Monday, 27 February 2006
After John finished the Amigo net Monday morning, Roy on Jellybean gave us a ride to the dinghy dock at the Sands Hotel and we walked to the Primera Plus bus station to catch a 10:15 AM bus to Manzanillo.
DEP Barra de Navidad 10:25 AM (Servicios Coordinados, 39p each)
ARR Manzanillo 11:40 AM
DEP Manzanillo 12:05 PM (Servicios Coordinados, 52p each)
ARR Colima 1:25 PM
Colima Central Terminal to Centro on local bus (4p each)
We walked a couple of blocks to what I thought was the Nunez hotel (Juarez 88), but which turned out to be the La Merced right next door. The latter appeared to be better maintained so we took Room #17 (220p/night) which was off of a small courtyard with tables for playing cards or writing post cards. We dropped our bags in the room and headed straight out for Comala.
Centro to Terminal Suburbana on local bus (4p each)
Transfer to Comala bus (6p each)
Comala is supposed to provide a better view of the two volcanos north of Colima, which we knew we weren't going to see at all because of a huge thunder storm over the mountains that day. Instead we went for the second best thing about Comala - free botanas (snacks) with your drink order at the restaurants next to the square. John had a margarita and a poncha (the local specialty), I had a limonada, and the snacks were enough to make a light meal (102p). The combination of it being a Monday and late siesta made it pretty quiet, but there were a few mariachi bands playing for other diners.
Same bus drill as above for the return trip to Colima.
We walked around the Centro area from Jardin Nunez to Jardin Libertad and tried our first churro rellenos at the pedestrian mall off of Madero (to the right) and across from the cathedral. This was a tube of churro (like a fried donut stick) filled with your choice of chocolate, caramel, or strawberry cream. Yum!
We really enjoyed our brief visit to Colima. It was a bigger city in some ways than we expected (complete with a Wal-Mart, two Sorianas, and a multiplex movie theater), but the historic center was charming with plenty of green spaces in which to relax and people watch. It was warmer than we thought it would be, even at night, and we slept with the ceiling fan on and only a sheet until very late. It's a nice place to break the trip to Guanajuato but if you're only going to spend one night, I'd skip the Comala day trip in favor of spending more time exploring Colima.