La Caleta is one of the two or three surf spots that you can get to, by boat, from Chacala. It’s a wicked lefty point break that breaks perilously close to a sea-urchin infested rock beach. Not for the faint of heart. Located up on the coast outside the bay, about an hour north of here. Chacala is in open seas, it gets direct exposure to both northern and southern swells. and so with Jorge and Gris in town from Guadalajara, we all convened at 7:00 this morning, for a day trip up north, to catch what’s left of the current swell.
I had been to Caleta once before, probably just about two years ago. I was still a surfing novice. when we rolled up on the spot, it wasn’t breaking at all. almost flat. I could see the break though and I hadn’t learned to surf backside yet. I envisioned what could be one scary break, if the swell was right. For some reason, I’ve never gone back. We’re an adventurous crew, but to be honest we really stick to our spots inside the north side of the bay, with occasional jaunts to Quimixto and others. We haven’t dedicated time to exploring the breaks north of the bay. If anything, I’m just conferring with myself, out-loud (sort of, anyway) that we should check out the northern breaks like Platanitos, San Blas and Santa Cruz. Make it a priority.
Back to our story:
The text messages started going off around 6:45am, with everyone up and ready we piled into the trucks and headed north. Getting to Chacala at around 8:15, already the sun was up and the wind was picking up as well. Jorge quickly secured us a panga (note to visitors: best to have a non-gringo rent the boat. as you won’t be charged the gringo rate). It took us about 15 minutes to get to the break and the ocean was already roiling. we could see swell coming in, but nothing overly exciting. As we arrived at Caleta, I think we were all a little bit disappointed, there were maybe ten people in the water already and the waves didn’t look very big. We had the boat captain drop us off at the shore. As we all sat under the palapa covered hut, none of us seemed situated. The hut was covered with trash of every kind and we all struggled for a clean place to sit. We looked out at the surfers waiting for the set waves to arrive. I grabbed my board and headed out to the line-up.
As I got out to the front of the line, a six footer rolled right to me, I dug in the tail of my shortboard and popped right into the crest of the wave, dropped in and kept the pressure on my back heel. As I slid down the face, I tried my best to see through the ridiculously bright sunlight beaming off the water and to thread the needle as I dodged all the buoys. It was a great first ride, most definitely beginner’s luck, once I got that wave, admittedly, I had a slight thought that I didn’t really know what to do with it. not knowing the break. I just tried my hardest to stay out of the shallow water and to have a good ride. I managed to catch three different sections, bringing me half-way back to the beach.
The waves were definitely coming in sets with long waits in between, but nice big chunky waves made it all worth it. As I sat out in the line-up surveying the break, I got the feeling that Caleta could be dangerous on a big day if one were to get caught on the inside and forced into the mixing bowl. Caleta has a pretty wicked mixing bowl. Several of the group of visiting gringos in the water (when not talking about dumb business deals they were involved in) were trading war stories of getting urchin stings from getting too close to the rocks. The wave, itself, walls up really nice, not too fast, and I could see that it gets tubular with size. Some of the waves breaking out on the point, too close to the rocks, had perfect loping tubes, well, two foot diameter tubes, but I used my imagination. If you read surf mags that show pics from the vallarta area, they are usually taken at La Caleta.
As morning turned to noon, the waves got blown out a bit and the sea got choppy, but it was still very surfable and actually looked like it was getting bigger. The currents picked up a little, pushing me inside, close to the point. A place you don’t want to be. So I had to learn to navigate the current (there are no spots inside the bay with bad currents, unless it’s real big out). Probably due to the currents, the water turned murky brown, most likely from a nearby stream run-off. The boat captain picked us up at 1:00pm and we headed home. We got back to Bucerias and celebrated our trip with chelas and pizza.
A very very good day. fun was had by all and it was great to have Jorge play the leader, showing us a new spot. Sometimes I balk at having to pay a boat fee to get to the surf break, but today was totally worth it.
**update**
Israel pointed out to me that this spot is actually called “La Caleta” so I’ve altered the story to reflect this. Thanks Isreal!
Thanks for the nice comment. I really like your writing and photos. Really give you a feel for the place. I am hoping a trash pickup day can be organized to clean it up there. Some surfers are really piggy. Andee