South of Manzanillo Night Time Temperatures

[MEXICOWANDERER]

It is the season when a person goes outside in shorts or long pants or tee shirt versus a sweater.

Manzanillo to Zihuatanejo. Obviously both at sea level. A six hour drive between the two. And ten degrees difference at night. In the winter.

A temperature of sixty degrees sounds like paradise, but not when it is coupled to high humidity.

Manzanillo is south of Puerto Vallarta by a driving distance of six or seven hours. But very little temperature variation. Not at all like the next six hours of driving will bring.

The moderator will vouch for the fact that the idea of a beach bonfire there sounds a little absurd. Whereas a little north of Manzanillo I have sat around a bonfire and saw my breath condensation while wearing some impressive sweaters and a coat.

I did not head south to find myself in Pendletons, Levi's and a Carhartt insulated vest after sundown.

So if you are looking for the tropics you now have a tip as where they are.

[daveB110]

We did have one very memorable day with weather at Tenacatita. It was near the end of January we were watching the semimfinals of NFL 2004 Football season, and the Steelers were losing this game to the Patriots, a final game for the Steelers before the Superbowl. It was playing out on a TV outside of Walter and Haazel's rig about 30 feet from ours, by his Star Choice satellite feed. While watching, out of the corners of everyone's eye, across the Bahia six or eight miles, we had been seeing lightening flashing. When the game was in its final series of plays, things seems to change for a monment around us, when sounds got hushed, a bit of a breeze hit and a wave of warmth replaced that, and in just a second or two, the wind came up with a blast- a quick call to action, and I ran to get the awning back up. I was only a few steps away but the wind hit with such heavy force, Marguerite had rushed out and was holding the awning but losing her grasp, and with my help we still couldn't get it rolling, finally lost it to a large tear. The rain was still coming at us in buckets, my glasses seemed submerged and I cut my foot on a broken glass candle holder. Al and George, my brother, came to help us, got the awning hardware down off and stowed and the three of us moved on to help others. Eugene, from western Montana, already had help but needed more and even our crew of four could barely hang on to the awning while he went onto the roof to remove a tarp so it would roll up. Farther towards the end of the beach a couple had had trouble with the wind too, their truck and slide-in camper had received a long gouge in it, but their awning was okay. It was two weeks before we had our awning working again, aand we had suffered some by it beingstuck under the motor home! A very nice materieal, better than the original, was found in Manzanillo. But the seller had sewn it wrong, by not using the original rubber back - They had only been used to sewing coverings to use on stands used on the beaches. We undid the stiching and took the rubber string to another man closer, in Melaque. had to get him early, as he reserved the rest of the day to hit the bars. From that day on, when ever somebody saw lightening, they put out a call along the beach so that campers knew to put their vulnerable items under cover, and have their awnings up. But we never had a similar blow during the next five winters there.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

But but but

You have power (La Luz) We're talking real John Wayne flashlight grade roughing it here.

Ice cubes in the CPAP water reservoir? Ice cubes in the hot water bottle?

You know it's warm when the hens and rooster raise hell all night.

Two hours with my window AC is just enough to maintain the temp but suck the humidity down 25%

Dalia ******* and moaned one night until I carried her to an almost empty chest freezer, and dropper her into it with a chase lounge mattress and blankets. The door was kept up several inches as I sat next to the freezer and read. My alarm went off 20 minutes later and I extracted her, the mattress and blankets. She was comatose as I carried her to her bed. She was skipping the next morning as she entered the kitchen and poured her leche con cafe.

Mexicans are the epitome of showing stoicism with uncomfortable climate. Jesus traded fish and lobster to a hotelero in Guanajuato last summer for a week in mild temperatures and low humidity.

My secret is to have a hurricane blowing on me generated by several fans.

The most difficult environment we deal with down here, is 80F temperatures with 80+% R/H. CLAMMY. Same PITA as we had to deal with overseas. Not common, but you will remember those nights.

It's a real gas to see children dancing under a summer thunderstorm. Dripping wet and swirling amidst truly chilly downdrafts that can blow temperatures into the low sixties and high fifties.

[Talleyho69]

That's what AC is for-when it's uncomfortable sleeping! Turn it on a couple of hours in the evening and all is well.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I was vetted at age 19 on the Bassac River in Viet Nam in 1966. Viet Nam made Mexico look like Paradise. There are senior officers stationed in Guam and Diego Garcia that are subjected to chilly torture once they rotate back to Texas and California.

I would personally rate where the moderator lives as being truly uncomfortable 10-20 days a year. Most of that involves sleeping comfort.

Tenacatita like Zihuatanejo is ensconced in a bay surrounded by hills that cut off the summer southerly summer breezes. When the air is heavy and still on the shore of these bays, the breezes are 6-9 degrees cooler on the open ocean.

