Arriba Arriba, Andalé Andalé ......
That sums up our trip to Manzanillo (pronounced “Manzaneo”)..... we were only docked here for 7 hours.... now if you had read the reports from others, that is about all you need.... but our visit was a different story....
Today Ros had organised a tour of around 26 people to visit the Pyramids of Colima, the Nogueras Museum of Comala, and lunch at the local village of Comala.....
This meant a very tight schedule to get us back to the ship on time. It doesn’t sound like we did much but the drive to and from is around 1 ½ hours each way....
We were told we were going to berth at the new terminal in Manzanillo and not at the cargo terminal..... well the wharf is there .... but the building is still yet to be built.... but at least you are in the centre of town... and as sail in was around 9 am and everyone was up on deck to see us manoeuvre our way into the harbour.
It is always nice to be welcomed into port with some local performers and we were not disappointed here as there were a couple of Mexican dancers. We could not linger too long as we had to get onto that bus and get going.
We had a lovely big bus were I think we all nearly had a pair of seats each.... We had a driver (whose name escapes me) and two guides, Jupiter (pronounced Hupiter ) and Antonio. Both men took it in turns and were a wealth of information and were able to answer any questions that were thrown to them....
The country side that we drove through was nothing like I expected. My image of Mexico is of sandy deserts, cacti, and sombreroed amigos sleeping against the Cantina walls...... Obviously Mexico is big and diverse in its climate..... we drove through beautiful lush green area’s and roads and town to rival our own.
Our first stop was in Colima.... now Manzanillo is in the State of Colima which is also the name of the capital city.... here you could be forgiven for thinking that you are in another American state as they boast the all the same shops , like Sears, Walmart, Office Depot and of course McDonalds just to name a few.
The only similarity with the Pyramids in Colima and those in Egypt is the shape, and that is at a stretch....
The Colima Pyramids are more like low platforms that the houses were built upon the top of. You can see that there has been a lot of restoration work here and today there was lot of workers around cleaning and rebuilding certain parts. The closest thing to a tomb around here was an underground tunnel that led to an oven shape tomb where they would bury their dead, and in most cases along with their dogs..... These people liked their dogs so much that they became quite a symbol... There were 2 types of dogs.... the skinny ones that became companions, who would be sacrificed so they could be buried with their masters, and the fat ones......who were sacrificed for dinner!!
At this stage we were told that we were going to visit a museum, have lunch and time to shop all in an hour and a half. Hmm we had our doubts......
We then went to a small village called Comala... The narrow cobblestone streets were not designed for those big coach buses but thank god for reverse.... anyway we made it up to a little square and visited the home Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo....
Alejandro was an artist, best known for his series of Christmas cards produced for UNICEF in the 1960s, as well as known in Mexico for his furniture designs and traditional handcrafts. He lived and worked during his life at his childhood home called Nogueras Hacienda. When he died, he donated the property and his large collection of ceramic artefacts that were found at the Colima Pyramids to the University of Colima, which converted it into a research center, which includes a museum dedicated to Rangel’s works and collections.
The artefacts are a real contrast to those you find in Europe... Most of the statues and paintings we have seen have all been completed to show the subject in a perfect form, these small statues show people in all their glory and deformities... these were seen as special features that made them different to others.
The artwork was fantastic... as a quilter you look at his work and think .. yep this is where folk art and whimsical developed from... I just wished that we weren’t so rushed as I would have loved to have looked at the detail of his paintings more closely... and maybe have visited the shop across the road in case there was some print or souvenir I could take home..... he also designed a couple of wrought Iron street sign holders to be used in Comala... now one of those in the front of my house would be perfect.
Tick tick tick..... we were off again...... into the main square of Comala.... We had lunch at a quaint restaurant called Don Comalon. Here we had a Mexican Tapas with all these yummy fajitas, tacos, the best guacamole etc all washed down with Mexico’s traditional “Puncho”.....ahhh now I know were punch comes from..... juice, fruit and alcohol..... very easy to drink LOL.... Now envisage this, 26 people sitting on a verandah eating lovely mexican food.... jumping up and running across the street between courses checking out the shop and quickly making purchases... We were still negotiating with seconds to go, willing them to hurry with the wrapping of glassware as the bus was revving its engines....
We made it back with time to spare, which we regretted couldn’t have been spent in Comala, but in defence of our tour guides, the risk was not worth it as the traffic back can be unpredictable.... There were markets by the dock, but oooh, I could have spent more in Comala...
This trip was too quick, but I wouldn’t have missed it.... I loved the feel of Mexico......hopefully next year’s cruise you will be there longer....
We have decided that we will feedback to Princess that ports should be no shorter than 10 hours.... just an extra hour or two can make such a difference... maybe a couple less ports with a few more overnighters in the major cities and longer at the rest, would make a perfect world cruise....
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