Beach life in Chacala has been berry berry gooood to us.
Our days are filled with swims.
Long walks.
Contemplating Mexican head-scratchers like this almost house that must have been built by a tennis nut.
And this rare boat fruit tree.
Lots of play.
Lots of fish tacos.
Exploration of the local flora and fauna.
And we finish strong with an ice cold beer… ok maybe two, and a little music as the light fades. This week I got stuck on Colin Hay’s “Beautiful World”. An ode to life’s simple pleasures. Give it a listen.
Places like Chacala check all the boxes for us. Small. Authentic. Tranquil. And the streets aren’t lined with stores selling “I’m with stupid” T-shirts and other worthless crap.
If I had a magic wand I’d use it to freeze Chacala just the way it is. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to see that change is a comin’. In fact, to see the future of Chacala you need do little more than visit the other small towns of the Riviera Nyarit. Twenty years ago almost all of them looked like Chacala. Today their beachfronts are no longer open stretches of sand. They’re filled with hotels, restaurants, and beautiful homes. Homes owned by people from other cities or countries that are primarily used for vacation or investment properties.
And… that’s not all bad. While there are for sure more cars, people, and stores selling things that, in my opinion, don’t merit the resources that it took to make them, and less wildness. There’s also more entertainment, arts, and a ton more opportunities for children. Like this one in San Pancho. An all-volunteer, completely free youth center. Kaila spent the day here and completely loved it.
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a pretty tricky balancing act that takes a lot of luck to get right… and keep right. For example, there’s now a neat little school in Chacala with a small staff of very creative and highly motivated people that are doing wonderful things… and that’s coming from me… Mr. anti-school. But simultaneously the jungle overlooks of Chacala are subdivided and for sale… with what appears to be very little planning for basic services (like water, sewer, and cars). Two newer communities… “gated” and separate of course… now bracket the town. And maybe most worrisome, half of the campground that we were staying at (nearly one half of the beach in Chacala!) was recently transformed from this…
… into this. Cleared for development.
Like the song says, “It took paradise to put up a parking lot.” More people means more pressure on the land, the ocean, and the current inhabitants. Less wildness. Already the fisherman of Chacala speak of having to go much farther out for their catch… and there’s less than one thousand residents. In many of the other towns of the Riviera Nyarit the fishermen no longer fish everyday.
I predict that in just a few years the land in and around Chacala… beautiful, rare, extremely limited edition kind of land, that was once under the ejido structure… a shared resource of the community… will be gone forever. Sold to no benefit of the community… other than the chance to serve the new owners.
After that… who knows. If the people that we met are still around… I think the outcome will be positive… as positive as converting a pristine coastline that was once enjoyed by all into housing for the few can be.