Colima turned out to be my favorite state in Mexico. While Melaque is officially a part of Jalisco state, geographically and culturally it should really be a part of Colima.
The largest city in Colima is the port city of Manzanillo. The guide book told us that the prettiest beach in Manzanillo was Playa La Audencia, and once we found it we agreed.
The hotel you can see in the background is the Radisson Sierra. In fact we considered it the best beach we visited in our tour of Mexico (and there were MANY runners-up).
While we were relaxing on the beach we were befriended by a large mexican family who were also enjoying the beach. They were very friendly with visiting gringos and invited us to join them for refreshments. Then we played beach football (what gringos would call soccer) with the whole family until we were tired and sweaty. After another swim, the father of the family invited us to join them for dinner at their house in town (which we accepted).
After dinner the handsome son, Aaron, gave me a tour around the city on his motorcycle.
Then we had to join the family as they put some mexican dance music on the stereo and we all danced till we were breathless.
While we were in Manzanillo the camper started giving us more and more trouble. Every couple of days something would break and we would have to take it to the mechanico to get it fixed. Luckily getting work done on a vehicle is VERY inexpensive in mexico. There is a llantera (service garage) every mile or two on the highway (or so it seems) and they are all competent and inexpensive. Usually I would just wait in the sun outside the mechanico's while the macho car-fixing stuff happened.
After we had the van fixed (several times), it was on to the state of Michoacan...
