Manzanillo

The Spanish came to this coast within a year of the fall of the Aztec capital. In 1522 Gonzalo de Sandoval, sent by Hernán Cortés, anchored in the Bay of Salagua, north of Manzanillo Bay, in search of safe harbours and places to build ships; he met local chiefs in a cove still called Playa de La Audiencia, and much of the fleet that later sailed to conquer the Philippines was built at Salagua. The navigator Álvaro de Saavedra named Manzanillo Bay Santiago de la Buena Esperanza in 1527. It was the third port the Spanish created in New Spain.

The Port of Manzanillo opened in 1825, soon after independence, and took its name from the groves of manzanilla trees, the manchineel, used in early shipbuilding. Manzanillo became a city in 1873, the railway to Colima was finished in 1889, and in 1908 President Porfirio Díaz made it an official port of entry. For a few days in 1915, while Pancho Villa's troops threatened Colima, Manzanillo was the state capital.

In the 20th century the port grew into Mexico's busiest by tonnage and container traffic, linked by rail to Guadalajara and Mexico City, and the Navy's Pacific Naval Force is based here. Tourism grew alongside it, with resorts on the Santiago Peninsula and a cruise-ship dock opened in 2010. In October 2015 Hurricane Patricia, the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, made landfall near Cuixmala, on the Jalisco coast north-west of the city. The port continues to expand, and in January 2026 the city hosted a large international triathlon along Playa Miramar and the Los Arcos area.

Manzanillo's identity is tied to the sea. The city calls itself the sailfish capital of the world, and since 1957 it has hosted national and international fishing competitions, among them the Dorsey Tournament; the giant blue sailfish sculpture on the malecón makes the point in the centre of town. The city is also known for sunsets over the Pacific, where the green flash is often watched for, and for the warmth of its water.

Life in the centre gathers around the main square and the malecón, where people come to listen to concerts and competitions, eat an ice cream on the benches and watch the harbour. Local people like to climb the hills around the bays, such as the Cerro de la Cruz, and the city's festivals mark its own history: the Fiestas de Mayo celebrate its rise to the rank of port and city, while districts such as Santiago and Salagua keep their own patron-saint fiestas, and the village of El Colomo marks the anniversary of its ejido with bullfights and dances.

The population is overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking. At the 2020 census a few hundred residents spoke an Indigenous language — most often Zapotec, Nahuatl or Otomí — and Nahua and Otomí communities have helped shape the region's culture. The port and the resorts have also drawn newcomers: foreign residents who arrived in recent years came mostly from the United States, Venezuela and Germany. Embroidery, beaded necklaces and crafts made from shells and snail shells are seen as typical of the port.

Manzanillo municipality had about 191,000 people at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Colima; the city itself had about 160,000, the most of any city in the state. The municipality is large and takes in villages such as El Colomo, and on paper it even includes the remote Revillagigedo Islands far out in the Pacific, which are run by the federal government.

The port drives the economy. It handles much of the Pacific cargo bound for the Mexico City area, the most efficient tuna landings in Mexico, and exports such as fish, corn, lemons, bananas, lumber and minerals, and much of the city's work is in services, retail and logistics tied to it. The workforce is relatively young. Tourism is the second pillar: hotels and resorts on the Santiago Peninsula and around the bays, cruise passengers on city tours, and anglers who come for the fishing.

Everyday life is split between the busy port centre and the residential districts and beaches strung out along the coast road to Santiago and Salagua. People shop on the streets of the centre and spend evenings on the malecón or at the beach. The heat and humidity of the wet season set the pace for much of the year, and like the rest of Colima, the city lives with concern about organised crime.

The port's cooking is built on the sea. The local list runs from ceviche prepared the Manzanillo way to caldillo de pescado, a light fish broth, seafood soups, octopus dishes such as pulpo borracho and salpicón. Fresh fish and shellfish come from the boats that work the bays, and seafood is eaten at stalls, simple family restaurants and beachside places alike.

Colima's own dishes are still popular with people of all ages: a 2025 study found that tatemado, pozole seco and pipián, a sauce thickened with ground pumpkin seeds, are eaten across the city's communities. Sopes, thick tortillas with toppings, are everyday snacks, and a nieve, a water-based ice, is the usual treat for people sitting out on the benches of the main square and the malecón in the evening.

To drink, Colima is known for tuba, a drink made from palm sap, alongside fresh fruit waters, beer and the tequila and other agave spirits of neighbouring Jalisco.