Mega Tourist development on Isla de Navidad

Colima's state governor and the head of FONATUR (the national tourist development fund) just signed papers to start development of a Mega complex in the Isla de Navidad area. To avoid the border conflict with Jalisco they conclude - "We can make a real Cancun in Manzanillo and not go through Jalisco" - which I assume means build a new highway from the airport up the beach all on the Colima side.

This plan is not only for the northern end of Colima near Playa de Cocos and Isla Navidad - but also for Playa de Oro, Santiago Bay and the southern coast of Colima. Colima currently has around 5000 tourist units and they want to compete with Cancun by building 30-40 thousand units

Map of Development Plans

Barra de Navidad Lagoon

These two views of the Barra Lagoon are from Isla de Navidad looking south towards it's head waters. Both Arroyo Seco and the Marabasco River feed into the lagoon. The lagoon is beautiful, a popular moorage but is polluted from mining runoff upstream from the Peña Colorada iron mine in Colima. There is local sewer control so swimming in the lagoon is not an issue - but I would not eat any seafood found there

The bottom foto looks at part of the Playa de Coco peninsula, an area that comes into conflict between the states of Jalisco and Colima because the Marabasco river is the border ... and it changes course between summer and winter. Often in the rainy season the river will enter the ocean near Manzanillo airport because of the large amount of water. During the dry season there is only seepage on the Colima side and the river heads for Barra.

Barra de Navidad lagoon looking south

Looking towards Playa de Coco from Isla Navidad