Palma's Place

Barra de Navidad

I visited Barra often and had dinner there several times, including one night when a large storm came ashore and I was caught in a blackout midway through dinner.  

Barra is a more touristy town about 5 miles by car and 3 miles by beach east of Melaque.  The store owners are a bit more aggressive in their selling style than Melaque, but still fairly friendly.  This is where I mostly loaded up on gifts and such.  Across the inlet to the lagoon is Isla de Navidad, home to an ritzy hotel that caters to wealthy travelers and yachtsmen.  This is really a peninsula between the lagoon and the coast and is actually in the state of Colima.  

Barra de Navidad (Christmas Sandbar) was founded in 1564 and was primary port for the Spanish expedition to colonize the Philippines.  The town sits on a sandbar at the mouth to a lagoon that the Spanish used as a port, building their ships for the Philippine expedition and to careen their ships. It remained a major port in the trade with the Philippines and was an entry point for coconuts.  For more history, see this page.

The downtown section has a lot of restaurants and shops, and ends in a paved walkway leading out to a jetty and the canal to the lagoon.  The waves are fairly gentle and the jetty attracts a lot of fishermen.  At the start of the downtown area is the hotel La Alondra, with a rooftop bar.  I went up there for some great aerial shots of the town.