Day in Barra

The girls wanted to go over to Barra, see the new Malecon and swim in the lagoon. I was still feeling dizzy (mareado) so I just sat on the beach. Forgot to charge my camera so only got these two fotos. The next day Lorena showed me some bites she got in the water. Never heard of that before and they were bites, not stings. The ocean side was way too rough so we stayed away.

Barra de Navisad new Malecon

The walk

The pier

Rumor has it that they are finishing the work. Guess we'll see how "the wall" holds up in storms rather than sand and rocks. I didn't see how deep the foundation is or if it could be undermined.  

Better look at the Barra Malecon

A different approach

Lets build a wall

Barra Malecon

Looks like they are redoing the whole thing ..... and a wall instead of a sand dune.   Gotta get over and check it out.

Fixing the Malecon but not the beach

A rather large section of the Malecon washed away during Hurricane Patricia. That section was just over that small wall and it took a lot of the bricks out in the pedestrian area. It's been extended at least 5 meters beyond where it was before.

The beach remains a mess but at least the buildings are protected with the rocks. The blue water in Barra always amazes me compared to Melaque.

Barra waterfront after

The beach is extremely ugly but for the most part the rocks protected the buildings. The statue on the malecon is leaning a bit and there is rumor of a beach side pool cracking. My guess is it's the Alondra pool because it's closest to the beach and more likely to have an undercut foundation. 

Ugly beach

Careful

Barra de Navidad Malecon

7AM in the morning

Even though there is almost no beach left along this section .... the Malecon is still attractive. If we have a hurricane and nothing has been done the Malecon may be at risk.

1st Gastronomico Festival

Gastronomico Dia de los Muertos

This Saturday and Sunday nights (1st and 2nd) Barra will have its first Day of the Dead celebration. Starting at 7:00 p.m., from the corner of the Alondra Hotel to the entrance of the malecon, you will find restaurants offering food samples for $20 pesos each, and small traditional altars honoring the loved ones of the local business owners.

There was talk of fireworks later in the evening, but we're not sure that is going to happen.

Car camping on the Malecon

Some pictures I've not seen before when car camping was allowed on the beach where the Malecon is now.  I can only guess from the late 70's or early 80's with the cars shown.  I don't remember when the Malecon was built. These were found on the Cihuatlan Facebook page.

Barra de Navidad car camping

Barra de Navidad car camping

The fishermen

Barra de Navidad car camping

Barra Beach after Hurricane Marie

Hurricane Marie didn't come very close but it did reach category 5 which produced some of the biggest surf we've seen in quite awhile. The rock bulkhead was only put in from the buildings so out by the malecon it's only sand. We'll just wait and see if the break water (man made reef) will trap more sand sand or will they have to pump more from the lagoon. Summer storm season is long from over.

Fotos by Flick

New Barra Malecon

I found this on Facebook so it's not mine. Really gonna have to get over there to see what is up. Someone tried to post some recent large wave fotos but their link didn't work

New location of the Mer-people 

Barra beach restoration includes a Malecon

Finally spent a couple hours looking at the new construction along the waterfront in Barra. The most impressive part is the foundation for a new Malecon all along water front. It looks to be 20-30 meters beyond the high water mark in the Sea Masters area which you can see with their elevated porches. Probably have to tear those decks down and start again on a new surface. The hotel Tropical has solid pilings but no sand under the first 5-6 meters of the building.   Not too many entrance points to the beach so it looks like the shovel is moving rocks and dirt up and down the beach from there (Sea Masters).

The two reefs which you can almost see in the long beach shot look to be done but there were 2 guys in dive suits doing something on them.   The idea of the reefs was to fill very large and long bags full of sand and use them almost as a breakwater to defuse normal wave action.

Looks to be be 2-3 sets of hoses heading in the ocean direction but on the ocean side you can only see the one from the dredge. The large dredge hose seems to be relying on water action to disperse the sand. I wonder if the smaller ones were/are being used to fill the "reef bags".   The Malecon is closed to everyone that does not work there ... looks like it may be for awhile.

Pardon the large smudge on my camera lens - didn't check !!

Shovel next to Sea Master

Sea Masters

Malecon foundation and two reefs

Sand into the ocean

Dredge barge and smaller hoses

Mysterious Barra waterfront work

They have been working on the Barra de Navidad beach and waterfront improvements for several weeks with all kinds of large equipment and huge plans but nobody seems to be interested in posting pictures or progress of the project. I can't believe it's not interesting ... but only imagine not much is getting done for some reason. I've only heard of vague street closures and someone recently posted this foto of the Malecon entrance. Wish I had more time to get over there.

Barra de Navidad malecon closed

Barra beach preservation begins

Lots of activity along the Barra waterfront over the weekend. Helicopters landing, heavy equipment and some huge plastic bags delivered to the Malecon Saturday evening. Now the Malecon is loaded with equipment to fill those bags to form an underwater reef to hopefully slow the wave action that has destroyed many of the beach side structures. Suggestions have been to pump/dredge sand from the lagoon over the Malecon and into the bags. Should be interesting to watch and see what successes and or trials they have to make this work.

Barra de Navidad malecon

Tear down the Malecon

President of Chihuatlan proposes to destroy the pier jetty in Barra de Navidad

Given the evident lack of funds authorized by federal and state government to help, the mayor of Cihuatlán proposes the destruction of the "breakwater" located on the boardwalk in Barra de Navidad, in order to lessen the impact in the area of on the beach and lagoon.

Mayor Jesús Huerta Aguilar said that the Presidency of the Republic and the Government of Jalisco and are aware of the problems facing the tourist resort of Barra de Navidad, where rough seas have impacted many buildings, the beach and closing businesses,  which has contributed to a decline in the number of visitors and thus has lowered the economic flow.

The mayor's short-term solution "is to destroy the breakwater", the jetty built between the beach and lagoon.

Locals and tourist services of Barra de Navidad agree with the mayor in the sense that since the construction of the breakwater, the swells were taking away beach sand and filling the lagoon.

Presidente propone destruir escollera del malecón en Barra de Navidad

Tour of Laguna de Navidad

This is a family video of a tour around the lagoon and the canals lined with homes. I just included it because the video is good. Not sure how they came up with Colimilla as a label except it looks like they started there. Actually you can get any of the water taxis near the Barra Malecon to give you a similar tour for not much money.

Barra before, during and after Hurricane Lane

Hurricane Lane was the strongest Pacific hurricane to make landfall in Mexico since Hurricane Kenna of 2002. The thirteenth named storm, ninth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the 2006 Pacific hurricane season, Lane developed from a tropical wave on September 13 to the south of Mexico. It moved northwestward parallel to the coast of Mexico, and steadily intensified in an area conducive to further strengthening.

These fotos were sent to me by "Barra Jorge" as a before, during and after series of the hurricane and what it's like along the Costalegre in the summer months. The first two fotos were taken at Casa Chips restaurant and the last from the Malecon

Casa Chips Before

Casa Chips during

After - with dirty water and significant loss of beach

Barra de Navidad Malecon

Is it really as white-hot as it looks - well almost. It was a very warm day and this was just after I'd walked the beach from Melaque. This was first day using this camera and all my exposures were off. A little photo adjusting came up with this and I think it's pretty cool but different

Barra de Navidad, Costalegre, Jalisco, Mexico