La Ticla

La Ticla is a small village in the municipality of Aquila, only about three blocks by six, with a pretty square and paved streets sloping down to the Pacific, at the point where the Ostula river reaches the sea. Surfers have known it for years: the river has built up a point of rocks and silt at its mouth, and the swell peels off it as a long left on the north side and a shorter right on the south side. Waves average about 1.5 m but vary a lot, and La Ticla has hosted national surf championships and other contests. There are no surf schools, so come with some experience.

The village runs its tourism as a community. At the foot of the hill, set back from the beach, the Parador Turístico (also called the parador etnoturístico) is owned and operated by local families on weekly rotations: palm-wood and palm-thatched cabins, a round open restaurant and bar, bathrooms and showers, shaded campsites among cactus and palms, hammock areas and hook-ups with water and electricity for motorhomes. The small restaurants in town take turns too, many opening only a couple of nights a week so that every family gets a share of visitors. There are also simple cabins and riverside camping, and the cooking is coastal: ceviche, shrimp quesadillas, aguachile, fish tacos.

The river mouth makes a calm, warm freshwater lagoon where families swim while the surfers are out on the point, and upriver you can swim at El Cárcamo, go kayaking or fish. From the Mirador La Ticla there are wide views over the beach and the rocks, and people fly paragliders and hang gliders from it. Sea turtles also come ashore here to nest in season. It fills up on weekends, mostly with visitors from Guadalajara, Colima and Michoacán, and gets busier and livelier in summer.