March 13th, 2016
Kill the hill! That’s what we ended up doing this morning, and thank goodness we hadn’t kept pedalling last night. It was a doozy, but then Hwy#200 was flat the rest of the way to Manzanillo. We passed through several towns along the way but you don’t end up at the beach again until you get to Manzanillo. The border crossing between Jalisco and Colima is a really cool bridge!
Cycling Stats
Start Point: La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico
Destination: Playa Miramar, Colima, Mexico
60.9 km trip, 4:34 time, 51.2 km/h maximum speed, 13.3 km/h average speed
Route Description:
Long, winding climb out of La Manzanilla. There’s even a sign indicating, “Incia Zona Desrrumbes”, which I think means something about zombies, and a big hill. There is a false summit at about 4.5km, and then finally the summit at 250M at about 5.5-6km. It’s downhill into Melaque to sea level from there, and then flat the rest of the day to Manzanillo. Once in Colima, the road widens to include a huge shoulder. Playa Miramar is on the outskirts of Manzanillo, about 15km from the centro. There is a malecon here that runs for a few KM with several bars/restaurants.
Accommodations:
There are two “love” motels in El Naranjo, and then you start to see more and more signs for casa rentals. We chose a bare patch of ground across the road from the malecon which was offering showers and toilets for $10MX. We paid $70MX for a camp spot, and had easy access to both the beach and a 24HR Kiosko store nearby.
What happened…
Andrew writes: We’re trying to continue our trend of eating a big breakfast so that we’ll have enough energy throughout the day and it’s a good thing we did. The climb out of La Manzanilla was pretty brutal. I’d say it was on par with the climb out of Puerto Vallarta, except it was of course a lot shorter. Maybe it was hard because it was unexpected, I don’t know, but I did of course really enjoy the downhill at the end. Right as we pulled into Melaque the lens popped out of my cheap sunglasses. Then a car ran over it. Wouldn’t you know it, I popped it back into my sunglasses and it’s like nothing ever happened. These have been the best free sunglasses ever. And the view! Coming down that hill with everything spread out for miles in the distance, maybe it was my eye popping out of my head that caused the lens to fall out?? Incredible!
We stopped for pollo asado in Cihuatlan and I swear it was pretty darn good chicken. They put pineapple chunks on to the chicken while they are cooking, and it must have an effect because our chicken was so moist. We originally ordered a half chicken, but ended up ordering a full one and taking half of it to go so we had dinner. I think these chicken joints are the best. Maybe I’ve said it before, I’m not sure, but $110MX ($9CDN) for a BBQ or rotisserie chicken, with tortillas, salsa, salad, and rice; sometimes they are two for one at that price! On days when we get chicken for lunch I can almost guarantee that we’re getting a hotel too since we don’t have to spend any money on food after lunch.
Cihuatlan had a really nice church, and then a long-ass bridge across a river which led us to the state of Colima. After cycling through a military checkpoint it was amazing how drastically different the terrain was. Instead of seeing mountains and mangoes, all we see everywhere are palm trees with coconuts, and banana trees…and cows. It really feels more like Cuba here at least in terms of the terrain. There’s lots of traffic, but again, as soon as we got into Colima, we had a great shoulder, all to ourselves for the rest of the day. So the ride was pretty unimpressive, since we’ve pretty much had our fill of looking at banana plantations. We seemed destined to make it to Manzanillo before sunset.
It felt like we reached Manzanillo, except we were still 15km away at Playa Miramar. We could see the whole city spread out before us, but the surf and beach were calling too. There was a large empty piece of land with several hundred lines drawn in the dirt across the street from the beach. I walked over and started talking to the ladies who oversee the toilets and showers. It’s very common in Mexico to pay to use a toilet in public, and in beach communities, showers also. So I ask if I can put a tent up on their land, and a few minutes later, we strike a deal. Amanda and I set up camp and I go back to ask something, and then I’m told that the $70MX ($5CDN) that I paid doesn’t include the toilet or shower. That’s fine. We end up “showering” in the ocean, and well…we had a large field at our disposal to conduct other business.
The waves aren’t really surfable, but they are so strong and powerful that just surfing in the whitewater is a lot of fun. Amanda and I spent about an hour taking turns on the boogie board, and just hanging out swimming. No matter how tired we are after cycling all day, there is always energy left over for the ocean.
Amanda writes:
Our good breakfast was a wonderful way to start the day. On our way out of town we stopped at a little store to buy our electrolight drink as we’ve been enjoying success with supplementing our water intake with these. After we bought the drink we’re riding down the road and I say to Andrew, hey your rear pocket on your pannier is open. He stops and I roll up beside him to close it and there is nothing in it. He quickly turns around and starts riding. It turns out that when we were at the store buying the drink he left all of our charging cords in the parking lot of the store. When I say all I mean everything, our music, kindles, phone, computer … everything. While no harm was done as we were able to retrieve it; man it’s frustrating when Andrew is so forgetful. I mean it was just a week ago that our hosts in PV (Emilio & Paty) drove almost two hours to help us retrieve the things he left at the last place. While I hope he gets better, I’m not sure that’s going to happen. In any event, he returns with the goods and we check all pockets and then start the climb.
As Andrew said the climb was pretty intense however because we left early traffic wasn’t too bad. After the windy section the road widened and became more enjoyable. Upon arriving near Manzanillo Andrew declared we’d be camping and while I wasn’t that keen on it; I wasn’t prepared to argue. The climb had been hard and I figured it wasn’t worth the battle.
Our little slice of camping was nice and secluded as no one else was camping. It was a bit of a piss off that they said it would be extra to use the facilities and really in my opinion a dumb ass thing to do. Maybe I feel it was silly because of how it came about. Andrew negotiated the price with someone on the phone, not the toilet/shower guards. They agreed on 70 pesos and Andrew paid and then came to get me to fill me in on what was happening. After the 70 peso price was settled Andrew had inquired (out of curiosity) if they thought you’d be able to get a hotel in Manzanillo for 200 pesos. The younger of the two ladies confirmed it wasn’t likely and then the older of the two ladies proceeded to tell him that for 200 pesos he could use the showers and toilets. So really what she was thinking is … “well this gringo clearly has 200 pesos so let’s try and get it out of him”. Because really if you think about it as a land owner, if you let people pay you money to pitch their tent yet don’t let them use the facilities; what do you think they’re going to do? It’s so bone headed. Fortunately for them we are experienced back country travellers so we know how to discreetly and hygienically take care of business, but it’s just such a silly stand to take just so they can try and make a few more pesos. Fortunately being “gringoed” doesn’t happen as often in Mexico as it did in Cuba, but when it does happen it still annoys the shit out of me.