This winter was our first time staying in Manzanillo itself, although we have stayed up the coast in Barra De Navidad several times. We have a close friend who stays in a condominium in Las Brisas and really loves it there, so we thought we’d give it a go.

It’s always nice flying into Manzanillo Airport because it is small and you can get in and out very quickly (no big lineups for customs or security). We zipped through the airport and grabbed a taxi to Las Brisas, and on arrival were happy to be in an oceanfront suite, two steps from the beach. There was a small store across the road where we stocked up on essentials and quickly got settled.

Across the street we found a great little restaurant with great food, and good prices and service. We ended up having many lunches and dinner there.

We remember the first morning having coffee on Las Brisas beach with no crowds. Actually there were times when you couldn’t see a soul on the beach, and we could see for miles. There were a few locals and tourists, the weather was great, the humidity just right, the sun shone every day, and there was always a gentle breeze off the water.

Las Brisas beach was one of the cleanest beaches we’ve ever seen with city crews cleaning it regularly. The sand is really nice and the swimming was great. We walked around Las Brisas easily because there is not much traffic as the boulevard is not a through road.

One thing that really sets this place apart from other places, in our minds, is that there does not seem to be any crime whatsoever. We think that Manzanillo is a working town more than a tourist town. In contrast, we were just on a holiday to Playa Del Carmen, and what a difference. In Playa there were always people everywhere with hawkers trying to sell you things. Some of these people were very rude and would never let you be, which really turned us off. We did not experience any of that in Manzanillo. The people in Manzanillo were very friendly and helpful. If we were having trouble communicating in a store with our limited Spanish, someone would always step up and help us.

We tried the local buses and were pleasantly surprised at how cheap and efficient they were with trips to most anywhere in the city costing only 5 pesos (less than 50 cents). Once we figured out the bus service, every trip was like a little city tour, and we got to know the city quite well.

There was really good shopping for whatever we needed in Manzanillo and we found most of what we are used to finding in Canada. The produce is really good and fresh, and you can find any kind of meat, fish or poultry at a fraction of the cost we pay at home.

We tried about ten different restaurants for dinner and did not have a bad meal. If we did have something we didn’t really like, it was because we didn’t know what we were ordering. In the end, Portofino’s was probably our favorite.

Our favorite thing to do was to watch the ships come and go from the harbour. Manzanillo is one of the largest container ports in Mexico, and the size of these ships in unbelievable. Some of them were over 1000 ft long, towering above the water, and every night different ships would anchor out in the bay, constantly changing the view. We saw three cruise ships arriving and departing. Although we missed seeing them up close, you can go down to the jetty at the south end of Las Brisas to watch where they pass only a few feet away.

Also by the jetty you can watch fishermen casting their nets. One morning we watched two of them putting in lots of effort and fishing for about two hrs. It was surprising how many fish were in that one net, enough maybe to fill two pickup trucks. The expats that lived nearby would come and watch them, and then buy fish. Now that was fresh fish!

We spent many hrs. on the beach, just relaxing. Seldom were there more than 20 people on the beach, as far as you could see. We saw flying rays that would jump high in the air, and a couple of times we saw dolphins jumping.

We’ve been to quite a few places on winter holidays and we think Las Brisas is probably our favorite. The weather is always good, not too hot and not too humid (on our trip to Playa, we had one solid week of rain). The beach itself is beautiful; no garbage, nice golden sand, clean water, no crowds - it just doesn’t get any better. It has all the amenities you need, the streets were clean, and we even noticed that many of the power lines were underground. The roads were in great shape and we noticed that the city water, which we were told comes from deep wells, was almost like home. Although we didn’t drink it, we were told that it’s fine to drink.

Being a contractor we’re always checking out property values and we could not believe the difference between Manzanillo and Playa for example. In Playa we looked at a condo, one block form the ocean that was not that nice, had a peek-a-boo view, and they wanted 1.2 million usd.

For now we’ll just keep visiting Manzanillo for a couple of weeks at a time.

P & D
Salmon Arm, B.C.