April 2022 - Seaside in Manzanillo

Moving to Manzanillo resulted in a few changes and adjustments on our part. One of the first things we noticed was the increased heat and humidity in our new location. Second, the local economy is heavily driven by shipping rather than tourism. Last, we were a short distance out of town, so we didn’t go out and about as much. Even with all of these differences, we really enjoyed the location, the amenities at the community, and the overall slower pace of life during our month in town.

View from our balcony

When we arrived at the Vida del Mar condominiums, the check-in process for our Airbnb was the simplest we’ve had. For all of our previous rentals, the owner or their representative would coordinate a meeting time, hand over the keys, and answer any questions we might have. At Vida del Mar, there is an administrative office performing check-in upon arrival. They took some information, gave me the keys and a parking pass, and a map to our unit. Super simple, and no issues.

Our condo was easily accessible – a short distance from where we unloaded the car, and only 3 stairs. The unit was a single floor, with a large open area with 2 couches, a dining table, and kitchen. One bedroom with a king-sized bed (hooray!) and a bathroom with an oversized shower. As we moved in, I noticed that almost all of the metallic items had a bit of corrosion. As the visit went on, we noticed that we often felt dampness due to the humidity in the air, but we never found any mold or mildew or had any issues as a result.

Once unpacked, we soon remembered that the unit was advertised with no air conditioning, no washing machine, and no TV. Even though the high temperatures were often around 85, we found that opening the front and back doors, both of which were screened, provided a nice breeze through the unit and was generally comfortable. For laundry, we learned that our condo management office offered a drop-off laundry service for 30 pesos per kilogram. I think this is a bit more than we would pay at a local laundromat, but it was close and convenient, and the team did a great job with our things. For television, we were able to use my laptop to stream our shows. It worked fine, just with a smaller screen than we’ve been used to. The wifi was DSL and generally adequate. It was more consistently reliable than our location in Mazatlán, but still had occasional down-time. The issues were generally during the day (less issues at night) and we were typically able to use my phone as a hotspot.

fewManzanillo’s economy is driven by shipping rather than tourism. It is the largest port city on the Pacific side, and we often saw cargo ships coming and going in the distance. The city does not have a lot of attractions or entertainment, so we spent more time in our condo than in other cities. We got lucky with our dates because the whales were still returning north after their winter stay on the Pacific coast. We were able to watch whales breaching and blowing in the distance for the first 10 days of our stay. We explored the older Centro area of town and also some of the beaches along the bays. In general, the beaches are not very walkable, as they are quite steep. Instead, we primarily admired these areas from restaurant patios. The northernmost area, called La Boquita, was an exception, with flatter beaches and smaller waves. We were able to walk these areas and let Gunner play in the water a bit. In the Centro, we explored the small malecon and also went to an iguana sanctuary - a nice local group taking care of a large number of iguanas and a few other animals, for which we left a small donation.

Whale breaching

Playa del Oro

Playa La Boquita

Fisherman's Wharf in El Centro

We found a number of good restaurants in Manzanillo. Most were Mexican food or seafood, including a nice buffet at a hotel, and we were surprised by the number of sushi restaurants that we passed. We did eat at one, but it was just ok, so we didn’t feel the need to look for more. We also found a couple of good places with pub-style food – Monster BBQ and the HOA Club – and we also had a good meal at the Chapultepec Cerveceria, which is a chain that we’ve found in a few places now. Since we were further out of town, we occasionally ordered extra food to take back to the condo. We also tried the guisos (stews) available at the hot-counter at the La Comer grocery store, and even got a bucket of chicken from the local KFC. Overall, we only went out for lunch about 50% of the time, which is the lowest of all of our stays in Mexico so far.

Our condo community had a bit of a private beach. It was small, so not good for walking Gunner morning/night, but we were able to let him swim in our small bay. The waves were often mid-sized, so we were very happy that we had found a life jacket for him before we came to Mexico. We were also able to sit on the small beach, snorkel, search some tide pools, and collect shells.

Gunner retrieving in the ocean

Relaxing on the beach

Since we couldn’t walk Gunner along the beach, we found a couple of out-and-back routes to the north of our condo community. Both had significant up-and-down, with stairs in the community, and a large hill through the local neighborhood. There are a lot of large private homes to the north, and we met a few of the owners during our walks. In general, most of the residents are expats, and we were told that most of them had already returned to the U.S. or Canada. On most of our walks, we would find the local “chacalaca” birds. These are large birds, with a long flat tail, that run across the ground more than they fly, before jumping up and through the trees. They like to call out to each other, especially early in the mornings. Gunner kept a close eye out for the chacalacas, and while I enjoyed listening to the chatter, Sandy was pretty tired of them by the end of our visit!

Chacalaca

I mentioned in a prior post that I have been using the TravelSpend app to record all of our cash spending. The app is working well, and I reconcile it regularly to make sure everything is getting accounted for. As a former engineer, I have also been maintaining a spreadsheet of our spending - basically a rollup of all spending from credit cards, cash, etc. So far, our nomadic lifestyle is a little bit more expensive than planned, but overall our spending is in line with our retirement plans. The biggest areas we’ve increased vs original plan are food (more restaurants, less “street food” and groceries) and transportation costs (gasoline for local travel, and I really didn’t account for tolls, taxis, or parking at all). For daily life, we average about $90 per day, which includes lodging, food, transportation, and entertainment, and we’re pretty happy with that number. We have some carry-costs around $1,000 per month for things like supplies, healthcare, and clothing, as well as costs back in the U.S., like a storage unit, mailbox service, and some other monthly bills, including auto and renter’s insurance. We have a few additional costs that we’ve incurred for passports and visas, and for our international health insurance plan, which is billed annually. If you think you might want to move to Mexico and want more details on these costs, let me know.

Inflation is getting a lot of press in the U.S., but it’s been hard for us to judge how it’s affecting the economy in Mexico. We find our monthly condos on Airbnb, but those prices are very regional and seasonal. We actually got very lucky in Manzanillo, and we saved 60% off of the published rate by booking for a month. Food is our second largest cost, but because we move to a new city each month, we can’t really build a trend of those costs. Restaurant prices have been fairly consistent in all of the cities and it feels like grocery prices have stayed flat as well. Because we buy drinking water as a stand-alone purchase at a convenience store every 4 days, I have noticed that the large 20-liter jugs have increased from 36 pesos in November to 42 pesos and am presuming this is due to inflation rather than just a regional difference in price. Gasoline is subsidized by the Mexican government, and has been fairly steady over the past 6 months, between 20 and 22 pesos per liter, or about $4 per gallon.

Overall, we enjoyed our secluded coastal stay in Manzanillo. We would return, but only if we could stay in the same community again. For others interested in a Mexican getaway, Manzanillo is a nice, quiet, laid-back destination, close to an international airport, but is definitely not a touristy scene filled with people, entertainment, and trendy restaurants.