We arrived at the Barcelo Karmina Resort about 3:30 pm our
time. That's 4:30 Mexico
time. It's lovely and warm! The resort looks nice. We are in room 3015
... It's way at the end of the hallway. We will get some exercise
walking to
the buffet restaurant which is on the opposite side of the resort
property. Our room is on lobby level, which is on the third level...
the first night is always confusing too
tired so it takes a bit to figure out location of things.
Wifi is available free in the lobby ..reception area. In the room it's
$13 for 24 hrs and she said it's more reliable in lobby and free there.
Tomorrow at 9:30 am we have our orientation meeting..
On
Saturday morning we went to the meeting. The lady originally from
Quebec City is the Transat rep. She gave us lots of good information,
and recommended we take the city tour in the afternoon. It leaves the
hotel at 2:15 pm. The bus was really an open air truck, it worked well
for taking pictures out the side, no windows. This included a pick up at
the Las Hadas resort and then stops at a strip mall and the flea market which is
in a big field which is only open on Saturdays. We were late getting
back to the bus so the tour guide had to come find us. Luckily he
remembered what we looked like. We also walked the Malecon in the city
of Manzanillo and visited the shops in the area. On the way back the
driver stopped at the Iguana Sanctuary where there were so many Iguanas all
over the trees. Kinda creepy looking.
In the
mornings it is a bit cool, until about 9:00 when it starts to warm up.
By noon it's 28-29C. Three times we walked to the plaza mall, and two
times to Walmart .. There is also a local flea market beside Walmart
..it's nicer
than the one the bus took us to on Saturday. It's about a 30 minute
walk each way. The road from the hotel to the main street is long, a bit
up hill and quite warm walking into the sun when you return.
Oh
ya..one night when we came back to our room from dinner, we were
surprised to find a little lizard in our room. It took two phone calls
to the desk to be understood what the problem was. Then a maintenance
man came and rescued the poor little creature from the mirror ... in the
corner high up by the light bulbs.
Tuesday's bus tour was awesome. Really interesting. It was another sunny
day so we had a good view of the volcano. It was smoking today..lava was
running down the side. Driver told us the lava runs into a canyon so it
doesn't come on the town.
There
were only four couples on this tour, and we had the same guy as
city tour, Poncho. But this time we had a real bus, well smaller
bus..big van. Driving up into mountains reminded me of BC.
We
went to a hacienda, an artist named Alajanero?, who died in 2000, was a
famous painter in Colima. We saw artifacts, ceramics which
were carbon dated to 500BC. Two kinds of dogs, one kind they fattened up
on corn and then cooked and ate. None of that breed exists todays.. all
figures were hollow rather than solid clay. He bought these ceramics to
preserve them so they wouldn't go out of Mexico. He also designed
furniture, cupboards, chairs, tables.. Etc. he painted pictures,
sculpted in metal, he even made the lights.
We
also walked around in his gardens. Flowers, trees, lots of bamboo
trees, cocoa trees, vanilla, banana trees. There were also two gift shops
there.
Then we drove to Comala, a smaller town were we had
lunch. Before that we stopped to take pictures of the volcano and drive on
the magnetic hill.
