Local author Bart Varelmann: The INNKEEPER

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When Bart Varelmann arrived in Manzanillo for the first time 50 years ago, the small port city looked like this, right:

(To find out what Manzanillo is like today, read about Manzanillo's "New Look.")

La Posada, a 12-room hotel, recently converted from an ice factory, had yet to weather the worst hurricane in Manzanillo's history, "The Hurricane of '59."

Nine ships were lost in that category 5 storm, including the "San Luciano," which snorkelers and divers enjoy exploring today.

It sits in 25 feet of water in an area known as La Boquita, in Santiago Bay, about 300 yards off shore.

Bart in his original leather flight helmet

Bart has written an autobiography of his life, including his purchase of La Posada, his 43-year love affair with it, with Mexico, its people, and the cast of characters he's met along the way.

INNKEEPER contains true tales of sunken treasure from the "Golden Gate," a passenger steamship that caught fire and sunk off the coast of Manzanillo in 1862. Going down with it was over $1.4 million in gold bullion, recently minted in San Francisco. Did Bart find the gold?

In an amazing chronicle of his time in Manzanillo, INNKEEPER tells of sleeping on the bones of "Christeros," insurgent priests who were massacred in the late 1920s on a rock in Las Brisas (now the site of the condominium complex "Roca del Mar,") next to La Posada.

Heh, heh, heh, Gilberto, one kneecap or 2?

Bart talks about his cleverly conceived murder plot to assassinate his corrupt attorney, Gilberto. The lawyer, who had enjoyed a long vacation in Europe on money designated to go toward the purchase of La Posada, seemed unwilling to sign the documents that would make Bart the true owner.

Driving up to the state capital of Colima to meet a man who hurt people for money, Bart prepared to issue crafty Gilberto an ultimatum.

"How much to shoot a guy in the kneecap?" Bart queried the young killer-for-hire. "Cinco mil pesos," he replied. Four hundred dollars was well within the Innkeeper's budget. "How much for both kneecaps," Bart ventured, expecting a reduced rate for double the volume. "Veinte mil pesos, Señor," declared Bart's new confidant.

That was 4 times the amount and Bart just had to ask, "Why do you charge so much more for the second one?"

"Because," he answered, "one kneecap is easy." As he slipped off the barstool to pantomime his role in the scenario, he said, "You sneak up behind the cabrón and BANG!--but the other one? Hah! Is very difficult to shoot the other kneecap while he is flopping around on the ground and howling and you are trying to aim the pistol at his good knee and the people they are approaching to see what is happening."

Some of Bart's other adventures include a trip to the pokey (not for shooting his lawyer), chicanery involving local cops and federales, a comandante who intended to shoot HIM, and famous individuals who visited the inn, including Bing Crosby, Lee Marvin, Sam Houston Johnson (LBJ's brother), Dudley Moore (the movie "10" -- Did he meet Bo Derek?), and Ken Kesey.

Kesey, who parked his psychedelic bus in front of La Posada to write "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", was hiding out in Mexico to escape jail time from a marijuana bust in California. Atenor Pateño, (the impossibly rich Bolivian tin magnate), who built Las Hadas for his jet-setting friends, talked construction with Bart while he was building his own project, Roca del Mar, next door to La Posada.

Not only will you learn from INNKEEPER the history of Manzanillo, told with tongue-in-cheek, satirical humor, but you'll also gain insight into the Mexican culture, and you'll get to meet a cast of characters, many whom are still living in Manzanillo today. Here's just a few:

Angel: La Posada employee, now an electrical foreman at Hughes Aircraft ("After frying myself on your kitchen floor I decided to learn more about electricity!")

The Count: Restaurateur who was spending too much time behind the bar -- and frequently under it.

José: Partner of The Count, who took over the restaurant and changed its name to "Meson de los Perros," or "Doghouse," which he was frequently in because of his philandering ways.

Tom: Former owner of La Posada, who had a beard, wore a loincloth, and sported a parrot on his shoulder.

Carlos: Immigration official-cum-artist. By hanging his paintings in the hotel, he allowed Bart to work without papers for 4 years.

Julio: Head of "Hacienda," the Mexican IRS, who asked Bart in the local Bar Social (still here today), "Hey man, know where I can get some grass?"

Margarita: Maid at La Posada, and supplier of marijuana grown in her backyard "for medicinal purposes."

Jason: Curmudgeon, cheapskate, owned a Cherokee Piper to ferry city officials out of Manzanillo's small dirt-runway airport. Still around at 105 and has outlived 4 wives.

In the first part of the INNKEEPER, Bart writes about his early life. From playing the banjo in a Dixieland band, to a plane crash on the Ohio River, 5 years as a bomber pilot in the Korean War ("on the U.S. side," he jokes), a failed attempt in New York to break into the cartoon strip profession, a stint with the Foreign Service, and some hilarious adolescent shenanigans, it makes for a great and funny read. You can't help but chuckle as Bart gets into--and out of--one pickle after another.

There are also 3 marriages and numerous romantic encounters told in a self-deprecating style, that will make the reader laugh and wonder where Bart got his energy and honesty. INNKEEPER takes you through Bart's successes and failures, and explains how he is inevitably and inexplicably drawn to Manzanillo again and again, as many other are, culminating in a 43-year history in--and of--Manzanillo, and Mexico.

The book is 380 pages with more than 200 photos, a cartoon or two that he drew, and some maps to orient the first time visitor to Manzanillo. Once you read INNKEEPER you'll have insight into--and an understanding of--Mexico and the Mexican people you could never find in a bookstore or guidebook.