The All of It: Sunday on the malecón

Since today is the shortest day of the year I decided to get busy early. But first, my traditional Sunday morning glass of sweet, fresh orange juice. Sunshine in a glass.

Next it was another load of laundry in the new machine. Perfect again.

Finally it was time to stroll down to the malecón to check out the rumors of destruction and ruin. They have been highly exaggerated. I say that now, in mid-December but I imagine it was far worse right after the heavy storms in August. As for the issues with the feds, that too is hard to detect.

At 10:30 this morning the place was virtually deserted.

It's a few days before Christmas and the place is empty. Maybe visitors will start arriving sometime today, or maybe they're going to stay away in droves as they have in the past. We'll see in the next few days.

This is Dago's without its roof. He still has a few chairs, umbrellas and tables on the beach but not as many. But that may also be seasonal.

There was a stand here but it's gone and it doesn't look like it's coming back.

This is the "formal" entrance to the malecón at the end of the main street into town. There were two puestos on either side (that's the owner on the bicycle on the right). Both are greatly reduced in size and it looks like the kitchen of the one on the left has disappeared. BUT, Ramon (aka Excellente) is not to be defeated by either Mother Nature or the feds.

He has taken over a much larger, grander site right next door. A two story job that must have had a boat-load of permits to get away with such a structure. It was originally built by the owners of El Bucanero Hotel across the walkway. It really never thrived but apparently Excellente thinks it's a good bet so here he is. It has a large palapa-covered upstairs area that probably gets dynamite sunset views. Marie and I went upstairs once years ago and decided it was waaay too unstable for our liking.

Opposite the sea side I noticed that the old Hotel Colima had disappeared. It has been falling down for years. In fact, I don't think in all the years we've been coming here, beginning in 1983, it has ever been open. I wouldn't be surprised if the big storm finished it off. It would be nice if someone would build a pretty new hotel with a (gasp!) good dining room. But I think that's probably too much to hope for.

Down at our end of the malecón we lost two puestos. They weren't old established outfits. In fact, I think they had just sprung up for the Easter crowd but they were still operating when we left last April. Whatever they were, they're gone. (Fernando's old place, still up and running with all its permits in fine order, is out of this picture to the right.)

Finally, this is the last Guadalupe shrine I have seen in town. We got here on the 12th, the last day of the 12-day Guadalupe Festival. She's watching over the doings on the malecon and from the looks of her, gets all lit up at night.