The opening of the lagoon really made a mess of the beaches around the bay. This is west Melaque and don't know if they are doing everything. Barra had a lot more lirio and that beach may be harder to clean. Then there is the Barra lagoon that will take a different kind of machine
The previous post shows water leaving the lagoon. These two fotos are of the beaches in Melaque and Barra de Navidad. A whole lot more in Barra than Melaque and it's filling up the canals in the Barra lagoon. Must have opened it due to the very heavy rain we had a little over aa week ago.
After that huge rain, it must have filled the lagoon and they opened it yesterday morning. We were on the beach at Tito's and could see some of the lirio in the bay. Wasn't any near the West end but there probably is today. It's always a huge project to clean the beaches after an opening.
Beach cleanup after Tropical Storm Newton. They had to open the lagoon again after 10-12+ inches or rain. Both of my rain gauges buckets and the pool overflowed so no accurate measure.
I guess that last 2-day rain forced them to open the Lagoon a few days ago. It may also have been related to the sewer pump not working well and aiming black-water at the ocean is better than backing up around town.
Someone asked if it's a good idea on the CANAL 10 page of Facebook and got a lot of approval. Their idea is for protection of the species and tourism. Logistically Laguna del Tule seems much more difficult than the small lagoon in La Manzanilla. I don't have an opinion
Nahima (5 years old) wanted to go hunting for cocodrilos so we took a drive around the lagoon all the way over to the new beach camping extension at Laguna del Tules Motel. They have extended their property almost to where the lagoon gets opened when it's full.
I didn't think we'd be lucky and early evening is probably the best time ... but I hadn't been to the lagoon for awhile and how to tell kids they won't be there. We walked along the Andador over to the ARM that Steve used to write about. Somebody has put in a little time and energy to keep the Andador clean but not much. Pretty run down but still pretty.
We came back along the beach and stopped at the Tourist Police office. We saw the water there had been almost up to the street but difficult to tell how recently. Beautiful colors in the water and a really lively waves on the bay. We were totally surprised by a wave topping the high ridge of the beach and we bolted backwards. Not dangerous but have to have extra concern with a 5 year old. The last foto is Lorena with Nahima's sandals in one had and Nahima in the other. It was only 4-5 inches deep but did create a little lake behind the "dunes".
While I was waiting for new brakes at Pancho's I took a walk over to the new sports complex to see how the lagoon is doing with all this water. I was somewhat amazed at how large it is. Area wise I'd estimate not much smaller than Laguna del Tule. It shows signs of being much drier in the past but it's been a real lagoon for at least six months.
Lots of birds of different flavors. Couldn't identify those large birds in the cow foto but lots of them. An iguana on the banks and I heard a splash that might have been a small cocodrilo or caimen, sure wasn't a big one. The cow sure is happy.
This idyllic scene is across from Melaque Prepa (High School) which is about a mile north of the highway and downtown. It is this wet or wetter all the way to the lagoon by the Sports Complex. The road from the Prepa to the Pinal Villa road is not passable due to running water. Running water crosses the Pinal Villa road in 3 places and fields are filled with water similar to the foto above. Most water on that side is headed for Laguna del Tule but there is still a lot to the west.
I've heard they stopped pumping waste water out to the old non-functioning treatment plant for awhile but it does not seem to lessen the amount of water flowing everywhere. There's some talk of an artificial lagoon for sewage treatment but the whole area is becoming a natural lagoon without help from people.
It seems a joke to baptize a puddle as "Laguna Los Pericos" but in the delegation of San Patricio Melaque-some residents are tired of flooding in their homes and commercial establishments.
Juárez street, an area with puddles is already known as a lagoon, but the worst is the latent risk that storm storm hundreds of families who suffer the authorities require a permanent solution to the flooding problem.
The previous weekend, the municipal government of Cihuatlán allocated resources to repair and maintain three pumps operating in the stream connecting carcamo El Pedregal, however flooding is still present on the main avenues of this delegation. (August 22, 2014)
Photo taken this morning by Bill Gilbert of Laguna del Tule. Not just there or by the ocean because I couldn't two blocks in my neighborhood either. Weather site said smoke but it's definitely a sign that the seasons are changing. Still chilly at night but sun is powerful mid-day. Maybe ocean temperature changes are contributing. Just hope it does not effect driving conditions as school vacation starts tomorrow with lots of people on the road.
Thursday we decided to check out the mouth of the canal and see the condition of the beach on the west end of Melaque. Definitely signs the canal was at full capacity with some serious erosion near the two bridges. The beach didn't look too bad but the whole bay is brown from the Barra lagoon and the canal runoff. They have also fenced off the vehicle access to the beach on that end to keep the crazy tourist away.
After weeks of heavy rain (over 17" in August) they finally opened the lagoon for the first time this year. The lagoon was covered with lirio and resulted in more floating in the bay that I've seen previously. I've also never seen it reach the Barra lagoon the way it did this time. Lots of clean up and of course Melaque started on the calm beach (chicken beach) which is popular with tourists.
We just got back from a 5 day visit to Melaque to visit friends and see how the tourist season was coming along this year. It rained for 3 days just before we got there so was very humid but since it's December, still cool at night. Tourist season is slow with lots of rentals available and trailer parks are not full.
I took an early morning walk along the lagoon and this is the first time in over 5 years I have seen it totally covered with vegetation all the way out to the ocean. Supposedly this is due to not having opened the lagoon during the rainy season - not enough rain !! No wonder I tought it was so hot this year.
Surfing (on long-boards) on the Melaque side of the Bahia de Navidad is rare because we mostly have a steep beach break. The only exceptions are during the rainy season when sandbars are created from the outflow. This video was taken after the opening of the Lagoon last summer when there was enough sand deposited to make some good surfing for 3-4 days
I'd heard the Laguna de Tules was filling up again after about 3 days of steady rain from Tropical Depression Lowell as it passed by. Sure enough, the docks along the Malecon (andador or walkway) are about 6 inches under water. The boat is doing OK so maybe a floating dock next time.
On another note, I just read that the Laguna de Tules walkway project failed to get proper environmental permission from the Federal Government. Thats the reason it's closed and not because it's starting to fall apart - which it is.
Even with the new bridge over the highway there was just too much water for the man-made channel to handle. Years ago this whole area was a lagoon and the river that follows highway 80 down from the mountains (named Lazaro Cardenas according to Mari) used to run through Arroyo Seco, Aquacate and behind Jaluco. The engineering and money to control that much water a few times a year probably just won't happen. That could include a control dam up in the mountains that might also work well for crop irrigation
The bottom foto is of the opening of the lagoon which they are forced to do when the level rises enough to flood houses in the area. They use a back-hoe to dig a small channel and the water does the rest. The wave action is a river running into heavy surf. The bay is filthy and won't be safe to swim for a week.
The river crossing the highway directly into downtown
Downtown without getting wet. The center had over 3 feet
A mess of a beach but they always recover in a few months
They opened up the lagoon to the ocean for the second year in a row
