the tunnel to somewhere

When it comes to construction in Mexico, projects can take forever. Or they can spring up overnight.

Our lagoon in Barra de Navidad marks a state border. Barra de Navidad itself sits in Jalisco. Our only luxury hotel (the Grand Isla Navidad Resort) sits on the opposite shore in the state of Colima.

To get from Barra de Navidad to the hotel and to the seafood restaurants in the village of Colimilla, your options are limited. Hire a water taxi to traverse the lagoon -- or drive several miles around the lagoon.

It appears a new choice is soon to be available. A tunnel from Barra de Navidad to The Other Side.

When the Leaño family built the hotel and developed the middle class neighborhood in Barra de Navidad, they left a jetty that sticks out into the lagoon half-way to the other side. It currently provides the foundation for the electrical lines between the two sides of the lagoon.

I walk down that jetty almost every day as part of my morning constitutional. Today, I walked down one of the access roads that I usually bypass. And, there it was. The first step in digging a tunnel under the lagoon to connect the Colima and Jalisco shores.

A tunnel makes sense. It avoids the problem of interfering with the masts of the wealthy's boats. And it will not be subject to the vagaries of hurricanes. Sure, the tunnel can flood. But that is why God gave us pumps.

I have had little need to visit the hotel side of the lagoon. The hotel itself offers nothing of interest to me. And the seafood restaurants in Colimilla are highly overrated.

But my guests enjoy visits there. My family breakfasted there yesterday morning enjoying a spectacular view and a mediocre buffet -- all for the bargain price of $300 (Mx) per person. About $14.45 (US).

It will now be easier to make the trip -- though, I will miss the water taxis that always offer the promise that Mr. Roarke* and Tattoo will greet me at the pier.


* -- You may not recall the actor who portrayed Mr. Roarke, Ricardo Montalban, became famous for his role as Herod the Great in Martin Scorsese's Massacre of the Innocents.