Saturday, June 02, 2007

The first full day in downtown La Manzanilla

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - The first full day in La Manzanilla has been a blur, best remembered by some of the photos I took, wandering around these now-familar streets (and beaches) from our other visits since 1999.

Shortly after tea this morning, we made our first foray downtown (ok, it has one main street) to una farmacia, where we picked up some sunscreen (left safely at home) and then hit my favorite tienda (Lidia's) for some vegetables to make some gazpacho soup, a good thing to have around when the temperature is 81 at 7 a.m. and the humidity hovering at 85 percent.

But we did stop by to see one of the fixtures of downtown, the La Manzanilla version of Jamba Juice, which today was offering strawberry drinks, made with fresh strawberries blended right there.

Jamba Juice, La Manzanilla style
Jamba Juice outlet in La Manzanilla

We have stopped there many times over the years, though never in June. Other visits it's been fresh oranges that made up most of what was in her drinks.

With the temperature only getting hotter by each hour, we took to the beach, along with a lot of out-of-town folks who came in by bus. The ice cream vendor walking up and down the beach with his cart looked worn out by the end of the day.

Ice cream on the beach
What kind of ice cream do you want?

Buried in sand
Buried by his friends

The water temperature - fueled no doubt by the hot days and almost-hot nights - is probably in the low 80s now, just perfect for swimming. We found out we missed an ocean phenomenon called the 'Red Tide' which refers to foul water that kills fish, not an invasion of pro-Castro forces making a beach assault. The Red Tide killed enough fish last week that the town had a big cleanup effort to haul off all the stinking fish carcasses. Otherwise, La Manzanilla would probably be empty today.

But today - our third day of retirement - was definitely a swimming day, with more planned for the balance of the time we are here when our snorkel gear (forgotten at son Dustin's casa in Puerto Vallarta) arrives with friends Mario and Sharon.

Entering the 80-degree water
Tip-toe into the warm water

Beach talk
After the swim

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