As seductive as Villa Aves de Paraiso, the Santiago Pennisula and its surrounding bays were, I wanted to see more of the state of Colima. Despite the State Department warnings of armed drug lords running rampart throughout the state, our villa owner assured us we would be safe exploring the surrounding countryside and the ‘white village’ of Comala. So we hired a driver to spend a day doing just that. Carlos arrived bright and early the next morning to show us some of the sights of Colima.
Agriculture is an important contributor to the Colima economy. Once Carlos skillfully navigated his way through the heavily trafficked streets of Manzanillo, past the congested port with its piles of shipping containers and idling semis, the land immediately opened into large tracks of green space with fruit laden trees and produce bearing plants .
Although Colima is known as the lemon producing capital of Mexico, bananas are also an important crop. I had to admit that although I eat bananas regularly, I am not familiar with how bananas actually grow, so Carlos suggested we make a brief stop at a banana plantation. The plantation had several hundred plants densely packed together. We quickly learned that contrary to popular belief, bananas do not grow on trees, but rather on plants called herbs. Plantations in Colima are family owned, passing from generation to generation. Carlos introduced us to the owner, who after a brief smile and buenos dias returned his attention to showing several men with machetes where to prune banana plants.
Carlos then gave us a short tutorial on how bananas grow. A thick stalk with a purple bulb snakes its way skyward from the base of the herb, eventually becoming so large and heavy that it points towards the ground. Within six to seven months, small finger-like buds grow under the sheaves of the bulb, forming the pod that will become a bunch of bananas a couple months later.
As the fingerling buds grow, they force open the protective sheaves of the bulb and immediately begin curving skyward, seeking sunlight. This search for the sun gives bananas their unique curved shape.
The process continues as more and more finger-like buds emerge from the bulb, creating additional bunches of growing bananas all curving skyward. Typically, it takes nine months for a bud to yield its produce of one hundred plus bananas, nicely formed in bunches. Bananas are usually picked while green so as not to overly ripen during transport. As soon as the fruit is picked, the tree is pruned and the process restarts. Plants on the plantation will be at different stages of growth so regardless of the time of year there is always pruning, growing and harvesting taking place. No wonder the owner had little time for chit chat!
After leaving the plantation with a few ripened bananas in hand, we passed fields of papaya. Unlike bananas, papaya grow on trees.
From a distance, papaya trees resemble palms with their fronds sprouting from their tops, but upon closer inspection, the large ridged leaves are actually fern-like. Unlike a coconut, the oblong, pear-shaped fruit grows low on the tree making harvesting easier. Fruit can weigh as much as ten pounds each and takes about six months to ripen. The papaya was still green so no samples for us!
Continuing our drive, we approached an open expanse of bare, wet dirt with mounds of what at first looked like white snow edging the periphery. As we neared, we could see crystals sparkling in the hot sun – salt! This was one of the many salt works in the area. The majority of table salt sold in the US comes from Colima.
We stopped to meet the foreman of the salt ‘factory’ and learn about salt harvesting. Not unlike farms and plantations we’d visited, these salt works are family owned and operated businesses, passed from one generation to the next.
Harvesting salt requires a good degree of patience. The land is cleared of vegetation and covered with black plastic tarps. Salty water from the surrounding bayous is diverted and captured in series of man- made holding ponds. It’s then up to the intense tropical sun to work its magic, slowly evaporating the water and leaving behind the fine salt crystals on the tarp. During the process, the salinity of the water is continually checked to ensure the evaporation process will yield expected amount of salt.
Finally, when the water evaporates, workers sweep the salt into piles using brooms, where it is eventually bagged and sent for further processing and ionizing. Ultimately, it ends up on the supermarket shelves of Kroger and Meijer and to our kitchens!
The next stop on our itinerary was a visit to the El Tortugario Ecological Center, Mexico’s largest sea turtle sanctuary located on the beautiful black sandy beaches of Cuyulatan. Run by an ecological non-profit with no government funding, this center, with its shabby facilities and mostly volunteer staff, does important work in endangered sea turtle conservation.
Sea turtles are vulnerable when on land – their continuity as a species depends on females being able to safely nest and lay their eggs on beaches, the eggs being left undisturbed to incubate in the sand for two to three months and the hatchlings successfully surviving their perilous journey across the beach to the sea. This whole process is naturally fraught with danger and habitat loss has made sea turtle survival even more challenging: conservationists predict that only 1 in 1000 hatchlings survive so the organization lends a helping hand. Center staff patrol the beaches, collecting eggs from the sand and reburying them in fenced pens within the sanctuary, protected not only from animal predators but human poachers who can profitably sell the eggs on the black market given their reputation as aphrodisiacs. Here eggs mature undisturbed and even get some human assistance hatching. We watched a ecologist as she helped the hatchlings break out of their shells and burrow out of the sand. Once collected, these hatchlings are transported to a covered pool to mature.
