A visit to Manzanillo, Pascuales surf beach and exploring the Colima hills
Posted by Zihrena

Tuesday, August 15, 2000 --

We awoke in Manzanillo to another great day. Got a fairly early start. The morning mist was still hanging over the bay as we drove down Playa Miramar and along Playa Santiago. We passed the Golf course and into the Las Hadas area, stopping at Playa La Audiencia, where in 1522, the Conqueror of Colima, Gonzalo Sandoval, built the ships Concepcion and San Lazaro that were used for expeditions to the Revillagigedo Islands and the Gulf of California.

After leaving the beach zone we drove past the port with it's large harbor cranes, railway line and massive freighters and into downtown Manzanillo, with it's small square and winding, narrow streets. In our search for Mexican roadside shrines and crosses that will be featured soon on our Surf-Mexico site, we soon found ourselves driving up steep slopes and back streets in the old and dilapidated red light district. That's where most of the shrines seemed to be. We then came down off the hill, circled the thermalelectric plant, passing a large lagoon lined again with enramadas and restaurants offering seafood and beer and came out again on the highway leading us back toward Tecoman and Colima.

Our goal for that morning was to scout out the beach at Pascuales, reputed to be one of the best surfing beaches in the area. Near Tecoman once again, we drove by a series of roadside kiosks offering cocada (coconut candy), dried fruits and regional sweets of all sorts. Entering Tecoman, we followed the Boca de Pascuales signs and found ourselves again on a narrow but well-maintained road lined with citrus orchards and palm groves.

Reaching Boca de Pascuales we were greeted by the most enormous surf we'd seen so far. Great curled lips of water were crashing one after another onto shore. Several surfers were out, trying to get the perfect wave. It looked like a great struggle for them to get out past the crests and then to bob and wait for the right one. We watched them swoop down and disappear into the tubes, some coming out clean and others being lost for a few seconds until their heads and boards reappeared again in the boiling foam.

We had a good breakfast of Mexican eggs and shrimp at one of the wooden-platform enramadas along the beach. Most of the restaurants are perched on wooden piles since the waves come up right to their bases. Today the owners were having trouble keeping the plastic chairs and tables from being washed into the sea.

After two hours of watching these fascinating breakers, we decided to once again hit the road, returning to Tecoman and from there getting back on the super highway in the direction of Colima City. Before reaching Colima, we spotted a sign pointing to the town of Ixtlahuacan that indicated there were both caverns and ruins in the area. We decided to investigate. First we went through Ixtlahuacan towards the Chamila ruins. On the other side of town the road took us through small valleys and green fields toward Zinacamitlan, where the ruins were supposedly located. Finally we got to a river just before reaching Zinacamitlan -- there was no bridge. It was being rebuilt, and the only way to get to the village and the ruins was to ford the river. We were undecided as to whether we should attempt it. The ford didn't look too deep and it went over what looked like a bed of small, firm rocks. As we considered our options, another truck went past us, hesitated for a moment, and then plunged into the ford, making it's way well for several meters until suddenly it stopped mid-stream and settled further into the water. The stream reached part-way up the sides of the Toyota's doors. The two men inside sat there for a moment, looked around and at last began hoisting themselves out of the windows on either side of the truck. That was when we decided we were NOT going to ford the river ourselves! We didn't stay to find out what happened... there were several bridge workers in the area, some machinery and other trucks stationed on the Zinacamitlan side of the river. We figured there were enough locals around to help them get the truck back onto dry land, and we still had a long road ahead of us.

Our next stab at a side trip was to check out the caverns of San Gabriel. To get there we returned to Ixtlahuacan and took what we ended up calling the "yellow brick road" -- a very well-kept double cement track surrounded by small stones that took us again through fields of corn and melons and past herds of healthy-looking cattle. Occasionally we passed signs saying that we were going toward the Grutas (caverns), but as we kept on, the cement track road turned to a good dirt road, then went to cobblestones and dirt again as we wound through the fields and over small hills, we still did not find our destination. In the end, we turned back since we had really barely gone more than a few miles from Manzanillo and it was already mid-afternoon. We had to give up on our search for the caverns and return to the highway. On our way back, we stopped to talk to a horseman on the road who explained that the caverns are not that far away. We had gone down the road about 9 miles, turning right from the dirt road onto the cobblestone track where the sign indicated the caverns were, whereas our horseman told us it was best to carry on straight along the dirt road at that point, and that the caverns weren't more than about 20 minutes from Ixtlahuacan.

In any case, we were foiled both in our search for the ruins and for the caverns. We'd have to try it again some other time....