Jac Londe's List: Manzanilla

• La Manzanilla, a town of 1,300 people about 30 minutes' drive down the coast. Roughly 15 years ago, that fishing village was "discovered" by Canadian and Mexican snowbirds; today, their Malibu-style luxury homes loom in the hills overlooking the traditional town like landed UFOs.
• Yet even among some foreigners here, there is a fear that towns like this one will lose what's left of their charm to an onrushing wave of ticky-tacky condominiums. Some echo the warnings of local environmental groups, which talk of damage that new development could do to the fragile coastal ecosystem.

• La Manzanilla real estate agent Daniel Hallas said that even the pending legislation, if approved, might not do enough to boost foreign investors' confidence. The Mexican legal system, he said, requires further improvements to truly protect the rights of such property owners.

   

  Then there are the ejido properties. One way non-Mexicans can gain access to an ejido lot is by paying for it and then placing the title in an ejido member's name. The practice often leads to heartache for non-Mexican investors who vainly attempt to assert their rights over land they may live on but do not really own, said David William Connell, a Puerto Vallarta real estate attorney.

   

  Connell said that although a constitutional change would simplify the buying process for non-ejido coastal lots, he didn't think it alone could create a flood of new foreign investment. That, he said, will come only with a healthier economy north of the border.

• Still, the possibility of a big change concerns Mexicans like Susana Peña, a La Manzanilla property manager. She said the foreign contingent in town had done much good, sponsoring kids' sports teams and local schools. But she wonders whether a tipping point is on the horizon — a point at which little Mexican towns like this one no longer feel very Mexican.

   

  "They are taking away the only thing we have left," she said. "I feel like this land is a part of us."

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