Wednesday 16 Jan 2019 - Manzanillo

Woke up at 430 and read a little bit and fell asleep agin. Woke up again at 6 and Margie was just getting up so I had a shower, got dressed and finished typing up the busy day at sea yesterday.

 Today we do not have a tour booked so we are just going to walk around Manzanillo and see what we see. Had a lazy morning, breakfast upstairs at the Garden, checked with guest services about Marige’s tag for the liquor she brought on board. If she has lost it it is OK she just has to bring her ID to pick it up.

This morning my ankle had a big bite on it. I figured it was from the jungle adventures in Guatemala and was worried that it might be something bad that bit me. So Margie and I went down to see the doctor. It seems that all cruise ship doctors are young, good looking and from South Africa. This one had his family with him on this cruise. He told me that it was not a bad bite, probably a mosquito and gave me some cream that made it stop itching almost immediately. What a relief. While we were there, he gave Margie some really good cough syrup as she had been coughing up a storm for the past few days and the syrup seemed to work very well also. 

 Watched some news. looked for dolphins ,watched the ship pulling into the port, went for a glass of juice upstairs and looked out the windows and got our free charm at 11. Read for a bit and then it was 12 and time to go outside into the hot world of Manzanillo.

 It was Hot-hot-hot. The tv said it was only 27.8 but if felt like 36. it was not so bad if there was a breeze but if the wind was blocked off it was hot. 
they have a dog in Mexico that is almost hairless and not a chihuahua. they have statues of this dog all over Manzanillo painted up in different colours. very nice.

We walked off the pier and into town along the seawall. There is a colourful Manzanillo letters which we did take our photos at.

The young girl at the information booth on the pier had told us to go to the swordfish and go into town one block and we would see the restaurant. 

There is a lovely park with a giant blue swordfish in the center of it right along the seawall. the park also has sculpted trees, fountains,  a lovely gazebo and lots of walkways and benches in the shade.  We did not linger there as we wanted to find a restaurant. 

We headed up a street which did not have a restaurant on it but some little shops. We came to the end of the street to some very steep stairs going up but luckily did not have to take them. at the base of their steep hill there was a wall decorated with mosaics in a  fish pattern and it was very pretty. the street turned to the right at thiss pointand we could stay in the shade on flat ground. 

Halfway down this little shaded street was a cafe and we looked at the menu but did not see guacamole, which we both wanted to have, so we continued to the corner. 

There was the Colonial Hotel  with a restaurant “Los Candiles”. We went in and it was lovely. It was almost empty but we figured we had just beat the crowd. 

We ordered our guacamole, quesadillas and refried bean tacos with a beer for me and a diet coke for Margie. She has been going through withdrawals as there is not a free pop station on the ship so we only have juice or water or coffee and tea on the ship. Sometimes maybe the occasional drink of wine which is always nice with dinner. 

It turned out we did beat the crowd as the restaurant filled up pretty quickly after we got our food. After our lovely lunch we wandered around town. we looked for the church that was on the list of things to see. We did find it but it was closed. we walked all around the church to see if maybe there was a door that was open , but no. it was closed. 

Manzanillo is built on a hill side that is very steep with lots of steps so we got a good workout trying to find a way into the church and it was hot out. the churches in the older section of town and in some places it showed it age. we were not sure if it was from the heat or the salt air for the combination of both that the walls deteriorated so much. Maybe they just hadn't been painted in a few years.

I figured that he church missed out on a number of donations from a number of people who were looking to find the church. they would have probably each left a few bucks to light a candle or two. Maybe it was a rich church or maybe there are not enough people to man the church on cruise ship days to keep it open as the town had lots of shops that would want to be open. We were a little disappointed but we got over it.

We wandered some more and there were three young men selling post cards of places other than Manzanillo. they were from the Ukraine and were travelling around mMexico. they would sell things as they need money so I bought a postcard of the Ukraine in Manzanillo Mexico. pretty funny. 

We picked up a few souvenirs and went for another drink. the town is actually pretty but we did not want to take a cab to the newer section so we just went back to the ship early and had a nice shower and a nice relax in our air conditioned room.





Dinner at the Magenta was good as usual. the staff route so sometimes we got to meet new people and sometimes we had staff that we already knew. we went to the show and it was good and then we hit the sack. more adventures tomorrow

Our Towel animal tonight was -Twila the turtle - although at first we did not know exactly what she was. Vignesh had to tell us but once you know what she is you cannot see anything else.