The real test comes during hurricane season when the disturbance pushes a hot and humid bubble ahead of it. I have seen temps near the century mark with 85% R/H -- genuine AN KHE conditions. Hammock lined with cheese cloth, a mosquito tent with a fan inside.

I'll take that any day of the week compared to old age crippling arthritis, 22 pounds of winter clothing and foot deep winter bedding.

Trapped? Sub-zero conditions are way worse than doing like the Mexicans do and take a siesta during the heat of the day.

I make crushed ice and fruit licuados that would freeze the antlers off of Lucifer himself when temperatures get too warm.

[daveB110]

I remember well the feeling during a March afternoon in Melaque where we were parked. No trying to run the AC there. The humidity got stifling and i got to thinking I wanted to get outta here! That afternoon we had a visitor from somewhere up north, a lady, asking if we would help her go north, no can do we said. But I'm sure she felt the same way we did. About that year a man from Guad, hired a bulldozer to clear land around the coral area of Tenacatita. Lots for sale? We wondered who would buy, leaving it for eight months of the year, likely, and coming back to find out, just what was left? We had seen the abandoned luxury hotel a couple of miles away, anything of value missing of course. Just human nature.

[Talleyho69]

He actually likes water and swimming. A trait of Turkish Angoras.

67 degrees F at 5:30 am today, but by 6:30 it was 72. We'll survive.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Wet cat?

I can see it now...

[Talleyho69]

Just like when we lost the AC in the RV on the road south of PV and it got HOT. Got the cat wet, put a wet towel in his crate, put him in it and aimed a fan at him. Cool Kitty!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

When car traveling and hotel visiting purchase a king size survival blanket before you leave home. Store in trunk. Cold night and few blankets. use the survival blanket. It's a miracle. Butane in LPG made lighting a heater impossible in Toluca. No stove. An emergency blanket saved the day.

Between ages 50 and 70 is more of a difference than 15 to 50 health wise.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Dalia told me hundreds of iguanas were licking dew off of the leaves in my orchard. I wish they could learn to love the taste of weeds 😞

The comfort zone from the edge of the ocean to inland down here is generally about 100 meters. Inland can be a sweat bath for the elderly. Well over 80% of whom perish during summer heat waves (probably very similar to hot and humid summer zones in the USA).

Survival Tip: Purchase beforehand. Cheesecloth from a Tienda de Telas a fabric sore. Enough to wrap yourself. Soak in water, then play a powerful fan on you. This isn't a joke. It's for vulnerable oldsters who find themselves in trouble because of the heat. It's not a climate issue -- but rather a health issue for the elderly.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Even though I still have an EMT qualification, I s-t-u-p-i-d-l-y ignored the recommendations to get a flu shot last year and I paid a heavy price -- almost too weak to get out of bed last May. Absolutely zero appetite and no thirst. Friends forced me to drink rehydradition liquid. Scared the bejeezus out of me later.

Public inoculations are FREE to anyone in Mexico. I was last stabbed at the entrance of a Bodega Aurrera supermarket. I read the label. Serum was from Pasteur lab in Switzerland. Expert jabbers too 🙂

Much of my IMSS education came in the cafeteria of an IMSS second tier hospital. Trauma doctors and hospital administration staff. Drs Marco A Molina Collins and Rogelio Quintero. I gathered tens of thousands of dollars worth of brand new 1st class defibrillators, Electrocardiographs, Ambulance electrical repair parts and upgrades, and then spent weeks of donated time installing the equipment. Helped get a perfierico established in Chucutican Michoacan, and spent time and money for vastly improved lighting, and medical equipment.

My reward, my compensation was learning about the IMSS system. Facts not fiction.

So yeah I'm a little tender and grouchy when I encounter missing facts and mis stated facts. I am by no means an expert. But I am involved.

And I would have much preferred to remain anonymous.

[Talleyho69]

OK, at 5:40 this morning it was 69. Cool by our standards. I actually wore a tee shirt over my bathing suit instead of my usual tank shirt. It's now almost 11, and comfortable 90.

[Talleyho69]

It is currently 84 outside in Zihuatanejo. This morning we hit a low of 73. Life is good.

Yes, we are less than 300m from our very warm water. How warm? Sorry, due to having a kitchen installed, our submersible thermometers are in boxes and not easily accessible.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

MODERATOR!

Close the windows. Get extra blankets!

At dawn the temperature may be, may be......

AWK! I can't say it...

In the high SIXTIES!

The family raided the blanket closet. Brenda tells me tomorrow will start off with horchata or avena and cafe de la olla. Herme refused to sleep alone tonight. She's doubled up with Dalia.

But the daytime highs will still be in the eighties. No te preocupues.

In Patxcuaro, in August, Brenda refused to get out of bed until the place warmed into the seventies. Good luck with a thousand tons of concrete.

One April the temp dropped to 63 here during Semana Santa. People were building campfires in their front yard.

Oooooo bare feet meeting ice cold tile.