends further down page.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Guess who needs a hair cut!  Doesn't he look like a little teddy bear.  He sure is a cutie!
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Even Tiki is starting to find it hot.  He is starting to pant.  However, if there is a patch of sunlight in the coach, that is where you will find Tiki lying.  He is definitely a Mexican dog at heart.  He loves the heat.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

This is where we were camping on the beach.  The first day we got here, on a Saturday,  we set up the hammock and just laid in it all day people watching.  The beach was packed.  This picture was obviously taken during the week.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

As we mentioned this beach was very popular with the Mexican's and hundreds of them would flock here on the weekend.  Actually, some of them came in by the bus load from other parts of Mexico.  It was incredible.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

More of the little stores out on the road to the entrance to the beach.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

You see this kind of thing a lot in Mexico.  The 'trubadores' rove up the beach and into the restaurants playing and singing.  It is so wonderful, we just love to hear them sing their hearts out.  We love Mexican music and we are starting to get a nice collection of CD's.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

This is the Security Guard at the beach.  He worked so hard to keep the beach clean and he was such a nice guy.  If we recall correctly, his name was Vincent.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

Vincent is sitting on the step of his home.  We could not believe how small it was!  However small his home was, he seemed happy enough.  We noticed that Vincent wore glasses and so we brought the glasses over that the couple had given us in Mazatlan.  We found a pair that he liked and that were stronger than the ones he currently had.  He was so happy and wanted us to thank the couple we met in Mazatlan for the generous gift.
 

Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico

These are our wonderful new friends that gave us the mangos.  We had some really good laughs with them.  They were on holidays and camping in an RV (normally, we see the Mexican's camping in tents).  They lived in Guadalajara.  They were so nice and we really enjoyed getting to know them better.

From left to right we have Martin, Reyna, Olivia, Graciela and German.  Take note of beautiful Olivia (top right).  She is single and looking for a man :)  We miss you guys!  We got your note at the RV park in Sayulita!!  Thank you, sorry we missed you.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

This photo was taken on our way into Sayulita, on the road to the RV park.  Look at all those fruits and vegetables!  And look at the poor springs on that truck :) !
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We went for a nice walk into Sayulita.  This little town is becoming quite the tourist destination, as it is located just north of Puerto Vallarta.  At our end of the beach, where the RV Park is located, was much less touristy.  However, this busy spot was a great place to people watch.

Oh, there's something else we keep forgetting to take a picture of.  We see Mexican men with their shirts rolled up, like the man on the left.  We see them do this all the time when the weather is hot.  We also notice that unless at the beach, very few Mexican's wear shorts.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

This is Sayulita's town square.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Their little church is right beside the town square.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Sayulita was recommend by some friends of ours from Victoria.  Hello Mark and Norma!  Sayulita has a really sweet little downtown area, with the area around the square having cobblestone streets.  In Mexico that is not interlocking brick, it is actual stones, very quaint and very bumpy :)  There were a lot of "Gringos" here.  We were very surprised as this was not the time of the year that we would have expected to see them.  We are not sure if they live here or were tourists, probably both.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We met this really nice guy from the United States named Eric.  He runs a beautiful restaurant/bar just off the square in Sayulita.  We love the way it was decorated, especially out here on the patio. 
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

This is inside up at the bar.  Eric was kind enough to offer us a beverage on the house.  Thanks Eric!
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Eric and Barry looking at our website on Eric's laptop.  Hope all is well with you Eric!
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Tiki is in dire need of a haircut.  And we do finally give him a haircut during our visit to Sayulita.  However, Cindy shaved him so short he looked like the Taco Bell dog.  Poor Tiki.

Note:  Out of respect for Tiki, we will not be showing you any pictures of him for awhile, at least until his hair grows back a bit.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

On one of our walks along the beach we found these Jelly Fish.  We had never seen anything quite like them before.  They are a beautiful shade of blue, the bubble part is smaller than the size of a ping pong ball, and the tail can stretch very long.  When encountered in the water, their tails could wrap around your arm or leg or wherever and supposedly it really, really hurts.  You had to be very careful where you walked as stepping on them with bare feet is not advisable.  We stayed out of the water on any of the beaches where we saw them.  However, lots of people were swimming...
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We thought this sign at the entrance to the RV Park was priceless.  Great sense of humour!
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Here is a prime example of why we are enjoying travelling at this time of the year.  As you can see from the last picture, the RV Park is long and narrow, with only a few spots at the waters edge.  Well, we always seems to get the best spots as there is no one else at most of these parks.  At this park, there was a couple of 'permanent' people parked here.  One lady beside where we ended up parking was leaving the next day.  So again, we got what we feel was the best spot in the whole park.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

This RV Park actually spanned each side of the road, it was very large.  It had laundry facilities, pool table, fish cleaning area, library and TV room, just to name a few things.  It also had this adorable little church, we thought that was a nice touch.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

Just to the left of us, there was a really nice little restaurant.  In the evening they would light all of these candles and Tiki lights, it looked so beautiful.  We really enjoyed our stay here.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

We get such a kick out of all of the old abandoned vehicles, we just had to include a few more for your viewing pleasure.
 

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico

These are literally right on the side of the street.  And they look like they have been there for quite awhile, considering how much dust is on them :)

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