Casa de Chacala

On Saturday we went up to Tonala, a suburb of Guadalajara, to buy furniture and mirrors. This is such a great little place. You can buy crafts, furniture, glass, mirrors, dishes, decorative things and many art objects there. We only stayed a day, don’t know why, it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip this year. Small markets line the streets, with food and clothing as well as crafts. The stores are all loaded with beautiful things, like tiles and throws, carpets and mirrors. Everything is very reasonable and we were able to arrange for shipping of the couch and two chairs we bought there. As usual Rick had things strapped to the top of the car (I think this is a guy thing) and we filled the inside with everything else. Here is the result of some of our shopping.


We arrived home to greet our first guests. They had just arrived from San Francisco ready to absorb, for only one week, the sun and softness of Chacala. We had a great time talking all day long and evenings too. We were sad to see them go and happily they made plans to come for longer next year. Jaqui and Randy flew in from Costa Rica full of plans and ideas for their next adventure there. We tried to interest them in building in Chacala but they had already made up their minds to go further south.

Friends from the Okanagan and others from the bay area came into town, we met a few others, mainly Canadians and settled in for Christmas.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Mahajwa at a local spa and restaurant at the end of the beach with our friends and found a another group of people there that we knew from last year. The restaurant is high up in the jungle and overlooks Chacala Bay. We always enjoy our times there and the owner is always so welcoming, and a very good cook. We had Christmas dinner at our house, catered by one of the local women; we had Chile Releneos, beans and rice, guacamole and chips followed by flan. It was a bit heavy but great stuff. We all felt incredibly lucky to be able to sit out in the warm tropical air eating Christmas dinner.

The following week was a whirlwind of people and parties, J and R left and Heather and Chris arrived. We went swimming at Las Cuevas and whale watching in the early morning. Pelican watching at the port and general eating and drinking on the beach.

Between all this socializing we were getting the house finished. Juan the painter was there most days; we were shopping for extras like a washing machine and trying to get the house ready for our friends who are staying here in February and March. The hardest part was getting people to look after it whilst we were gone. Our first cleaning person did not work out; she made great swans out of towels for the beds, but didn’t really seem to like cleaning. We have a great crew in place right now, so with a little luck and planning we hope we are OK.