Forums > General > Traveling Mexico

shoe

Aug 25, 2004, 8:43 AM

Post #1 of 10 (1000 views)

Shortcut

MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Well I have been in Melaque for about two months and this is what I have found:

-It is hot and humid most days, around 75 for a low and 92 for a high. It is really hot with all the humidity. The sun is hot and bright.

-The beach, a block away, has some plapa restaurants that have fair food and lots of cervszas. They charge $70 pesos to sit at a table if you don’t eat. That seems to apply only to Mexicans or they have figured out that I drink enough beer to make it up and I must over tip. Same table everyday is tedious.

-The people don’t speak English and there is no LCS.

-The beach actually is a little crowed on weekends with a lot of Mexican tourists. They seem to come in from Colima, Guadalajara and other foreign areas. They don’t speak English either, especially at the Mexican end where I am, in the more protected area.

-The fish or crabs keep taking the bait so plugs work better. I don’t know the names of any fish that I catch or they are called them different things here.

--You have to get used to walking on flat land when I had just gotten used to walking on the side of a hill in Ajijic.

-I have to maintain the medium strip on the street or it doesn’t get done.

-There is sand everywhere.

-The plaza is crowded most nights until late as people stay up late and sleep in to avoid sleeping in the heat. A little entertainment at the plaza some nights is noisy..

-There are many tourist trap stores with shells, shirts, and bathing gear. Must be a lot more tourists on the way to vacation? It takes a little time to find the proper stores to shop. Not much shopping either and Manzanillo is so far away at 25 miles. All the topes on the way there make getting there a pain.

-The Spanish school in La Manzanilla makes me work too hard. These 3 hours a day classes with homework is just too much. The group lessons are difficult as staying up with the group is difficult. I am the only one in my class.

You know with all these negatives I can’t recommend that anyone visit or think about moving here. It is a lot better in Ajijic or anywhere else where it is cooler and lots more English is spoken.

Shoe
PS: I LOVE IT HERE SO MUCH I MAY NEVER LEAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

wendy devlin

Aug 25, 2004, 10:30 AM

Post #2 of 10 (990 views)

Shortcut

Re: [shoe] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Shhhhhhhhh! Shoe!
I knew I should have sworn you to secrecy.

Going ALL the way to La Manzanilla for a Spanish lesson?

Isn't Sharon doing classes anymore in Melaque?

Bonnie may be back in Barra in November...she ran a small language school where the 'lessons' were held each day somewhere different eg. a restaurant, the tianguis, etc.

So how close was my gringo count?

You're not likely to have the place to yourself once the snowbirds start arriving in October/November.

Better reserve yourself a 'preferred customer' seat at the watering hole of your choice. (WHich is ?)

Saludos de Canada Wendy y Arbon

Bubba

Aug 25, 2004, 11:31 AM

Post #3 of 10 (982 views)

Shortcut

Re: [wendy devlin] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Nutcases such as Shoe and Wendy and Arbon hanging out in such a small hole-in-the-wall as Melaque downing suds? Kerouac should roll over in his grave. Bubba will also be spending his summers on the beach but the Mexican Gulf coast not the Pacific. And summers are for the highlands. Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun in Madras and Melaque in August.

shoe

Aug 26, 2004, 6:32 AM

Post #4 of 10 (943 views)

Shortcut

Re: [wendy devlin] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

See Wendy I thought my post would do some good. Look at what Bubba said. Maybe it will help keep everyone away for a long time. Bubba just doesn't understand the effeects of wind and water and sitting under a palapa haveing a cool one. What could you expect from a San Francisco banker? I lived and worked in San Francisco for some time and it is a very cold place. I moved to the diablo valley to get away from the cold there and commuted. I hope he goes to the east coast where there are more bugs and tourists. That will be one less coming here. The lack of bugs here due to the constant breeze is really nice. I have not been bitten since I have been here. I can't say the same for the east coast or for Ajijic for that matter. I will see bubba when I come to the Ajijic area now and then. Maybe for a get together.

They do have a get together for English speaking people around here but they hold it once a year as I guess that is all they can take of each other.

Sure there are a lot of options for Spanish lessons but I need some structure and three hours a day is helping. I Choose the La Catlina school and it is turning out fair. My hearing problems still have a big effect though. They are trying to work with me on that and seem to be making progress.

Your gringo count was pretty good. There sure aren't many and I don't hear any English at all around here. Mexicans do come up to me to practice their English on and I think that is interesting. I have this feeling that I am an oddity around here this time of year. Well odd is what I am so it works for me.

Some day I will look to see if there is a name on the restaurant that I hang out in on the beach. It is at the end of my street (Pino) and I never looked for a name as I had no reason to know it. In fact that is the only street name I know. Nobody asks me for directions!

shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas

Bubba

Aug 26, 2004, 8:32 AM

Post #5 of 10 (931 views)

Shortcut

Re: [shoe] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Now, Shoe:

Bubba lived directly on the ocean for about ten years a few miles south of San Francisco in an area with the romantic name of "Devil's Slide" . Bubba could sit on his front porch and watch the magnificent breakers and see the Farallon Islands in the distance. The only difference between my beach and yours is that instead of beer and bare chest it was brandy and heavy jacket.

