"Manzanillo, Colima" a Manzanillo Travel Page by pencho15

Before the spanish colonization not much happened at Manzanillo, the place was unhabited by several groups of indians from wich not much is known, their cities and tombs, as far as I know, have not been studied and some have been ransacked. apparently an important activity for them was fishing pearls.
The first spaniard arriving at Manzanillo was Gonzalo de Sandoval, he disembarked in a place called Salagua not far away from the place in wich the city is located today. in 1527 the Manzanillo bay was "discovered" and his advantages as a maritime port were soon noticed, as the western zone of Mexico was not very well known several expeditions sailed from this place, the most important was the one lead by Hernán Cortés, a trip in wich he discovered the California peninsula, another one finished with the discovery of the Revillagigedo islands.

Appart from this events not much happened in the colonial Manzanillo, and it remained a rural town while other places developed.

After Mexico independence Manzanillo's port was opened (after drying some swamps around it), and in 1848 a customs office was established allowing the town to trade with other countries, until now this remains one of the two most important activities in the city, and if you get away from the beaches you'll see thousands of containers being handled in the port.
Manzanillo became important enough to became the state capital for three days, this occured during the mexican revolution when, in 1915 Pancho Villa menaced with taking the city of Colima, something wich never came to happen.

In 1921 the airport was opened, but it wasn't until the seventies when Manzanillo discovered it other important activity, tourism.

In 1979 the film "10", starring Bo Derek Dudley Moore and Julie Andrews, popularized both the Ravel's bolero and the Manzanillo hotel called Las Hadas (one of your several accomodation options), since then Manzanillo has became an important beach destination for Mexico, of course it can't compete with places like Cancún or Puerto Vallarta, but instead of nightlife and package tourism you'll find a peaceful and still surrounded by wildlife place.
Recently Manzanillo has been recieving another tousristic boost as a result of the increase in cruising lines including the city in their iyineraries.