Turtles are maintained in ponds based on size and age; as we wandered from pool to pool, the turtles get progressively larger giving us a visual lesson in their development and growth stages . When mature, turtles are reintroduced into the ocean to hopefully live a long life and propagate; sea turtle life expectancy is 50 years with 10 years of active reproduction. Watching these marvelous creatures with their speckled skin and heart shaped shells gracefully gliding through the water puts the important preservation mission of the ecological center in perspective. The world is a better place with sea turtles.
In addition to its focus on sea turtles, the preserve also shelters several rescue crocodiles and iguanas unable to fend for themselves in the wild. We were delighted to have this old croc smile for the camera!
Carlos recommended we explore the sanctuary grounds. A short trek through a mangrove forest adjacent to the turtle ponds brought us to a lagoon on the Palo Verde estuary. The lagoon was teeming with egrets and other water fowl as well as a variety of flying insects. Fortunately, a soft breeze kept us cool and the insects at bay.
Overhead in the trees, we saw several enormous termite mounds nestled in the trees like papier-mâché piñatas. Composed of termite saliva, feces and dirt, these paper thin structures take years to build and are easily destroyed by one wind or rain storm. Termites, like ants and come to think of it, some of my colleagues, endlessly work!
By midday we were hungry and ready to stop for lunch. An hour’s drive brought us to Colima, the capital of the state, a clean, modern city with wide, tree lined boulevards. We entered a multilane traffic circle with two large dancing dogs in it center, a rather unusual sculpture for a capital city. Driving a few kilometers past Colima, we stopped for lunch in the small town of Comala, with its all white buildings. Prominently displayed in the main square were figures of the same dog from the Colima traffic circle. Nearby shops sold ceramic and clay figures of this dog – there was a story here worth hearing, so Carlos graciously enlightened us.
The Colima dog, or Xolo (shortened for Xoloitzcuintle, which I had to look up) is believed to be over 3000 years old and the first dog in the Americas. A relative of the Mexican Chihauhau, ceramic figures of this dog have been discovered in the tombs of ancient peoples. Xolo were used as watch dogs, healers, guardians of the dead and even bred for food. Today, they have come to symbolize the history and traditions of the Colima region.
Comala is a picturesque Mexican town with a lovely shaded zocalo filled with local vendors hawking their wares, ringed by shops and outdoor eateries and graced by a prominent cathedral. Colorful letters spell out COMALA and designate it as a Pueblo Magico, a place whose history and culture provide a special or ‘magical’ experience for visitors (or so says, the Mexican tourist bureau). The square, named for Benito Juarez, Mexican hero and first president of indigenous descent, is also designated as a historical monument zone. We ate lunch at the infamous Don Comolan’s restaurant, finding an outside table on the plaza. We ordered drinks, and immediately platters of complimentary appetizers or botanas, arrived – empanadas, tostadas, taquitos and relenos along with chips and salsa. There was no need for lunch by the time we finished appetizing! Carlos warned us not to order lunch. Locals enjoy watching astonished first time patrons try to figure out why all this food appears without being ordered or paid for.
Our stomachs full, we had a few minutes to peek inside the church. Not nearly as ornate on the inside as the outside, San Miguel del Espiritu Santo serves the community as the local parish church. The current building was mostly constructed in the early 1900s. A large white statue of the Archangel Michael, the church’s namesake, perches between the main towers. We did not linger long in Comala; we had one final site to see before heading back to Manzanillo.
What had really piqued my interest in exploring Colima was a desire to see the pyramids, or more specifically the archeological site, of La Campana. I had visions of a mini Chichen Itza or the less famous, but equally impressive site of Monte Alban, so I was concerned that we were visiting La Campana so late in the afternoon. Once we arrived, I was a bit deflated and understood our driver’s timetable. Although believed to be the largest prehispanic population center in western Mexico, only about 1% of the site has been explored and excavated. With its fifteen or so structures, it was easily explored in an hour.
Although compact, there were interesting features to see. Archeologists found La Campana in 1917 but active excavation and research did not occur in earnest until the mid 1990’s. The site opened to the public in 1995.
Archeologists believe La Campana was an important religious and administrative center. Although likely inhabited since prehistoric times, La Campana was at its maximum prosperity between 700 – 900 AD. The site has numerous buildings and stepped pyramids that formed the foundations for temples and patios as well as residential areas for housing. One can still see evidence of a storm drainage system and streets. We were able to crawl down a stepped corridor below ground to view a shaft tomb; in addition to viewing the vault where human remains were placed, we saw remnants of a dog and clay mask, an offering probably meant to accompany the deceased in his or her journey to the underworld.
Volcan de Fuego, or the Volcano of Fire is readily visible from atop the main pyramid at La Campana, that is, when it’s not covered by clouds. Fuego is one of three volcanoes in a complex that borders Colima and adjacent Jalisco state. By far the most active of the three, Fuego last erupted in 2015 and is responsible for the many earthquakes that rock the region. We got a momentary peek at the peak through a break in the clouds.
All explored out, it was time to return to Villa Aves de Paraiso and a farewell dinner. Tomorrow we head home, but our day in Colima gave us a better understanding and feel for this beautiful part of Mexico.