A Day In Zihuatanejo

Saturday, January 23, 2010
Ola Amigos! We are still in Zihuatanejo and enjoying ourselves immensely. Our daily routine is something like this: Wake up around 7:00ish, have a strong Mexican cup of coffee perhaps with a dash of sweetened condensed (half and half is virtually nonexistent here and refrigerating dairy products is an ongoing challenge), then begin some serious lounging which ivolves reading, journaling, cleaning, maybe a morning swim, making a light breakfast and continual chatting about the sea and our nautical lifestyle. Typically we are ready to disembark around 12:00ish always assessing the overall current, wind & water conditions before doing so. When you have a single line (the anchor) holding on to all your possessions it is important to be cognizant and comfortable to leave. Daily, we swim from the boat to the beach known as Playa de Ropa. I stuff my sunglasses in my swimsuit and Steve puts sunscreen, money and his shades into a zip lock bag and into a zipper pocket. Commuting to the beach is blast, probably a ¼ mile swim, fairly easy going ashore but usually the wind and swell has increases by the time we swim back and it is clearly a workout not for the timid swimmer. We also add a 2 mile walk at least and by the time we return to the boat we feel pretty darn buff and yes, sun kissed! We are exploring every day. Steve generally likes to walk into hardware-like stores and look at various boy things and I force him to eat popsicles, and look at many, many hotels, shops and restaurants. Our favorite line is, “I wish Maria and Brandon were getting married here.” We are constantly being shown all of our new found beach friend’s villas as they are all eager to share and show their great deals. Yesterday we actually met some great folks staying in a trailer park…not for me, but they pay $100.00 a week for an ‘almost new’ trailer on the beach. My favorite place to date is a new hotel named Hotel Don Francisco on the south end of Playa Ropa. I may have Steve talked into getting a room for a week when the time is right….first class, check out the website: www.hotelcasadonfrancisco.com. I have become rather obsessed with food and lodging, I think I need a break from the boat (and Steve). Quarters are tight but truthfully we are doing quite well and have adopted a playful and nurturing child spirit in order to cope with these conditions. I still miss a bathtub and a toilet that simply flushes. Water is an issue and of course battery power. We can actually have water, ice, beer, fuel, propane, and laundry delivered to the boat, rather cheaply I might add. However every two weeks or so the boat requires a deep cleaning and pulling into a marina for a night makes a few of the above chores much easier. Life is never boring and recently a few interesting events have occurred: We were lounging into the early afternoon on Tuesday and Steve was getting a bit antsy to do something (antsy behavior: polishing winches, washing dirty rags, drying dishes, weird utterances and annoyingly under foot) when our nearby boaters started hollering “mayday, mayday, we need your dingy.” Steve, of course jumps into Amy (the name of our dingy) and goes to the rescue. Clueless, I observe the following: One of our fellow cruisers had beached himself on a rocky point…he had actually run aground for whatever reason we are still unsure (I believe he was engaged in sexual activity for reasons I will not disclose here, and also because it seems to be the only answer to the avoidable situation….please keep in mind I try to remain nonjudgmental as I know so very little about sailing). Anyhow, off Steve goes with another skipper into the depths of the bay with several other rescue boats. From a distance I could see the boat smashing against the rocks and my fearless husband right up next to it. The boat was pulled successfully off the rocks with some rudder damage, a few leaks and the skippers wounded pride. The whole ordeal lasted about an hour and Steve returns with an exciting story that involved his life being put at risk as well as others. In a classic situation such as this, the rescuers are known to be in greater danger than the one being rescued. That same day we swam ashore and were palapa-ing with some friends when a parasail ran into a palm tree! Please, please, please tell your children not to participate in this activity, it is stupid and the rules and standards of the trade are nonexistent in Mexico. We are unsure as to the extent of the injuries to this woman but it didn’t look good. This was the most exciting day on the beach yet. As a ordinary day continues, if we don’t go out to dinner, we make it back to the boat by sunset and I light candles and make us a fabulous dinner and hand squeezed margaritas. We have been keeping score of our cribbage games since pre-Christmas, per Ali’s suggestion and 14 to 9 Steve leading is the tally. I was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead till we started keeping score. Cruisers bedtime is around 9:00pm unless I talk Steve into using battery power to watch a movie (thanks Mark).
Today we will find an internet café so I can post this blog. This involves a fabulous 20 minute dingy ride to Playa Principal where Jesus greets us and for 10 pesos guides us in and watches our dingy. We then have a pleasant stroll amongst the vendors and along the cobblestone of Zihuatanejo unsure as to what internet café we’ll come upon and the quality of computer available. We hope to have an early dinner with MaryJo and Bill who will arrive with great stories of their visit to Caleta de Compos. Tomorrow we will lounge and Monday we are off to Marina Ixtapa for a deep cleaning. My sister Francie and her husband Deren will arrive on Wednesday and will be with us for nine days. We love having visitors. I have a dozen events planned including a trip to the copper factory at Santa Clara del Cobre, dinner at El Rincon Marino and another Italian favorite. Francie and I will swim ashore and have a first class breakfast at The Tides, shop for jumbo shrimp at the market, a cruise to Bara de Petosis, and all the other regular activities such as shopping for silk hammocks, snorkeling, palapa-ing and fine dining on the boat. When are you all coming to visit???????? xo