Travel Log, July 1st - 31st, 2005
Part 1
(see below map for details)
Days - 337 to 367
Total Miles Traveled this month - 1,001
Total Miles Traveled to July 31/05 - 8,821
Mexican States we have visited: 32 of 32, see map
Take note of the number of days above!! We hit 365 days near the very end of the month of July. It is so hard to believe that we have been travelling for a year now. This has been the best year of our lives. We have travelled from Canada, all along the west coast of the United States, down and up the length of Baja, and along the west coast of mainland Mexico. Wow!! We have said many times, this has been and is, a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience with us. The travel log will be a wonderful keepsake for us to look back on in the years to come.
In the month of July we travel over 1000 miles. We make some critical decisions about where and when to get off the coast. We experience heat like we never have before and we see some incredible places that we plan to go back to and see again sometime.
For this part of the travel log we finish our visit in Melaque
and then head south to Barra de Navidad and Manzanillo. Sit back and
enjoy...
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico We found the RV Park in Melaque to be too expensive for our tastes and
so we parked on the street for the night. The next day we went for a
walk and found a
place to boondock, with a gorgeous view and a palapa for shade.
Perfect! |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico Look at that view! |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico Tiki is glad for his haircut here, it is HOT. We have the fan
affixed above the bed (a make-shift ceiling fan!) and it is on all night,
every night in recent times. |
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Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico During the day it is cooler to be outside in the shade of the palapa,
it is just too hot in the coach. And this is a great place for Cindy
and Tiki to work on the website. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico
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 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico On the way towards downtown Melaque. |
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Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico We see why you like it here Kim and Mike. It is a friendly,
bustling little place, with lots to see and do. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico A travelers work is never done. Barry is reading up on Melaque
from the invaluable Moon Handbook. The Handbook includes maps,
things to do and see, and a write up about the place we are visiting.
It is just great and we would not travel without it. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico This is something else we keep forgetting to mention. The piņatas are VERY popular with the Mexicans. A lot of the stores have quite a variety, from small ones to huge, almost life size ones likes these. We are sure everyone knows what a Piņata is, but just in case you don't... These characters are made of paper and filled with candy. Children us a stick and take turns hitting the piņata until the candy comes tumbling down to the floor and everyone scrambles to get their share. At least that's what I remember as a kid. Note: It is not nearly as much fun with just two people, but you
get more candy this way :) |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico We will mention again that many stores that look like they are set up
for tourists from outside of Mexico, are actually set up for 'all' tourists.
Since they are set up at this time of the year, they must be for Mexican
tourists, who we found out travel in the summer, when school is out.
They may also be set up for the locals. We were pleasantly surprised
to realize that these types of stores do business year round. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico
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 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico The idea of tidying up their yard probably does not even cross their minds. They might use some of that stuff someday OR why pick it up, it is not hurting anyone :) This is so different from Canada. Well, most of Canada, we have seen just as much junk in some Canadian yards also. But as you can tell from our past pictures, for every junky yard there
is a yard where someone has taken great pride in beautifying it. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico Like this home for example, their home is all painted up nice, they
have flowering bushes, trees and nice windows and door. And if you
look very closely, they are very artistic... look at the roof top closest to
the front of the picture. There is a whole pile of bicycle parts up on
the roof!
