Austen and I have been boat/cat-sitting in Zihuatanejo for about three weeks now and it has been 30 degrees every day. We must be getting used to the heat (slowly) because I am currently wearing a long sleeve shirt to guard against the evening chill! And by evening chill, I mean the temperature has dropped to about 26 degrees..
Bahia de Zihuatanejo is a truly beautiful bay, with four different beaches. When we first arrived, we anchored right by the town, along with all the other cruising boats, off of Playa Municipal. While this provided the closest dinghy ride into town, and a nice, calm spot to beach the dinghy, the water was quite brown and murky due to the fact the town’s sewage empties into the bay here. Not exactly ideal for snorkeling or running the water maker!
We stayed in this spot for a few days while we got the lay of the land before making the move to Playa los Gatos at the opposite end of the bay. Here we found much more inviting water and no other cruising boats. We did, however, find all the tourist boats taking people out tubing or parasailing. Nothing quite gets your heart racing like watching a parasail circle the boat! Sometimes it looks like there’s no way they’re going to clear the mast!
Despite all the activity, we both prefer this end of the bay, and Austen has even found a little wave to surf on his paddleboard. As with most places in Mexico, little palapa bars line the beach and offer cold, cheap beer which we can just paddle up to and enjoy! The snorkeling is also really neat at this end of the bay. There is a man made breakwater which attracts many colourful fish, as well as a large anchor and a bell. But the most popular snorkeling attraction by far is the large underwater statue of Jesus made out of melted down keys.
We also noticed a Humane Society right downtown, and heard they were always looking for volunteers. Since Austen and I both love animals, and stopped everyday to say hi to the kittens they displayed for adoption, we thought we would check it out. No more than ten minutes after showing up we were out the door with two sweet puppies to take for a walk. These little guys were super rambunctious and clearly excited to be out for a walk. We took them down to the beach and I had both their leashes while Austen took a few pictures of us. All was going great until they started digging rapidly in the sand and one of them pulled out a dead snake! Now anyone that knows me knows how I feel about snakes. Dead or alive, I don’t care. I don’t want them anywhere near me! So this presented quite a predicament, these dogs were not well behaved enough that I could just drop the leashes and run, and Austen was about fifty feet away. You end up looking like quite a fool trying to run away from a dog whose leash you’re still holding on to. Fortunately Austen was my knight in shining armour, grabbing the dog’s leashes and getting rid of the snake. I still have nightmares.
For the last week, we have been anchored off of Isla Ixtapa, an island about six miles from Zihuatanejo. When we dropped anchor, we were the only cruising boat amongst the Mexican pangas. Not even an hour later, four more cruising boats had come to join us, and even more joined in the following few days. We hadn’t seen too many fellow cruisers in our trip so far, due to the fact that we left San Diego later than most and went south so quickly that we passed everyone along the way so it was nice to meet some new people and even catch up with friends from San Diego. Isla Ixtapa is a beautiful spot, very busy during the day with all the visitors ferried over from the mainland, but as soon as six o’clock hits, everyone begins to leave and by seven it is just the cruisers left to enjoy a nice peaceful sunset. We spent about five days here swimming, paddling, socializing, and exploring the island. We spotted some deer and bunnies (including week old babies!) and fortunately no snakes.
We are now on our way back to Zihuatanejo, and expect the bay to be much busier upon our return as Sailfest is just beginning. This is a weeklong event where cruisers all make their way to Zihuatanejo and money is raised in various ways to support the building of schools in the town. We look forward to checking it out and meeting more new people!