Originally from Chocholá, Carlos has a of childhood memories from the area, and one of his most memorable happened on our grounds before it became Chablé.
“I was about 12 years old, and one afternoon a friend from the village and I were returning from the hills at the back of Chablé. An old airstrip used to be there, and we used to walk there to catch birds; however that afternoon we returned with empty cages. We were near the old entrance,
formerly the Front Desk – Casita Roja – when suddenly a very intense rain started with many lightning bolts. Fortunately, the man in charge of the hacienda at that time, let us shelter ourselves from the rain in what today is the Wine Cellar, in the bottom of the main house. We spent about an hour there until the rain stopped. After, the man lent us a couple of lamps to return home because it was already dark.
Back home, I told my grandfather what happened and the first thing he did was disciplined me, because I should not enter the hacienda. He said that we could “carry bad air” (get sick from fever) due to all the people that one day used to work in the hacienda and died for the escape of the workers in the so-called “caste war”.
After, I remember my grandfather took me to the straw house on his land and showed me a trunk where he kept an old shotgun with Spanish ornaments of the time. He told me that his father (my great-grandfather) used it when he went to fight in the war, since military service was mandatory at that time. The next day, my grandfather went to return the lanterns to the head of the hacienda and told me not to go back to Chablé again. Who would have guessed that many years later I would return again, to witness the transformation of this beautiful place and share the grounds to our guests.”
Carlos Quintal / Bellboy
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