Maybe it was from being sick a few weeks before Christmas (no matter how old you are, you still want your mommy when your tummy hurts!)-or maybe it was just from knowing what’s important in life. Anyway, whatever the case, we decided about three weeks before Christmas (just after our near death experience with food poisoning) to fly home and surprise both of our families. It began as a heartfelt, "Honey I think we should be with family at Christmas", and blossomed into a focused mission to find a way to get from Zihuatanejo to Southern CA without too much difficulty or expense. Well, after an 8 ½ hour overnight bus trip, a 1 hour taxi ride, a 3 ½ hour wait in the Manzanillo airport, a 3 hour flight to LAX and then a 4 hour drive in a rental car, we arrived unannounced on the doorstep of Barry’s mom and dad 3 days before Christmas (without much sleep, needless to say!). We had a great time for five days and saw all the family except for Scott, Kathy, Jordyn and Dylan who always stay in Colorado for Christmas. Then we spent the next five days with my family. Being with our families was the best Christmas gift we could think of! We’ve decided to come home each year from now on. An entire year is just too long to go without seeing loved ones. On New Year’s Eve day we flew out of LAX and did the whole scenario backwards except we had an unplanned overnight stay in Manzanillo because there was no bus to Zihuatanejo until the next day. So, we just had a late dinner at a tasty Mexican sidewalk eatery and watched fireworks being shot off the beach right in front of our hotel. Not a bad way to ring in the new year.
Unfortunately, we both picked up colds on the bus ride back so we have not been able to enjoy lovely Zihuatanejo to the fullest extent. Even at that, we agree that it is our favorite spot in Mexico so far. It is a symbiotic blending of Mexican culture and living with a substantial ex-patriot population. It has most everything you’d find in a large Mexican city, but still has a small town feel. It is very laid back, beautiful, affordable on a cruiser’s budget and has a variety of things to do. This sprawling city meanders up and down lush hillsides that spill down toward a beautiful one-mile wide bay with a narrow inlet. The southeast side of the bay is a lovely, long beach called Playa la Ropa. It is lined with unique hotels and restaurants. Here, you can swim in the surf, sun-bathe, rent water toys, take a para-sail ride, gaze at crocodiles in the small swamp that meets the sea, or participate in the popular baby turtle releases that take place periodically.
Mexico’s beach communities along the Pacific are taking great measures to protect the sea turtle population. The females come ashore to lay their eggs and bury them in the sand. The eggs hatch after fifty days and then informal "ceremonies" take place involving local children (in an effort to educate them) and anyone else who happens to be around. Each person is handed a baby turtle to walk from the fenced-off nest area to the water in order to introduce it into its new ocean home. If left on their own to crawl the twenty feet from the nest to the surf, many of them don’t survive the short trip. Birds are the number one reason for the demise of those that don’t make it. In the more remote areas foxes and crocs are a problem, as well. Several species of turtles are now endangered and these efforts are making a positive impact in the fight to increase their numbers once again. Here in Zihuatanejo one of the restaurants on Playa la Ropa is in charge of the local turtle protection project. When they do a release ceremony they serve champagne to all the adults.
Playa la Ropa is one of two places in the bay to anchor your boat. If you don’t mind a wet dinghy landing through surf there are lots of things to do on this beach. It is a popular meeting place for the cruiser’s late afternoon pot-lucks or games of bocce ball in the sand. Following the shoreline around the bay from Playa la Ropa there are some rocky cliffs with some beautiful resorts, homes and condominiums built into the hillside overlooking the bay. One of these resorts is very high end. The nice thing is that these are all unique and low-key resorts; not like the mega resorts you find along others parts of the coast. Continuing along, there are several small beaches in-between rocky out-croppings that also have restaurants and hotels. Then, you have another long stretch of beach called Playa la Principal. Here, the fishermen bring their fresh catch of day to sell. You can buy dorado, red snapper, marlin and many other varieties of seafood. It is all very reasonably priced. There are lots of nice restaurants lining the boardwalk. The center of this beach is a large basketball court in the townsquare. This is where all kinds of performances and activities take place. We’ve never seen so many intriguing restaurants with great ambiance in one town before. If you walk away from the beach you can explore for hours among the many streets of town. There are a lot of pedestrian side-walks with pretty potted bouganvillas (?) and other foliage which give the town a nice feel. There is a large central outdoor market as well as a Comercial Mexicana (a very nice chain grocery store that even sells some Kirkland brand items).
In-between Playa la Principal and the northwest corner of the bay you have a small municipal pier. The boats anchored off la Principal land their dinghys next to this concrete pier in sheltered water (no surf). This location even has its very own dinghy valet. Nathaniel is there to greet you with a smile, haul your dinghy up onto the sand and keep an eye on it while you are away. Upon your return he pushes it into the water for you and pushes you off. This is just one of the many services that an establishment called Rick’s Bar provides for the cruisers. His place is a short walk from the landing on one of the pedestrian streets. He serves American food, offers wireless internet access, has a washer and dryer, showers, mail drop-off, fills propane tanks, has TVs tuned to CNN and more. He does a wonderful job of catering to us cruisers (who happen to be 60% of his business). The place has live music everyday with an open mic night on Fridays. He’s only open until 10:00 p.m.. Most mornings and afternoons his place has lots of cruisers sitting in front of their laptops checking e-mails, the internet, etc. and visiting with each other. He will help you with anything you need. He and his wife are from Argentina and lived in the states for many years before settling in Zihuatanejo.
As you call probably tell, we really like this town. It’s too bad that we were under the weather while here. On top of a cold, Barry had a toothache so we asked Rick to recommend a dentist. So, two of our days were spent taking a taxi to see the Diaz twins at Smile Dental office. These two delightful sisters have a small office with three chairs and an assistant. Barry’s first visit entailed x-rays, a filling and a lot of scraping. He had an infection in his gum behind a bottom molar. After one hour in the chair she sent him off with a prescription for antibiotics and an appointment to return for a cleaning. This visit cost us a whopping $350 pesos (less than $35 USD). Barry’s second visit involved two hours in the chair for a deep cleaning. Unlike in the states, in Mexico the dentist does the cleanings. This visit cost $500 pesos (less than $50 USD). Once again, we have another favorable new experience in Mexico.
Barry also got a haircut in town for $40 pesos (less than $4 USD) and we saw two movies which each cost $35 pesos per ticket. The town has two movie theaters, but we only visited the one that is up one block from Ricks. We saw The Chronicles of Narnia and loved it and also saw Cheaper By the Dozen 2 and really enjoyed it. The unique part of this experience was that they serve microwave popcorn. If you order popcorn, they pop it and give you the bag to take into the theater. You’d never find that in the states!
As you can see, the mundane things of life like haircuts and visits to the dentist are still a reality in paradise! You still have to shop and cook and clean and repair and go to the doctor and all the other things that life entails. The only difference we can see is that the places you are doing these things in changes rather frequently!
As I write this we are preparing to leave for Acapulco. It will take about twenty hours so we are doing an overnight passage. So, if you are reading this sometime between noon today and eight o’clock tomorrow morning please say a prayer for our safety on this journey. Next time we’ll tell you all about our experiences in Acapulco.
Till then . . . . Stacey
