Zihua, Z-town ,Zihuatanejo,
11 April 2008 | Zihuatanejo Bay
Jan
What a cool little town for such a mouthful of a name! The streets are all paving stones, many of them one way and some of them for pedestrian traffic only. Lots of shops and open air cantinas with a central "downtown" with a great municipal mercado for really fresh fruits, veggies, meats and hardware stuff. Rob and I found a great little "torta" (mexican sandwich on a soft roll with meat or chicken, lettuce, tomato and sauce) place for only 15 pesos! The whole downtown area is only about 6 square blocks with some angle streets heading out of town... Along the Malecon they even have a "cruiser's hangout", the Sunset Bar", with wireless internet, live ESPN TV and right on the beach. It just doesn't get much better than that! We are in this bay with only 6 other boats, so there is plenty of room. It's a pretty calm anchorage (only a few surge swells at night). We have decided to stay here for at least a week, do some of those boat chores (cleaning the bottom, polishing the stainless with a toothbrush, handwashing some laundry, you know the fun stuff) and enjoy the surroundings, instead of rushing off to Acapulco where the bay is dirtier, can't make water in that bay and you have to pay to be on a mooring ball (no good anchorages). There has been a beautiful breeze here most all of the time, so the humidity is much easier to handle! The hotels, bungalows and private homes that are built around the bay seem to be nestled right into the hillside, so it doesn't seem like the glitz and high rise touristy feel of Ixtapa. Even a cruise ship came for the afternoon on Saturday and the town, while a little more crowded was not jammed and handled it well. It's Sunday, the day after a cruise ship day and most of the establishments are closed. BUT it was fun to see families and street food vendors in the town square all just enjoying the day! We could even hear the local bands play in the square, from the comfort of our boat...On Saturday we watched some local youth basketball games with referees and everything playing all thru the day and night. We have tasted some "traditional Mexican Pezole" with a Mezcal chaser...(that's chicken soup with hominy and a STRONG tequila- type shot) I slept pretty well that night! We will most likely take a bus into the town of Ixtapa and a real grocery store on Tuesday. We are in search of some REAL, PLAIN peanuts(no lime, jalepeno or salsa flavors)! More to come as we explore this area over the next week, do alittle more work on the boat and with any luck our friends on "Sans Cles" will be arriving by the weekend as we look forward to traveling south with them.