Tropical Storm Elida

Tropical Storm Elida went from nothing to a tropical storm almost over night. It looks to be held against the coast by Tropical Storm Douglas.   Prognosis is not to get much stronger but I doubt they know where it will go in the next day or two.  To be certain it will mean more rain for us here on the coast of Jalisco.

Don't often see two of them together

Satellite of East Pacific

RAINFALL...ELIDA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAIN ACCUMULATIONS OF 3 TO 6 INCHES OVER THE WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE MEXICAN STATES OF COLIMA AND MICHOACAN...AND OVER THE SOUTHWEST PORTION OF JALISCO. ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

Rain, rain, rain and no storm

Nothing coming in from the ocean but it still has been raining a little or a lot almost every day for the last 2 weeks. This is definitely the wettest Spring I have experienced here on the Jalisco coast. It's kind of a typical tropical with usual clearing mid-day followed by clouding up and rain in the evening.  Clouds usually forming over the mountains and then moving down to us.

It rained all last night, main road became a stream, lagoon backed up so we could see it and the puddles/lakes on the way to Melaque became a little deeper. Better by the 1pm school run but still got splash over my hood.   I have turned around in the past before getting into Melaque and saying ... "No school today"   They really need to get the road grader out to cover the larger holes because they only get deeper each rain

Just before the rain came in on the left (east)

Highway 200 Robberies

You almost expect to hear about highway robberies along the Michoacan coast with the recent disruptions to the Templarios activities. Well last week some Gringos in an RV lost the jeep they were towing by being forced to stop and relieved of the jeep at gun point. They were near Coleta de Campos. Below is a foto they took from the RV as the jeep drove away. 

There it goes

You don't expect to hear about it in this area .... let alone a pattern of it.  Two nights in a row people were robbed on highway 200 between here and La Manzanilla near the El Tamarindo turnoff.   A good reason to reconsider driving at night if you don't have to.   Only day trips to La Manzanilla.  Another issue may be that this is taking place on the border of La Huerta and Cihuatlan Municipios - no mans land.

First persons report on the La Manzanilla message board

The robbery occurred last Wednesday, Feb 19, between 9 and 9:30 pm. Two men were in separate pickup trucks, one went in front of the victim's vehicle, the other behind. The one in front suddenly braked at the Tamarindo entrance and pulled the victim's vehicle over.  

Both men had guns and the victim was pistol-whipped and robbed of cash. The robbers were violent and spoke of gang connections.  

I was told the same thing happened the following night (Thursday Feb 20) to a different driver, also from La Manzanilla, in the same place, again around 9 pm. He was also pistol-whipped and robbed.  

There is no cell-phone reception in the area where the victims are being targeted. 

The victim I talked to is afraid to report it to anyone, for fear of his and his family's safety. He said the same would be true of other victims. 

Second persons report

I know for a fact that this is taking place on the highway. …The people involved have chosen not to put it on the board for now…but it was reported to the authorities...

Pichichi

We have lots of chickens, turkeys and ducks that wander around the neighborhood but I'd never seen this one before. It was out on the main road as we were coming back from Melaque. It is obviously a type of duck but Lorena called it a Pichichi - also known as pijiji, pato maizal, pichihuile or a Black-bellied Whistling Duck in English.

Had no trouble getting close to it but only had my IPhone so borrowed another foto. Also saw fotos of hunters in Colima with strings of these ducks that reminded me when my grandfather use to duck hunt along San Francisco Bay.   The one here is domesticated but there are many in the wild - mostly along the coasts of Mexico.

My IPhone foto

Borrowed foto

Just had to admit I need a new camera

I have 3 Sony cameras and only one is working. All are FD (floppy drive) cameras and the newest also has a memory stick. I've loved these things for the last 5-6 years (one is from 2000) but they are just wearing out. I'm convinced it's the salt air and humidity here along the coast of Mexico which effects everything electronic ... but what are you going to do.

I did just buy a set of jewelers screwdrivers and will try to take apart the older two that don't work. There is a chance just the contacts are corroded but who knows what the inside of the camera looks like.

Anyway, the Canon Powershot looks to be 10 times the camera with larger zoom and can take as much video as you have room for (not 15 seconds like mine). This puppy will be waiting for me at my sisters back in the states. Hope it's what I need.

The Canon Powershot SX10is is canon's leading "ultra zoom" P&S digicam. It has a 10MP 1/2.3" CCD image sensor (6.16mm x 4.62mm). The Powershot SX10is features an Image Stabilized lens which is equivalent to a 28-560mm zoom on a full frame 35mm camera, an enormous 20x zoom! It's not slow either with an aperture of f2.8 at the wide end of the zoom range, dropping to f5.7 at the telephoto end.

In movie mode the Powershot SX10 IS can record up to a file size of 4GB or 1 hour (whichever comes first) at 30fps in either 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 formats.

Return to Mexico

Back after 3 weeks in Seattle feeling that I had very little to say. Anymore stays in the US feel like the twilight zone or necessary business trip. It surely is not a vacation.

Flight costs are up about 20% over last year and connection options seemed fewer. Gas prices over $4 and general costs of everything except electronics well above Mexico levels. But it was good to see family, friends and get business out of the way.

Now just getting used to the heat and humidity in Melaque on the coast and have not used my air conditioning yet. Makes for a few nights of interrupted sleep but electric costs will be down.

So next will be about our Cell Phone scam that I could not talk Mari out of.

Driving the Michoacan Coast

This is about the drive from Cuernavaca over to the coast bypassing Acapulco with the intention of over-nighting in Zihuatanejo. To my surprise Zihuatanejo was/is just another large, well (over) developed beach town like Vallarta. Manzanillo is just as interesting and attractive and probably cheaper - sorry you Zihua fans.

Soooo.... I just made a quick loop around town and headed for Playa Azul which is only about 2 hours north. At least Playa Azul is a reasonably sized (small) beach town but it's also tired and just about vacant during the week during the summer. Really nothing to take a picture of in the way of a beach or town. There are a few nice hotels and a beach full of palapa restaurants. I stayed at the Hotel María Teresa with parking, a restaurant and a pool that was not clean enough to swim - $420mx.

Anyway next comes the best part - Caleta de Campos and the Michoacan coast. These fotos are more-or-less in order heading north ... but I'm not going to be able to remember all (many) of the names because they don't show on my maps. (They are in the Pacific Mexico Handbook by Bruce Wipperman). The slowest going along the road is north of Caleta de Campos, not due to bad road conditions, but because of the twists and turns along the sides of the mountains. The road is usually safely wide enough in the critical sections but you're often not able to get rolling over 40 MPH. At times the small white and yellow butterflies were so thick it was like driving in snow.

Getting close to the state of Colima there are some little tourist boom towns with construction going on everywhere ... but still very small and tranquillo.

Now I'm back in Melaque
Drive times were
Cuernavaca -> Acapulco - 3 hours (Cuota cost $45us +/-)
Acapulco -> Playa Azul - 6 hours
Playa Azul -> Melaque - 8 hours (Cuota cost $15 +/-)

You can read and see more of my activities on the web site below.
sparks-mexico web


Michoacan Coast Hyway - Curves in other parts do get exciting

Caleta de Campos

Maruata

Michoacan Coast

Michoacan Coast