Barra Beach from Bananas

For those of you up North in the cold. I'm always amazed the color of the ocean in Barra. Only occasionally do you see this in Melaque. 

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 beach - not a beach

This is really sad compared to what used to be a very pretty and user friendly beach. I think the dredge is still there so maybe they'll cover it with sand once again.

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

Start of the cross bay swim

Leaving Barra de Navidad beach

The only good foto I found and no results posted anywhere.  The post below this is the notice for Saturday morning

Swim across the bay from Barra to Melaque

Got lots of energy?  Be on the beach in Barra tomorrow morning at 8 AM. I think I've seen a video of the finish line in West Melaque but that's all

6th annual swim from Barra de Navidad to Melaque - Oct. 3rd

A Barra visit

I had to go over to Barra de Navidad yesterday afternoon to meet with Libra Construction about drawing up plans for a construction project in Melaque I'm working on. They are located next to the ETN Bus station at the entrance to Barra on Veracruz.

Since I don't get over to Barra often I had to take a look at the beach. It's not sandy like may have been planned but the rocks look very solid preventing any erosion up to the buildings. Hurricane season isn't over till the end of November so for two more months there's still a chance. We'v been lucky with pretty calm weather so far this year.

Looks solid

A grey sunset 

Glen's street

Remember when Barra had a beach?

Probably not since this is from the 50's or 60's

Almost as big as Melaque

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.

Barra beach looking pretty sick

I haven't been over there in awhile so I don't know how it is with the rocks in front of the buildings but this section without any rocks is just about gone.  I assume the rocks are doing pretty well but then we haven't had any storms lately

Barra Beach Fotos

From the air

From the beach

A different look at the Barra Dunes

Eventually to be redistrbuted - eventually

Beach reconstruction in Barra de Navidad

Fortress Barra de Navidad

Foto - Jack Brock

Even though it looks like they are building a wall around Barra, this is just sand dredged out of the lagoon behind and eventually will be spread down the beach where needed. Probably to be washed away next summer.

Barra beach looking good

From Cihuatlan Facebook

Barra de Navidad beach looking very nice for the holidays

Some nice Barra beach pictures

A couple of very nice Barra de Navidad beach pictures

These were posted on TomZap a few days ago and are very recent

Looking toward Barra Lagoon

Looking toward Melaque

Break water or a beach

Well, all the sand is gone but at least the buildings aren't falling into the ocean. Storm after storm this year has been hard on the rebuilt beach. Don't know if they will bring in more sand for the tourist season.That's a lot of work only to have it wash away every year.

Barra de Navidad Beach

Big changes and hopes for Barra beach

The changes and additional sand does seem remarkable .... especially after another few days of large swells a week ago. It seems this dredge pumping sand from the lagoon to the beach can work 24 hours a day and is bound to make some progress with the amount of sand in front of Barra. There is also the unknown bulkhead and the reef bags just off shore that are contributing to this in their own way

A foto worth sharing from Jack Brock

Then we have this very idealistic video done about everyone contributing their little piece of sand to the project.  Was this done before or after ..... I don't know.  Probably before but great karma and feeling in this Barra community "rebuild our beach project".  Very artistic and maybe indirectly influenced the outcome.

Friend Glenn can be seen a number of times in this video.

Don't think he carried a bucket but heart was in the right place

No beach for Semana Santa

Not quite sure where foto was taken

I assume this means all of the central beach, the malecon and the lagoon beach will be closed as it has been for the last month.   I see no way Uretek can pack up all it's equipment and take a two week break.   Barra has to think long term and look beyond this one.

No beach ready for Easter

Mayor Jesús Huerta Aguilar admitted to CANAL235.COM, which will not be ready the artificial beach in Barra de Navidad, for the holiday season of Easter and Passover; Uretek businessman, Francisco Alvarez had anticipated it would be ready by that date.

Since the end of 2013 work to revive the beach in Barra de Navidad and dredge the lagoon which connects the bay has caused the closure of roads to motorists, further impacting on the provision of tourism services. 

With support from federal and state government resources for the sum of $ 166 million invested, however, the delay in the works, apparently not allow vacationers will enjoy the new beach next holiday period.

Notably, the Secretary of Tourism of Jalisco promotes Costalegre area, especially the fate of Barra de Navidad, where free travel arrived in Holy Week and Easter. (April 6, 2014)

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