We chose Manzanillo, which is a small town on the southern coast of Mexico. We have previously visited places like Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas, so we thought going someplace new would allow us to see some new sites. Manzanillo is the sailfish capital of the world (you can also fish for tuna, marlin, and dorado). You can see from the map below that there are a lot of activities to do there, including an active volcano we planned to see. If you haven't had the chance to go to an all-inclusive resort, we highly recommend it! 
Ironically, I was home in Portland for work the whole week before our trip, but Susan Jane was presenting at a conference in Arizona that week - so we saw each other for the first time a few hours before the flight out of Portland. The flight was quite long (10 hours in the air plus 3 layovers), but that's our only real complaint. We boarded at midnight and got to the hotel around 1pm the next day, so we took the first two days to recover from the flight and soak up some sun.
The resort was beautiful and our trip was in late October, right after their rainy season. In fact, some of the parts of the resort were still being cleaned and renovated when we were there (including one pool and one restaurant). Fortunately, they had several large pools, two open restaurants and their own private beach, so we didn't mind the ongoing renovations. Plus, there were no bugs at this time of year. The food was very good and you can never go wrong with free drinks. They even had a special drink they called a "Miami Vice" (about 2/3's Strawberry Margarita and 1/3 Pina Colada) - I don't know if they actually put any alcohol in it, but it sure was tasty!
On our third day, we took a trip to the Cuyutlan Eco-Paradise lagoon and turtle camp. This is a place where they breed three different kinds of sea turtles in an effort to prevent extinction. We learned that there were 8 species of sea turtle, but one is now extinct. Of the remaining 7 species, 3 are found in this part of Mexico. Most exciting was that SJ actually got to hold a baby turtle in her hand.
Next up was a ride
in the Palo Verde estuary (which is a fancy word for lagoon, or possibly even swamp). There were lots of white herons, brown pelicans, iguanas, and other wildlife but unfortunately, we were either too slow with the camera or the pictures did not turn out very well. I included a few in the web album below, but it's hard to convey how it feels to be in a small boat when you realize a crocodile is right next to you. We did get a picture of one swimming away from the boat, and that's the image I'd rather keep in my mind anyway.
The next day we decided to head up to see the volcano - after all, that was one of the reasons we chose Manzanillo in the first place. This ended up being a full day trek (mostly by car) from
coastal Manzanillo up to the "Fuego" Volcano, about 13,000 feet above sea level. This is one of the most active volcanoes in Mexico, continuously emitting smoke and red-hot rock flows, most recently "erupting" in 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately, on the day we were there, it was clouded over. However, on the way back down we stopped in the town of Comala for lunch and picked up a few post cards to show how cool it 
can look (you can see more pictures here). It didn't turn out exactly as expected, but if we had been luckier with the weather it would have been worth it.Our last stop before lunch was the Colima Coffee processing plant. Unfortunately, we were a few months early for their heavy season, but they explained that this whole concrete drying area is
covered with beans in their busy months. We took some pictures of other equipment they had, but almost all of it was idle at this time of year. They did allow us to sample some of their coffee - we're not usually coffee drinkers, but it tasted pretty good to us. We did buy a bag, so if you're ever in the Portland area, we're happy to share (bring a grinder, we don't have one :).
We ate a tapas lunch at a restaurant in the Comala town square and were serenaded by a Mariachi band. The food was excellent and we were surprised by how much they brought out - clearly they are used to feeding Americans. From Comala, we went to Colima City (Colima is the name of the state in Mexico where all these sites are, Colima City is the capital). We posed for a dark picture in the popular Cathedral and then headed back to the hotel. 
We had another day or two there, but we just used the time to relax and work on our tans. Overall, we really enjoyed Manzanillo. Susan Jane took 6+ years of Spanish in school, and I actually remember more Spanish than French, so we even attempted to communicate with locals and were able to read most of the signs. The weather was great, the food was great, and we both came home a bit less pale than we started out.
The only thing we'd change is that we'd pick a place closer to the US border so that the flight time was a bit shorter. On our last day, we left the hotel around 9am and got back to Portland around 1am (thanks in part to a 6 hour layover in Mexico City). Then I left for the airport at 1pm that day and headed back to Penang, arriving at my apartment about 30 hours later. After all that flying, I was ready for another vacation. :)
If you're interested, you can view more pictures from our trip by clicking the picture below.
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