January 12, 2013 – La Manzanilla
Deb and I were muttering to each other a few days ago that we were long overdue for an adventure. We were chatting idly about taking a bus to La Manzanilla, which is a pretty little town about 30 minutes up the coast, when our friends Cheryl and Kelly overheard us and said ‘Hey, we haven’t been there for a while either!’ So of course next morning, Cheryl and Kelly showed up in their trusty jeep, and off we went to La Manzanilla.
One would be tempted to think that it’s just another Mexican beach resort with cheap food, cold beer, and miles of pristine beach. Well, yeah, it has those too…. (perhaps the best beach in Mexico!), but La Manzanilla has crocodiles! When we were here 8 years ago, there was a bayou (river that is turned into a lake because of a sand bar at the beach) that was just full of honking big crocodiles and caymans. There was a three-foot chainlink fence keeping them off the street, but they could still wander onto the beach and spoil your afternoon if you didn’t keep a sharpish lookout. Now the fence has been extended to block off the beach, so in theory, this is no longer an issue. (Note to self: these are wild crocs, and they are fenced on 3 sides; the upstream end is wide open) Even better, some entrepreneur has built an elevated walkway (two feet above the water) that goes about 200 yards through the mangroves, and you can go for a really cool stroll for ten pesos (75 cents).
There were definitely a ton of slavering killer lizards out there, but also birds, crabs, iguanas, and all kinds of other neat things. Up until last year, there were a couple of sixteen-footers which probably weighed a ton apiece; they aren’t in evidence, so must have been converted into handbags or headed for other parts or something. Nevertheless, there were still lots of big boys and girls on hand for our edification.
Not a telephoto shot….
Steve on the walkway.
A whopper out for a cruise.
After checking to ensure that Molly was still in one piece and on the end of the leash, we headed off downtown and parked at Kelly and Cheryl’s favourite spot on the beach. Not hard to figure out why; they have free tables/chairs/umbrellas on the beach, and they bring you food and beer for as long as you can continue to raise your arm.
After a couple of beers and some truly great fish and chips to fortify us, Deb and I headed down the beach for a bit of a walk. The beach here is marvelously flat, the sand is very nice, and the water is very calm. Three for three! (Steve is very careful with beaches, as it turns out, he is allergic to being swept out to sea.) One still has to be careful, though, as the beach is at least 5 miles long, and if you get too far from the beers, you might not make it back! Fortunately, we had the sense to turn back after a mile, so other than the usual mild sunburn, we arrived back safe and sound.
This beach goes on forever!
Taken from the beach chair.
Good snorkeling out here (I am told).
Taken from the beach chair.
Sadly, the same couldn’t be said for our beach bag. It is woven plastic stuff, and Steve left it on the sand beside his chair. In our absence, the cafe owner’s German Shepherd wandered over, gave it the mandatory sniff-test, and very helpfully marked it for us. Cheryl, after recovering from her initial horror, quickly poured a couple of litres of fresh water into the bag to wash/dilute the dog piss off everything. That certainly seemed to work for my cellphone, which was hidden in the bottom of the bag; I couldn’t smell any dog piss at all once I got all the water out of it. Usual drill: rip apart, yank out battery, wipe off, leave naked in the sun to dry out. I’m talking about the cellphone, not the dog :/ Miraculously, it survived without a scratch. I’m talking about the cellphone, not the dog. 🙂
All good things must peter out eventually, so it was then back into the jeep for a leisurely drive back to our villa. All in all, an excellent day out!