Found at the southern extreme of Jalisco State, just across Christmas Bay, or Bahia de Navidad, from Colima State. While beach towns like Zihuatanejo have been discovered by developers of high-end hotels, Barra and Melaque remain Old School Pacific. The town of Barra de Navidad (Christmas Sandbar) with a population of 7000+ is a small farming and fishing community located on the east end of the Bahia de Navidad, 60 km north of Manzanillo. In recent years, the Jalisco state government has promoted Barra as a tourist attraction of the Costalegre.

The region of coastline called the Costa Alegre that runs roughly from Puerto Vallarta to Manzanillo. Some of the places with enormous romance potential include Barra de Navidad, Costa Careyes, Quemaro, Cruz de Loreto and Tamarindo.

Barra de Navidad follows a long sand bar that juts out at the southern extreme of the bay. Most of the town strings along parallel streets: Calle Veracruz faces the long lagoon and Isla Navidad, home to the upscale Gran Bay hotel. Running parallel, Avenida Miguel de la Madrid looks out over the choppy gray Pacific. Up and down both these long sandy streets are shops selling sarongs and kids' toys, shell and coconut and cedar-wood souvenirs, pipes, embroidered tops, and more sophisticated handcrafts from Jalisco and Chiapas.

Family-owned restaurants and small, funky hotels predominate in Barra: there aren't any chain hotels or mega-grocery stores. Popular with surfers and beach bums of all ages, Barra sports a respectable number of bars and cafes as well.

The Sociedad Co-operative de Servicios Turisticos facing the lagoon on Calle Veracruz offers inexpensive boat trips: They have fishing or snorkel trips, bay cruises, or just a jaunt across the lagoon to the seafood shanties of Colimilla.

A new church is being built; in the meantime, the town's well-known icon, the Christ of the Fallen Arms (Cristo de los Brazos Caidos) holds court in a charming temple of palm fronds. Across the bay, San Patricio--Melaque is actually two ejidos that have grown towards each other over the years. With about 12,000 inhabitants, this town strings along Bahia de Navidad. You can walk along the course, blond-sand beach all the way from Barra, about 5 km (3.5 miles). The waves are gentle here, and concessionaires rent kayaks, boogey boards, and snorkel equipment.

The large lagoon behind Barra de Navidad is criss-crossed by small fishing boats gathering scallops and transporting visitors and locals from Barra to Isla Navidad and the Grand Bay Hotel, recently voted the Number One hotel/resort in Mexico by the Travel Channel. These boats (panga taxies) also carry passengers to and from the small Colima community of Colimilla where restaurants line the shore.