I am game for a gay shore excursion....especially after spending several days on the ship to get to Acapulco I will have cabin fever....I would like a taste of the naitive culture...LOL

I wanted to give you an idea of my conversation with Lou in Manzanillo, so I will post his most recent conversation below:

Bill (my partner of almost 30 years) and I were in Guadalajara last week. We bought a big, old, historic home in Colonia Americana, and needed to be there to do a bunch of stuff so the contractor will have what he needs when he's ready for it. When it's finished we will be moving to GDL. Having lived in SF for many years we really miss the city and the gay community. As wonderful as Manzanillo is, for those of us who live here year around it is pretty small and quiet. We hope to make our move sometime in November but that all depends on the contractor and how fast he can get things done enough for us to have a place to sleep and bathe.

Right next door to our new (old) house in Guadalajara is a wonderful gay B&B called LaPerla. (http://www.prado128.com/index.html) It's owned by two very dear friends, Christopher and Lars and any of your friends who want to really experience gay Mexico should really consider a trip to Guadalajara and a stay at their B&B. Christopher also sells real estate, in fact, that is how we found our house, and many of the gay men who have come to stay with them are ending up buying and fixing up the older, architecturally significant homes in that area. Lars is a great designer and planner and has worked with many gay men after they purchased to plan the remodeling and help coordinate things for those who live in the US or Canada and aren't down here yet. If you ever plan a visit to GDL, I'm sure they would be glad to help you find your way around. You can walk to half a dozen or more gay bars within 10 minutes from their house.

Bill and I should be here in Manzanillo on Oct 31st. I"ll be glad to come down to meet you..just let me know what ship, time it docks, etc. This past season the ships were all docking inside the commercial port so no guests could greet them. They supposedly finished the new cruise ship dock downtown this summer, so hopefully the ships will now all dock in front of the downtown area and that will be much better for passengers and residents Let me know how many people you think you'll have in the group and we can try to find some way to work things out for you.

As for a tour of the gay life here it would be pretty short. There really isn't much. There are a couple new gay bars but I must confess I have not been inside of them yet. There is actually a pretty nice, but small, group of full time gay and lesbian people living here. During season that number grows, but in the summer there is probably less than a couple dozen of us. As for gay acceptance...it's not an issue of any kind here. Everyone knows we are gay and no one cares. We've never experienced a single anti-gay incident of any kind in the seven years we've lived here full time.

Manzanillo is changing so fast we can't believe our eyes. Once a slow, laid back place with only half a dozen traffic lights spread out over a 45 minute ride along the main street, we are now getting clover-leaf interchanges on the former Autopista to the north of town and the works in the way of new retail and restaurants. From only an old Commercial Mexicana and Soriana for groceries, we now also have WalMart, AutoZone, BurgerKing, Starbucks, Office Depot, Office Max, and soon a Sam's Club. There are a nice number of decent restaurants and a couple of really great ones. A lot of old timers don't like the changes, but for those of us who live here year around they are wonderful. An hour away by AutoPista is the city of Colima where there is a Sam's Club, Sears and just about anything else you need. Manzanillo is a beautiful and easy 3 hour drive to Guadalajara, a city of more than 5 million people now. It is nick-named the San Francisco of Mexico. There are more than 40 gay bars and lots of things to do. The University of Guadalajara main campus is where the house we purchased is located in Colonia Americana, about five blocks from the US embassy in an area of tree lined streets. It's cruisey as can be and a real fun place. You can walk to the historical part of downtown in about 20 minutes.

Bill and I live on the north (west) end of Manzanillo, near El Naranjo and about 25 minutes from the international airport ZLO. The actual town of Manzanillo (where your ship will dock) is about a 45 minute drive south (east). It is a commercial port city and very busy, but all of the tourists don't hang out there. Between the two areas are the huge double bays of Manzanillo Bay and Santiago Bay, all the hotels, restaurants, etc are located there. The La Audiencia peninsula divides the two bays, and on the end of that is LaPunta, where the multi-million dollar homes are located in a large gated community. Out where we are is a huge condo complex called Vida del Mar. It has 200 condos, is about 30 years old and sits on 26 acres of beautifully groomed lawns, pools, etc. Our little development that we are doing is called Buena Vista. (http://www.BuenaVistaManzanillo.com). It is a 4.5 acre hilltop community of 17 lots that shares a common boundary with the condo at Vida. We have sold three lots and constructed three custom homes for 2 Canadian couples and one US couple.