State of Jalisco

Barra de Navidad, Melaque, Cuastecomate, State of Jalisco
We left Caleta de Campos early morning and waited for the bus on the side of the #200 Highway. The day before we hunted for a kind of bus schedule for the bus coming from Lazaro Cardenas to Manzanillo, I thought of asking at the pollo asado place at the end of the village where we frequently bought a roasted chicken and we were told that the bus usually comes around 8:00 am. When waiting for the bus the next morning, my husband saw a poster badly stretched between two pieces of rebars planted crookedly in the dust, the same poster I just had mistaken for an other piece of garbage. There it was : the bus schedule for Lazaro Cardenas to Manzanillo. Of course Caleta de Campos was not mentioned but knowing it takes about 2 hours for the bus to come here, it was easy to calculate the approximate time. Shortly after 8:00, the bus arrived and picked us up. The journey was a bit long, about 5 hours but we went directly to Manzanillo where we waited 30 min before taking another bus for Barra de Navidad. We arrived in Barra about 3:00 pm, early enough to go for a walk on the malécon and have a very good Margarita before meeting our friends in the real Italian pizza restaurant. 

It was our 4th visit in this area and if it was not for spending time with our friends from Victoria, BC, I would have skipped it this time. This part of Jalisco is becoming more and more touristy, too busy. The beach, beaten by so many storms and hurricanes is not particularly beautiful and except for the part called the “Chicken beach”, the waves are powerful and crash on a very steep beach. Most of the time it is dangerous to come in and out of the water. 

Our friends : Rolf and Denyse, offered us to share their bungalow in Cuastecomate for the length of our stay. We moved in with them after spending 2 nights in Barra. The first time we saw Cuastecomate, it was a very quiet, beautiful little fishing village, dusty of course, in a tiny and well protected bay. The look of that village has since changed drastically. Some will say it is for the best but for people like me, it has lost its original character. The streets are paved but the dust did not disappear completely. The madness of the electric wires that amazed me so much in Mexico, is now buried in the ground, as also are the water pipes that frequently leak out through the concrete. They need to be dug out, fixed but the leak will re appear later somewhere else. There are only 6 streets making 6 small blocks. The streets of the entire village was re designed for handicapped people to have an easy access to the beach and the water. There are two textured streets for the blinds and 2 streets for people in wheel chair but there are also beautiful young trees blocking the sidewalks and the only hotel is not handicapped friendly. For the amount of decibels coming from the incessant activities of the hotel, the music coming from the restaurants and the musicians all playing at the same time, all the population and the visitors will soon be deaf.

We were in a very new and nice compound with a swimming pool. Sometimes it was very quiet but other times it was a nightmare especially when 3 Mexican families and 3 Canadian women arrived. The Mexicans were noisy during the day and cooked on a smoky barbecue. The kids almost emptied the swimming pool from diving and splashing but they were not the problem. They were respectful, quiet at night, they just had fun and it was pleasing to see. The problem was with the 3 big Canadian women. The day they arrived, they bombarded me with questions about my cute littles dresses : where did I buy them, how much money I wanted for them, then I answered that they would not fit them anyway. I surprised myself by my bluntness but they laughed. They drank so much, they were very aggressive when drunk and also very loud late at night close to our windows. I had once asked them to be more quiet but that was wasted time. I was glad to leave the place after a week but I was also pleased they were scared of me.