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Manzanillo & Playa La Audiencia Beach by Ziggy
We arrived in port about 7am, and since we were still sleeping we missed the big arrival. The port is an industrial port. Not very appealing to the eye and the water was brownish looking. We went out on our own at this port but with our group. We all planned to go to Playa La Audiencia beach and hang out there for the day. You can grab a taxi to the beach right off the ship.
As we headed off the ship we ran into several others in our group and decided to meet just off the ship at 11 am and grab a van & ride together. The only vans available were the kind you rented for a minimum of 3 hours at a time. We decided that since we all wanted to return to the ship at different times we would just grab taxi’s to the beach.
We waited in the line for a taxi, after 15 minutes and no taxi’s yet, we noticed many were walking out to just outside of the port gates and grabbing the taxi’s that we were waiting for, so we all decided to walk out there and get a cab. Once we got out there, the port gate guy figured out he was loosing entrance fees and came over and made the drivers first enter the gates and drive around back out to pick us up. We had been told that it would cost $5 per person (each way) to get to Playa La Audiencia beach so we were pleasantly surprised to pay $14.00 per taxi, each way.
Manzanillo is not very appealing once on land either, lots of poverty and not much to see for tourists. I think that is why the beach areas are so popular here. The taxi’s are painted as taxi’s but are old and run down cars. We had a hair mirror rubber banded to the left side mirror mount and the right side didn’t have anything on the broken mirror LOL.
At Playa La Audiencia we walked down about 8 stairs to the beach. We walked onto a half cresent shaped beach. This was the beached they filmed the movie “10” on. It is a nice secluded beach and was very active and crowded because it was Sunday and full of local families enjoying the beach. The water in front of us was dirty from oil and fuel from all the boats and/or the jet skis you can rent ($40.00 per ½ hour). You will also need water shoes here but for slightly different reasons, the sand is very course and hot!!!!
David's Pirate Flag was just to the right of where we walked down the stairs. As we arrived, we needed to get more chairs. The guy told us $10.00 per chair eeeks! When I mentioned to David about the cost he went into over drive and called the guy out on the cost of the chairs. Those who arrived before us only paid $2.00 per chair! So we also got our chairs for $2.00 a piece. So beware, what one person pays is not always the price for the next person! The one thing that never changed price here was beer; they were $2.00 a bottle all day! Jim said the service was ok and he didn’t eat any of the food.
Monika had arranged a private boat for just those in our group to go snorkeling. There were 7 of us and the cost was $20.00 per person (snorkel & mask provided) for 45 minutes of snorkeling and approx. 1 hour sightseeing from the boat in ManzanilloBay.
Our boat driver also snorkeled in the water and brought up many different sea creatures for our viewing pleasure. He even swam around with us pointing out stuff like a sea snake, puffer fish, eel and other sea anemones. I saw many very colorful fish. The snorkeling was very good and sightseeing was awesome!
The boats however only have one step in the back to climb back in the boat after snorkeling. This was very hard to do and they told us from shore before we left they would help us get back in. But our boat only had one tiny guy in it. Luckily we had David and Peter with us who climbed in first and helped us ladies back in. There was a 3 deck party boat that went to the same places we did that left from our beach that also stopped for snorkeling, that was much easier to get back onboard from the water. I don’t know the cost but if you don’t mind a shorter sightseeing and easy on/off access boat, this would be best for you. One other word of caution, make sure the boat you leave on has plenty of gas! Our boat ran out and after flagging a jet ski down to tell him to bring gas, another boat arrived and gave us a container of gas, which our guy siphoned into the tank and off we went! All the people in boats seemed to know each other and communicated with hand signs to each other as we passed them. So I don’t think you would ever need to worry about getting back to the beach.
After we returned to the beach, I shopped a little at the few huts set up for local venders. The prices were cheap for souvenir type stuff but clothing, hats and purses were expensive. Once I was done shopping (about 3pm) Jim, Reggie & I decided we were done and wanted to go back to the ship. So we headed back up to where we were told the taxi’s would be plentiful to bring us back to the ship. Sure enough, there were several drivers waiting for passengers. The driver who brought us made a beeline for us and took us to his taxi. On the way back to the ship, I was teaching him English and he was trying to teach me Spanish LOL. He even did his best to try and point out special places like Wal-Mart & and a statue I have no clue was hehehe. 25 minutes later we reached the ship, tipped the driver and made our way to the buffet for a snack, as dinner was just 2 1/2 hours away. Yippeeeeeee tonight is “Pirate's Attack The Bar” night!!!
I think Playa La AudienciaBeach was nice to see and experience for the first time but I will either not get off the ship or go somewhere else if we ever return to Manzanillo.
Photos posted here:
ziggy638's photos and albums on webshots
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Manzanillo & Playa La Audiencia Beach by Ziggy
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