Day 6

Today we are in Manzillo and Colima. We were greeted at the Manzillo dock by our guide Paco and set off by car for our tour of the area. The first stop was La Tortugario (turtle sanctuary) where we watched a video (subtitled, thank goodness!) about the sanctuary’s efforts to revitalize the 3 turtle species that are native to Colima. We also learned that Mexico is home to 7 of the 8 turtle species in the world. The sanctuary gathers the eggs that are laid by wild turtles on the beaches and puts them in to an area that is protected from birds and other predators. It is also guarded overnight so that eggs (which are a delicacy and thought to cure illnesses) are not stolen. When the eggs hatch the baby turtles are moved to a nursery area until they are better able to defend themselves, and then they are released in to the ocean – which they let the tourists do. We each released a 1-week old baby turtle in to the sea – which was very neat.

After the sanctuary we got back in the car and hit the highway to Colima. Again, speed limits are not enforced, nor are the lines which outline the lanes. The speed limit was 60 km/hr most of the way (90 in a few spots); we did not, however, observe the speedometer go much below 120 km/hr. Despite that we arrived in Colima in one piece (and quickly!). Colima is an old city, with a traditional town square and vendors selling various goods and crafts. We spent about an hour browsing and then it was back in to the torpedo (aka the car) to see the Colima volcano, which is still active and creates beautiful black sand beaches in the area.

From the volcano we went to the small town of Comala (which means “coffee town”) for lunch. Lunch was traditional Mexican fare, delicious and lots of it. We finally had to ask the waiter to stop bringing us more courses when an end was not becoming apparent. We sadly opted out of touring the coffee plantation because of time and got back in to the car for the 75 minute drive back to Manzillo. Once back in the city, Paco toured us around the sights which included Las Hadas Hotel (where “10” was filmed), the “old city”, and the view from the top of the mountain. Our last stop was downtown where there are trees full of dozens of wild iguanas. Paco told us that he had counted almost 100 the week before – they really were everywhere, it was amazing to see! There is a market and restaurants nearby that feed them fruits and veggies, so they are fat and happy sunning in the trees. Many of them were 7 feet long!

Now we’re back on the ship and will sail away shortly. Two more sea days and our holiday will be over.