El Grupo Exito at Pipers Friday nights

El Grupo Exito - a great band - plays at Pipers every Friday night. Raul, Ian and Hector with occasional guest musicians. Pipers is near the Malecon in Barra de Navidad.

Quiet September in Barra

A quiet Barra de Navidad in September with somewhat eroded sand and lirio remains from the opening of Laguna de Tule. Lots and lots of rain for the last month required the opening of the lagoon between Melaque and Barra. This year the lirio (water hyacinth) even reached into the Barra lagoon.

Quiet beach being cleaned

Quiet street

The closing of Hector's Q-Club

I never did get to make a post of Hector's Q-Club which many of us enjoyed for the last year. Well I wasn't here for much of that year but played vollyball on each of my visits. Sad day for both the Barra and Melaque areas but hopefully we'll find another pool to stay cool in the summer and get some exercise.  Hector has opened the Q-Corner in downtown Barra

Below is a post from Elke on the TomZap forum

Today marked the end of a short-lived era in Barra. The Q-Club Community Center is closing its doors. And the bar. And the library. And the pool....

The Q-Club lease was not renewed by mutual agreement between Hector Loza and Don Deines, the owner of the Cadillac Ranch, witnessed by yours truly.

Don Deines will continue to dedicate his time and efforts to expand the Cadillac Ranch RV Park. Hector Loza's Q-Corner has taken off in Barra de Navidad. Any outstanding Q cards with punches left on them, will be honored at the Q-Corner.

For anyone needing reading material, the Q-Club books have been re-located to "The Club" in La Manzanilla. Hector will also have a few books at the Q-Corner.

We will miss the good times we had for the last year. Water Volley Ball. Potlucks. The Library. Satellite TV. Free Internet. Free Coffee. FREE LIVE MUSIC.

Hector, Liz, Eber, Maricela. A very hard working, fun family.

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

El Grupo Exito in Barra

At Rey Momo tonight around the corner from the Church - with the usual sack of potatoes. These guys play around town so is not just a one night thing.

Music in Barra de Navidad