Colima is one of the smallest, highest per capita GDP states in Mexico and is also the name of the state capital. It's a mountainous, remote, and tropical place, with coffee and sugarcane and coconut plantations everywhere. The cities and villages are tropically steamy year round, although the city of Colima is higher so its a little cooler.
I decided to go because I wanted to see someplace totally different from DF, visit the famous Mexican beaches, visit my friend Pepe and get the local view.
The bus ride out super tranquilo. I showed up at the northern bus terminal in Mexico City and bought a ticket a little less than an hour before the departure time. Ten hours and about $70 one way. About a third of the price of a plane ticket. The busses were really nice. The seats didn't recline all the way flat, but they had the fold down leg rests, personal video consoles with movies and games, and the bus was less than half full so I was able to sprawl.
I slept a lot actually. The time flew by between naps, and I arrived at the tropical bus terminal around 7:30AM. Palm trees, open, tall grass fields, heavy, humid air of the coast, especially in contrast to the thin, arid air of mountaintop Mexico City. It felt good to breathe and to sweat. I called Pepe and he drove out and picked me up in the family car as the sun was coming up between the green mountains.
Colima is a sleepy, laid-back little city where most of the roads have grass sprouting up between the cobblestones and concrete tire paths. The running joke was that when I'd ask Pepe how far something was to walk the invariable answer was a shrug and "quince minutos" (fifteen minutes). They have a Starbucks, a Wal-Mart, and a Sam's club, and actually I kept thinking about small cities in Oklahoma while I was there. There's a languid pace of life, very casual. I changed into chanclas (flip-flops) as soon as I arrived, and I didn't take them off until I was back in DF.
I decided to go because I wanted to see someplace totally different from DF, visit the famous Mexican beaches, visit my friend Pepe and get the local view.
The bus ride out super tranquilo. I showed up at the northern bus terminal in Mexico City and bought a ticket a little less than an hour before the departure time. Ten hours and about $70 one way. About a third of the price of a plane ticket. The busses were really nice. The seats didn't recline all the way flat, but they had the fold down leg rests, personal video consoles with movies and games, and the bus was less than half full so I was able to sprawl.
I slept a lot actually. The time flew by between naps, and I arrived at the tropical bus terminal around 7:30AM. Palm trees, open, tall grass fields, heavy, humid air of the coast, especially in contrast to the thin, arid air of mountaintop Mexico City. It felt good to breathe and to sweat. I called Pepe and he drove out and picked me up in the family car as the sun was coming up between the green mountains.
Colima is a sleepy, laid-back little city where most of the roads have grass sprouting up between the cobblestones and concrete tire paths. The running joke was that when I'd ask Pepe how far something was to walk the invariable answer was a shrug and "quince minutos" (fifteen minutes). They have a Starbucks, a Wal-Mart, and a Sam's club, and actually I kept thinking about small cities in Oklahoma while I was there. There's a languid pace of life, very casual. I changed into chanclas (flip-flops) as soon as I arrived, and I didn't take them off until I was back in DF.
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