Mexico Revisited: 2013-2014

Feb 21-27 2014

He shoots! He scores! Canada wins the Gold!

Believe it or not we were at Rooster’s Restaurant, the Melaque gathering point for Canadians, especially west coast Canadians, before 6AM on Sunday morning. It was still dark when we arrived and the tables were almost full. Now I don’t usually follow hockey, but this was a special occasion. Canada was playing Sweden in game for the gold medal in the 2014 Olympics. There was not much doubt about our loyalties. Several of us, including me, were wearing red shirts. The game started at 6AM local time, 4PM Sochi time. It was an exciting game. We all cheered as the Canadian goalie saved yet another shot by the Swedes and loudly applauded each of the three goals scored by the Canadians. With victory in sight someone initiated “O Canada” and the whole crowd erupted in a rousing rendition. The game over, it was time for one of the breakfasts for which Rooster’s, owned since 2000 by Garry and Joice, BC natives, are famous.

We had arrived on the bus from Manzanillo the previous Friday to find out if Melaque was still the same laid-back beach town we had enjoyed in 2006. The beach was still laid-back and one of the best on the West Coast; the town had grown to include more small hotels and there were new restaurants. On the minus side, the streets were still the same uneven cobblestones and the derelict hotel, decimated in a 1994 earthquake, was still in the same condition, taking up a wide swath of the beachfront. There were more tourists, mostly Canadians who come back year after year to stay for a month or the entire winter. The central plaza was the place to go and buy tacos and tamales from one of many small portable food stands and to enjoy an ice cream cone for dessert. It felt like coming home again.

We had booked a room on the internet at Hacienda de Melaque. It was a good choice. The owners of Hacienda had great plans to establish a large resort, complete with swimming pool, tennis courts, a soccer field and children’s play equipment. Melaque is not ready for such a mega resort so the compound has but two buildings with a total of about 20 rooms, not all filled. Our room had a small kitchen, perfect for making breakfast, and the pool, surrounded by tables with umbrellas and chairs was a highlight.

Our daily routine was the same as all our other beach town visits. We spent the late morning and afternoon at the beach, swimming in the ocean, walking the beach, reading our books and enjoying lunch at the restaurant of our choice. The fish that had swarmed Manzanillo Bay had made it as far as Melaque Bay, pursued by flocks of pelicans, terns, seagulls and frigate birds. I never tired of watching their antics. One day two local fishermen in a flat bottomed rowboat flug a net into the ocean and instantly hauled in a catch of sardines. They fishermen proceeded to throw back the smallest ones. This was like a bugle call to the birds, especially the frigate birds. They swarmed above the boat, swooping down to catch the latest reject before it disappeared below the surface. Another day we spied whales surfacing at the opening to the bay. We didn’t have our binoculars with us but there were several, breaching the waves. At the end of each day we added an extra swim in our hotel pool before trying out yet another restaurant for dinner.

Some fellow tourists we met told us that Barra de Navidad was worth a visit. We got on a local bus for the 20 minute ride to Barra, which occupies a narrow spit of land at one end of the bay. We decided we liked Melaque better. Hurricane Jova caused considerable damage to the sea wall and the beach on the bay side in 2011. Barra had sustained quite a bit of damage to its beach. On the other side of the spit was a large lagoon that was being dredged and the sand transferred to the bay side to improve the beach. The same day we visited the dredger miscalculated and slid into the lagoon, stopping all work until it could be pulled out. We did have a nice lunch in a simple Mexican restaurant, but we were glad to get back to Melaque and the much superior beach.