However, Bubba did grow up near the Redneck Riviera of South Alabama and Northwest Florida, a place with incredibly beautiful beaches and crystalline aquamarine waters. Bubba has a great appreciation of Gulf breezes and knows what happens bug-wise when they stop. Bubba's fondest memories include ice cold beer (Alabama 5.0% brew, not that Florida near beer junk) and the beach at Destin.

But surely you do not put Bubba in the same category as the usual uptight Lake Chapala gringo. If I were sharing a few brews with you and Wendy and Arbon on the beach at Barra de Navidad while downing a fresh fish taco, it would only add to the general merriment. Despite my occasionally obnoxious postings, I am actually a nice person - more or less, sometimes.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Aug 26, 2004, 11:23 AM)

shoe

Aug 26, 2004, 9:41 AM

Post #6 of 10 (918 views)

Shortcut

Re: [Bubba] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Bubba;

I know the cevil's slide area and yes it is wine and a jacket there. They have to do something with all the wine made in California so a lot of Californians drink the stuff. Having installed a few systems in winery's in the Napa valley, I understand the wonderful brew made there.

Did you ever wonder why the old abbreviation for Claifornia (Calif.) stood for: Come And Live In Florida?

Having spent 20 years in Florida, it is a known fact the their beer is terrible. The stuff here is pretty good. Another reason to love Mexico. Even Pacifico is available everywhere here which was lacking in the Chapala area.

Now you know that I don't put you in with the normal Lake Chapala gringo crowd. That was obvious from our discussions at Lucy's for pizza and the place we all went south of the airport to eat and BS. To describe you as nothing other than a pretty fair guy but maybe a little controvorsial, would be wrong. Your hobby is to stir up things and you do a very good job f it.

Why don't you go to the east coast and send your lovely wife over here? I bet she enjoys the area and she doesn't stir up much trouble. It is just as much fun talkng to her as to you but in a different way. Just visit the next time you are over here as there are plenty of things to do and see.

cya,
shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas

wendy devlin

Aug 27, 2004, 1:44 PM

Post #7 of 10 (862 views)

Shortcut

Re: [shoe] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Nutcase Wendy reporting in:
(Arbon is safely chained to his computer, in the padded room, typing away like a proverbial chimpanzee with a typewriter)

Yes, there is an annual gringo get-together at Bigotes...around Valentine's Day-nice touch...
... don'cha think?

Just log in on the visitors comment's forum for Melaque/Barra de Navidad on www.tomzap.com sometime after Christmas and the date will probably be set for 2005, if it hasn't been already.

Might even make it there ourselves.
(I'll be the red-head with the banderilla on horse-back patrolling for Bubba!

Being that the area is also an agricultural zone, they spray periodically for mosquito control.

Good thing you like beer Shoe, finding good wine in Melaque,
resembles the Quest for the Holy Grail;^) Wendy

Uncle Jack

Aug 27, 2004, 2:06 PM

Post #8 of 10 (858 views)

Shortcut

Re: [wendy devlin] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

I know of two Bigotes in Manzanillo......is there one in Melaque tambien?

uj

Bubba

Aug 27, 2004, 5:03 PM

Post #9 of 10 (834 views)

Shortcut

Re: [Uncle Jack] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Shoe:

You have a deal but I will be accompanying my wife you sly devil. Some ice cold XX Lager, a fish taco or three and the company of reprobates is my kind of scene. My favorite place is not in Melaque but in Barra on the ocean side. I'll arm wrestle you for choice of venue.

You don't wear that shoe on the beach do you? Remember Nixon at San Clemente with his shorts and black shoes with black knee socks? Oh, my God, that reminds me, the snow birds will be here soon. I'd better head out for Campeche 'cause they never heard of that place.

shoe

Aug 28, 2004, 5:19 AM

Post #10 of 10 (801 views)

Shortcut

Re: [Bubba] MELAQUE REPORT:

Can't Post | Private Reply

Bubba,

OK, come along with your wife. I have a lot of bedrooms and she really won't have to share one with you. Many bathrooms too so she is really safe. I will be downstairs and you all will be upstairs, more safety for bubbet.

Now barra is very nice but you must try this end of Melaque. This is the Mexican and and if you haven't firured it out yet the locals know where to go. This end if very protected and the olas are not as big. Plenty of Palapa restaurants to visit here also.

Even some people like Wndy know the place to come. Just listen to her as she knows. Even Pedro is coming at Christmas time.

No, I don't wear shoes at the beach. That type of shoe is carried around with me since I left IBM but I haven't worn then at all. Old habits die hard. The suits are gone though. Yes, I remember Nixon and that rediculus picture they never shoue have let out.

We get snow birds here too. A lot of them I am told.

cya,
shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas