Costalegre Rotary Golf Tournament

This Rotary fund raiser will be held January 14th at Hotel Grand Bay. Prizes from our sponsors - golf rounds at Tamarindo, Las Hadas, Grand Bay and hotel stays at Las Hadas, Grand Bay, Cabo Blanco, Real de Chapala. The prizes will be for longest drive, chipping contest, closest to pin and a silent auction at the end.

Marabasco River Overflows

These photos were taken in the early hours of Sunday September 8, showing the results of the rains Saturday night. The Marabasco river overflowed in the agricultural valley Cihuatlán affecting banana plantations and vegetables. Also in the city of Cihuatlan, tons of sand and mud again covered the main avenues, such as the Alvaro Obregon and Aquiles Serdan.  An estimated 6-10 inches of rain fell in 12 hours effecting much of the Cihuatlan municipality.

El Rebalse was flooded which is located a few kilometers from the county seat of Cihuatlán and close to the river. Neighbors say no Civil Protection Authority warned about the risk of flooding this weekend.

El Rebalse

New Cancun of the Costalegre on hold

In April the Chalacatepec Mega Resort (New Cancun) funded by Ipejal (Jalisco State Workers Fund) and Rasaland was brought to a halt until the land dispute with the local Ejido is resolved. The injunction is against the Ministry of Agrarian Development, both nationally and in the state, Ministry of Communications and Transport, Aviation, Tomatlán City Council, the Public Registry of Property, the National Water Commission, State Government.

It seems the Aunt of Governor Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, owns 200 hectares located in Chalacatepec, that separates an area of ​​land purchased by Rasaland company to build the resort. To make management decisions for State Workers funds without making it public the Law was amended if connected to private companies. Audit information from Ipejal was not forthcoming nor was the Environmental Study info. That combined with Rasaland's connection to Goldman Sachs had some believing the whole thing was a fraud.

With the continuing land and payment dispute with the Ejido, lack of project plans and the 3-5 years to do a complete environmental study .... it looks like "The New Cancun" will be on hold for awhile.

Chalacatepec

The new Airport

Goldman Sachs?

CHALACATEPEC, EL DESFALCO DEL SEXENIO

Conagua unfinished works on the Marabasco

Conagua works could cause the river Marabasco to overflow

Marabasco, Manzanillo, Colima, June 8.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) left unfinished works of dredging and construction of containment walls of the Marabasco river on the border between Jalisco and Colima. That leaving a potential overflow condition. Also an unannounced section was narrowed by more than 80 meters of the channel walls causing a bottleneck.

The Natural Disaster Fund (Fonden)(Hurricane Jova related) allocated the amount of 265 million pesos for an estimated duration of six months work. However, the machinery stopped operating a little over three weeks ago.

On a tour of the area, we can see that in a stretch of river work was not announced, which adds to the unjustified reduction of the channel width.  While the start of the work respected its 125 meter wide channel, four miles downstream it is reduced to 20 meters with curved sand walls.

"This risk is a result of the lack of state coordination of a single unit, which is Conagua. This is a clear case of how a government work endangers the inhabitants of the area, it's ridiculous what they did, with the 125 meters wide runway reduced to 20 meters, such stupid things are not necessary and not the first", said Alfredo Cuarón, incharge of the area.

Protesters have delivered a letter to the governor of Colima, Mario Anguiano Moreno, to make arrangements with the Conagua to finish the work and redo the work of the curve of the river, to better protect the land on Colima and Jalisco sides.

So far they have received no response to the letter that was delivered just over a week ago.

Obras de Conagua podrían provocar el desbordamiento del río Marabasco

Hurricane warning for the Costalegre

As hurricane Erick approaches there is a hurricane warning for all of the Costalegre. Very possible high winds and rain estimates from 3-5 inches with up to 8 inches possible in places.

The intensity forecast remains a challenge since Erick is not that far offshore of Mexico. The hurricane could intensify a little more today while it remains over warm waters without much shear. The environment will gradually become less conducive tomorrow due to Erick moving across cooler waters and possibly interacting with land. A more rapid weakening should commence after the weekend with much colder waters in the path of Erick along with drier more stable air. The NHC forecast continues the trend of the previous one...and is close to the intensity consensus.

Blue Bay and La Vena Beach

I'd heard of this beach before and pictured it as being much more difficult to access and more primitive than it is. You turn into the Blue Bay road and the first guard is right there near the highway. He only wants to see the drivers ID so he can take your name and know that you are going to La Vena restaurant. A second guard is near the hotel and you tell him you are going to La Vena. Drive past the hotel and along the beach, around the hill and you'll come out at the river mouth. Park anywhere from there to the restaurant.

About 20 of us went last Sunday in 4 cars. Brought our own food, drinks, a tent and tarps for shade and beach toys for us and the kids. Not only is this a beach much like Tenacatita but it's also a river mouth. The river is cross-able near the ocean and swimmable upstream. Someone said snorkeling was pretty good but there were a bunch of 'rays' in one area. One woman walked around the point and came back with a good sized bag of oysters. A really great day with lots of fun.   Nice restaurant for beer and food, 2 public bathrooms with showers and places for your garbage.  Great place to spend a day.

After we got back I wondered what the source of that river was because it is no small stream, at least at this time of year. There are no rivers that cross the highway anywhere near this area. To the south is Boca de Iguanas and to the north is Tenacatita. I asked on a few message boards but nobody knew. I eventually found on a Tomatlan site a reference to "La Vena" being an arm of Rio Purificacion but how did it get so far south. Then I found a .PDF file on a study of the area from the University of Colima and embedded in the study was the map below. It turns out that Rio Purificacion turns south just south of Tecuan and north of Tenacatita, forms the Tenacatita lagoons, and then continues south to come out at the north end of the beach by Blue Bay. That was my detective work for the week.

Blue Bay Hotel

Blue Bay beach

La Vena - Rio Purificacion

Setting up camp

The map showing the river course

Rodolfo Paz - Tenacatita Visionary

El Amarillo

by Carlos Tello Diaz

In the fifties, Rodolfo Paz Vizcaino had a dream: to found a city in the middle of nowhere which would become the tourist destination that the country needed. This is the tale of his dream, the story of a person who had everything and ended up with nothing. 

“I remember him in a dark grey suit and with gold teeth.” This is how a reporter described El Amarillo when he met him in jail, where he lived full of illusions. He told the reporter, “You are the man that my masterpiece needs. Do you know what it is? It’s the most extraordinary, the largest, and the most unique work that a single man has undertaken. I want to create a city! A marvelous city, where there’s no room for sadness or worries, the most beautiful in the world.” In the winter of 1960, Rodolfo Paz Vizcaino waited in cell 83 at the L block in the federal prison in Mexico City. It was Christmas Eve and he was depressed. He was lamenting that the bathrooms were “excessively dirty and the prisoner’s uniforms were old and tattered.” Paz had just been detained for writing bad checks in Guadalajara. He was still the owner of one of the most beautiful properties on the coast of Jalisco; but he didn’t want to sell his land, not even to get out of jail, because he was still blinded by the vision which had struck him decades ago, of building the most beautiful city in the world on Tenacatita bay. The people called him El Amarillo after the character from Augustín Yañez’s novel La Tierra Prodiga, a character Paz inspired and claimed as his own. In prison he wrote to the judge: “I’m attaching the book, or novel, La Tierra Prodiga, so that you, the judge, see part of my life.” This is how reality imitates fiction. 

Rodolfo Paz Vizcaino was a native of southern Jalisco. He was born in the municipality of Tonaya, one of the poorest in the state.“He was a campesino,” affirmed José Rogelio Alvarez, who headed the colonization of the coast of Jalisco during the government of Yañez. “I knew him in 1953 when he would have been about forty years old. He had to have been born around 1910 or 1915.” El Amarillo hardly began as a colonizer; he had been a rancher since his youth, but he had made his money selling goods between the coast and the highlands. He lived between Sayula and Purificación, in southern Jalisco. 

The rest of the Rodolfo Paz story

Carnaval Costalegre 2013

From the 5th to the 9th of March - Barra de Navidad

Del 6 al 9 de Marzo