The Michoacan coast via highway 200 was our playground this past week. After spending a few days in Melaque stocking up and getting through the worst of a flu-like sickness I met Mike and Marianne Saturday morning. We drove south through the large port-city of Manzanillo and then made a few scenic and accidental loops around the fairly large town of Tecoman. Soon after finding the 200 again we entered the state of Michoacan which has a feel and look noticeably different from the Jalisco and Colima coasts. While there has been a lot of variety in the sections of the Pacific coast of Mexico that I have visited Michoacan’s coast felt wilder and bigger than what I had grown accustomed to. Highway 200 winds it’s way around the beaches and over the ridge-lines of the Sierras with with tight curves and steep climbs. Descending to the beach and then climbing again to what are often high viewpoints where you can see far along the coast in both directions. These days on the Michoacan coast were a highlight of this trip for me. Each beach that we saw was unique with some open and extending past the horizon while others were tiny and inaccessible with their surrounding cliffs and rocky breakwaters.

There are some great surfing spots along this coast including Playa La Ticla and Playa Nexpa. After our first day of driving met up with Frank and Rita for a few nights at the surfing beach of Ticla. The water at Ticla was often crowded with more than 30 surfers out a common site. After Ticla we all drove south to the eco tourism installation at La Manzinellera. This beach with it’s newer and cleaner casitas and restaurant was mostly empty and was a tranquil spot. Maruata was the final camping spot on this coast and we found a very comfortable arrangement on this sleepy little beach. After the two nights in Maruata I parted company with Frank, Rita, Mike, Marianne and the two dogs with confidence that I would see them all again and hopefully soon.

Past Maruata the road grew steeper and more twisty where in spite of the new pavement I spent most of my time driving at speeds around 30 mph. Near the end of the Michoacan coast the road grew more straight and full of traffic. I enjoyed a nice lunch at Playa Azul and then skipped Lazaro Cardenas, which looked like a pretty large industrial city, for Zihuatanejo.

I missed a lot of photo opportunities over the past week but still had a hard time narrowing down the selection. My first list of photos for this post included around 90 images. While the photos below fall far short of showing what this section of the coast is like I hope that you enjoy them.

Jonathan Poole
Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico

I have seen a few of these on the beaches that I have visited. While I don’t know what it is I took this one back to the van for investigation and learned that they swim, are self righting and expand and contract rapidly. Overall Length is around 2 inches.

One good sign that you are getting close to a nice break is the sighting of a half-pipe.

The trees are getting bigger and are quite beautiful.

A new to me style of construction is a common site on the Michoacan coast.

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Poolio
Filed under: Jonathan Poole