Funny, funny, funny. |
 Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico We decided to take the scooters into a nearby town called Barra de
Navidad, we spent the day walking around this wonderful little town. |
 Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico
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 Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico Isn't she sweet. We got a great close up picture of this lady and we'll post it in the "Faces of Mexico" section of our website. Watch
for it when we post for the state of Jalisco. |
 Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico Back in Melaque, we saw this tiny, cute little ice cream truck. We
refrained from having some though. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We were very pleasantly surprised with Manzanillo as we had heard and
read a number of things that made us just want to pass it by. For
example, we heard not a lot of tourists go there and that it was a
huge shipping port. Well, both of these are true AND we
really enjoyed it there. We only stayed one night there, but we made
the best of it, we walked all over, we swam and we people watched, it was
great, and we would not hesitate to go there again. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Isn't it beautiful? |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We will admit to you however, it was HOT! We had a constant sheen on
our faces and arms, it was so warm. Warmer than either of us had
ever experienced before. We both carried hankies to mop our brows
with. We will point out though, it was not unbearably hot. It didn't keep
us from exploring all over the place. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We are sure you realize this already, but we make quite the stir,
driving into some of the places that we visit. Especially the smaller places, where
they do not see a lot of tourists. Being almost 40 ft long and stark
white you can't miss us. It's not unusual for people to stare or wave,
we see it all the time :) |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico These kids have the right idea on this hot summer day! In fact, we
liked the idea so much that after our long walk all around town, we went for a
swim in the bay too. It was great! However, it felt so strange to swim in
a protected bay with no big waves. Usually, we are right on the
coast and there are lots of large, breaking waves at the beach. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico They had all of these really neat bushes, trimmed into boats, houses,
animals, etc. It was just great. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Isn't that a huge propeller! Notice Cindy's hankie, we don't go
anywhere without them now. And over her shoulder is her Nikken water
bottle, we don't go anywhere without water either. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico This is Manzanillo's beautiful town square, isn't that sailfish
incredible? It stands about 45 ft tall and can be seen from all over the
place. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Isn't it spectacular. Watch for it in some of our other pictures
as we hike around town. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico After visiting the square, we walked over towards the church but all of
the entrances seemed to be gated and locked. We decided to see if
their was a rear entrance. We walked up this narrow steep street, and found the back of the church. It
was locked also. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Barry really gets a kick out of some of the wiring and electrical work
in Mexico. It seems there is no Electrical Code here! Look at the wires coming from the top of the pole!
Also
notice the lone light bulb hanging down a few feet from the building in
blue and red. What a hoot. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico At the back of the church we noticed a shrine and this long set of
stairs leading up between some buildings. Although it was really hot
we decided to see where they led. Well, are we ever glad we did.
This next series of pictures were taken up there. There is a
labyrinth of homes, paths and a few small businesses up there, only accessible by foot
or sometimes by scooter. All these homes you will see had no driveways or
streets... very cool. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico This was the view from part way up... |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico More stairs to climb, but not before crossing a ball court with
kids playing and having a great time.
Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Near the top of the stairs we saw this little shack. It sits on a
small, flat
part of the hill and they have a 180 degree view of the ocean.
Spectacular, what more could you want? |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We continued along and came to this walkway right at the top of the
hill... look at that view. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico From the top of the hill we could see down to the next bay. There
were lots of people swimming, it looked wonderful, but too far to climb down. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
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 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Way down on the other side of this wall was an oil and fuel docking
site. Seeing this razor wire let us know they did not want visitors.
We thought a picture with the contrast of the razor wire and the view was
interesting. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We are way up on the hillside... and way down there you see the blue
sailfish and
some more of the city. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico It is not uncommon to see a beautiful home and then a pile of rubble
and neglect right next store and that was the case with this place. Up
here though, it was the exception not the norm. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Whatever works! Isn't this cute how they hung their laundry on
the fence to dry, right out at the sidewalk. They lived across from
the sidewalk. Again, why not, they weren't hurting anyone, and in
this heat they would be dry in no time. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We looked back up the hill as we came down the other side of the hill.
We had a great time and we are
sure glad we went looking for the back door of the church. |
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Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico Back near the town square, notice how clean and beautiful it is here. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
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 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico This is where we decided to camp for the night, it was great. We were
able to walk all over the place and we had a great swim in the bay that
you see on the other side of the coach. |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
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 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We were thinking of you Fabian and Chin, we miss you guys!! |
 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico We sat with a beverage on the bench right outside of the coach and
people watched while the sun set off in the distance. Ahhhh, life is
good. |
| We certainly enjoyed our time in these beautiful ocean-side
places. Whether the place was small or large, there is something for everyone.
We cannot believe how beautiful and diverse Mexico is. We did not
realize just how much we would enjoy the mainland of Mexico. At
first, we were
a bit nervous and apprehensive but thank goodness we put our fears aside and
ventured into this beautiful country. We have never had anyone threaten us or scare us. The Mexican people are so lenient and tolerant, so kind and generous. We love the people of Mexico and feel so privileged to be able to spend so much time in their country. (Note: We never ever put ourselves in a situation were we are at risk. We are so careful to be tucked in the coach before dark, and in the big cities we make sure there are lots of people around. We don't want to mislead you into thinking that everything is all perfect. Sometimes, in some places, you need to use your intuition and knowledge of the place as a guide. However, this is also true in Canada and the US)
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