Manzanillo Mexico

The airport has been remodeled, the downtown refurbished, the roads improved and new equipment has just arrived to clean the beaches. Although this waterfront community in the Mexican state of Colima has been under the second-home radar compared with the Pacific Coast destinations of Los Cabos, Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, it clearly is on the move.

The airport has been remodeled, the downtown refurbished, the roads improved and new equipment has just arrived to clean the beaches. Although this waterfront community in the Mexican state of Colima has been under the second-home radar compared with the Pacific Coast destinations of Los Cabos, Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, it clearly is on the move.

Some of the bigger yachts leaving Point Loma today for the 1,100-mile pilgrimage to Manzanillo, Mexico, will be run by professional yachtsmen--sometimes called "rock stars" or Dennis Conners. Many of these boats will use computers, sea-temperature instruments and extravagant weather devices. But some of the smaller boats, such as the 41-foot Sitzmark, will be run with more simple methods. "All of that stuff is pretty theoretical," said Ward Hinckley, Sitzmark's skipper.

Some of the bigger yachts leaving Point Loma today for the 1,100-mile pilgrimage to Manzanillo, Mexico, will be run by professional yachtsmen--sometimes called "rock stars" or Dennis Conners. Many of these boats will use computers, sea-temperature instruments and extravagant weather devices. But some of the smaller boats, such as the 41-foot Sitzmark, will be run with more simple methods. "All of that stuff is pretty theoretical," said Ward Hinckley, Sitzmark's skipper.

David Gilbert snapped this shot of a vendor near a small lagoon in Manzanillo, Mexico, during a February 2007 trip with his wife, Stephanie. During the getaway, in celebration of their 25th anniversary, the Huntington Beach couple took a panga from the Wyndham Grand Bay to Tenacatita and did the jungle river cruise. "It was fantastic," David says. He took the colorful shot on the beach afterward, with a Panasonic Lumix.

The sloop Cheval finished in record time to claim line honors in the 1,100-mile San Diego to Manzanillo, Mexico, yacht race, the San Diego Yacht Club said today. H. J. Ward of the California Yacht Club in Long Beach steered Cheval over the finish line off Mexico at 8:55 p.m. Thursday. The elapsed time of 5 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 43 seconds trimmed more than 16 hours off the elapsed-time record set by Sorcery in 1986. Grand Illusion of the King Harbor Yacht Club finished second at 9:05 p.

The United States and Nicaragua met for their first formal talks in several months Tuesday but achieved no progress, officials said. U.S. special envoy Harry W. Shlaudeman and Nicaraguan Ambassador Carlos Tunnermann met for half an hour at the State Department and "basically repeated the existing positions of the two governments," a U.S. official said.

Sorcery, the 82-foot Mull-designed "maxi yacht," drifted across the finish line at Manzanillo, Mexico, at 12:59:43 p.m. Friday to set an elapsed-time record in the 1,100-mile race from San Diego. Sorcery's elapsed time was 6 days 59 minutes 40 seconds, surpsassing the old record of 6 days 2 hours 16 minutes 40 seconds set by the 67-foot yacht Merlin in 1978. Pat Farrah's 62-foot sloop Ragtime finished at 1:47:37 p.m., also ahead of Merlin's old record.

Business opportunities and tourism growth in Latin America have inspired a hotel building boom. More than 100 major projects, many of them associated with major U.S. chains such as Clarion, Holiday Inns and Radisson, are expected to open in the next two years. About half the new properties are in Mexico and Venezuela. Here are the 13 most expensive projects, which have a combined value of $487 million. Hotel/City Price (in Opening Country Rooms millions) date Conrad Resort & Casino/ 300 $75.

A high-ranking Nicaraguan diplomat said Monday that the Sandinista government's offer to send 100 Cuban military advisers home was a step designed to "prove the Nicaraguan readiness" to support withdrawal of all foreign military advisers from Central America.

The government of Nicaragua, countering a Reagan Administration proposal that it negotiate with rightist rebels, offered instead Tuesday to reopen peace talks with the United States. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, in a communique published in the Sandinista newspaper Barricada, assailed Reagan's offer as an "ultimatum." But he added that Nicaragua "has always been disposed to speak with the government of the United States."

A research ship operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography that was seized by the U.S Customs Service in late March after a small amount of marijuana was found on board has been released from "constructive seizure," a Scripps spokesman said Thursday.