Manzanillo, Mexico

Day 79- Manzanillo, Mexico for Comala and Colima Mexico

Manzanillo is the largest port city in Mexico. It is in the State of Colima and has the largest population in the state of 160,000. There are 31 States and one federal territory in Mexico and Colima is the 2^nd smallest state. Mexico has designated 52 cities in the country to be Magic Cities and Comala is one of the 52 cities. They are recognized as being charming cities off the beaten path. The government has upgraded the utilities (out them underground ) put free Wi-Fi in the plaza among other things to encourage the tourist to visit more small towns beside the beach resort towns on the west and east coast of Mexico. Our first stop was the Ruins at La Campana dating as far back as 600 A.D. I was expecting them to be like the ruins outside of Cancun in Tulum but they were not Mayan or Aztecs they were called Western people. The ruins were built out of river rocks as the area is between two rivers. They built up 3 or 4 terraced levels and then built houses on the platforms. We were able to look into a tomb and see artifact and bones that were left. The government did not protect the site at first and the poor people of the area sold off the pottery. Two Mexicans ask the people to sell them the artifacts instead, so that the artifacts would stay in Mexico. One was the famous Mexican Artist Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo. When he died he donated his collection to the University Museum. The other man was a business man and he donated this collection to the government. We visited the University Museum and it was a wonderful collection. The artifacts were in great shape due to the placement in tombs they were unbroken. The museum also held a collection of art, furniture and iron work of Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo which is copyrighted so we were not able to photograph his work. We then went to the Square in Comala for a tapas lunch, which was very nice. We had missed Mexican food, so we got our fill of flauntas, taco, tostados, guacamole and crevice. After a very quick look around the square we were back on the bus for the two hour drive back to the ship. Our next port is Los Angeles.