We arrived here in Z-Town two weeks ago and we are heading south tomorrow. We've had a great time here. We are anchored in the main bay with about 25 other boats. The dinghy ride into town is only about two short minutes. I don't even bother putting the dinghy wheels up, but opt to simply let them drag in the water below the keel of the dinghy. At shore there are a couple of guys, Jesus and Alphonso, that meet you as you come up to the beach. For a small ten pesos tip they assist with getting the dinghy out of the water and rolled up above the high water line on the beach. While your gone they provide security to ensure that your dinghy is still there when you return. And, when you do return, no matter what hour, they assist with getting it back into the water and give you a good push off into the surf. Essentially they are dinghy valets. Such a deal.
Once in town, there is a wonderful malecon full of restaurants, bars and shops. We of course went directly to El Cafecito, the best coffee and espresso in Zihuatanejo, and quickly made friends with the owner and staff. From that point on they know our drink and would automatically bring it to the table when we arrived. During the heat of the day it can be fairly quiet in town, but as the sun sets, the town comes to life. There are all kinds of taco stands and various other eating options that simply appear from nowhere. We loved it. But by about 10 PM, unlike most other Mexican towns, the city settles down and becomes very quite for the evening.
We managed to make it up to the old mercado just about everyday to buy a few things and eat at Irma's Fonda, our favorite lunch spot. The mercado is the best we've seen. They have everything from hardware to fruits and vegetables to fresh squeezed juice, fresh meat and fish, delicious baked goods and of course the fondas. Near the mercado are numerous other businesses where you could find just about anything you needed.
Any discussion about our stay in Zihuatanejo would not be complete without talking about the Super Bowl. We of course began searching out the best place in town to watch the game almost from the first trip into town. Our search ended with us watching the game right at the end of the municipal pier in a second floor restaurant and bar overlooking the bay. What a wonderful spot to see our home town team simply crush the Denver Broncos. It is great to see the Seattle Seahawks take it all the way. It's been a long time coming.
A short narrative of some of our shore adventures:
We mentioned earlier in the narrative about the fondas. Fondas are lunch counters run by the ladies. The food is generally of local flavor, cheap and prepared much like you would find in a Mexican home. The kitchen is open to view, the seating is at a counter and everyone finds room on the bench for lunch. The prices range from 18 pesos for a beer to 60 pesos for a platter of fish, fajitas or a combination of any Mexican specialty items. Beans and rice are included. The fonda usually has one lady making corn tortillas by hand. always delicious. Our favorite fonda was like eating at home. The ladies recognize you, engage in conversation and make sure you are well fed. Cost for a killer lunch for two is 100 pesos for us. That's around $8.00 USD and includes the beer.
We took the bus with some friends on a day outing to explore the other side of the bay at Ixtapa. The town was nothing more than a planned community of condos, big hotels and resorts. The marina was pretty deserted. They have a beautiful beach which was great for walking but nowhere to stop in for a beverage or lunch. All the resorts have guards at the beach entrance and the use of facilities are for guests of that resort only. Very strange and unwelcoming if you are a visiting cruiser. We didn't stay long and were very happy with our decision to anchor off z-town. The next bus adventure was to a small working town called Petatlan. This town was written up for three special things. They have a huge church by Mexico standards. It is said that the location was visited by holy spirit (s) and thus the church is very special in the overall scheme of things. The church was lovely and the business of selling prayer candles was going strong. The other two attractions are the cabrito tamales and gold jewelry manufacture. We could not find a tamale stand but did ask a policeman whom appeared to like his food where we could go for the best cabrito. He pointed the way to a taco stand on a side street. It was thumping! We ordered a taco each....after the long bus ride we felt we needed something to make the journey worthwhile! The cabrito was good but one was enough. Finally we walked down the street and viewed way too many storefronts selling gold jewelry. Julie and Ken pleaded to go back to Z-town. We agreed, practically running to the bus and jumped on. It was an interesting outing but we were less than excited by the rewards.
To recover from the Petalan experience Julie suggested a trip to a Park Bio. We took a cab the following day. The cab driver tried to take us to the wrong place but we realized when he got to the hiway and had him turn around. The park was well marked with signage once we got on the right road. It turned out to be a wonderful day of relaxation. A French Canadian woman and her Mexican husband have turned their 10 acres of land into an oasis. There are many areas developed to house local animals of the region including insects, snakes, birds of prey, water reptiles and water fowl and mammals. The animals all are well kept and interact with her to an amazing degree. It is not the kind of place where you see exploited animals in poor health. The most fascinating of information was about the insects and spiders. I was very impressed by the time our 90 minute walkabout was finished. After the tour we had lunch at the restaurant and she showed us a room you can rent at their villa. It was very luxurious. They have an infinity pool which overlooks the bay of Zihautanejo. She supplies the towels and visitors are encouraged to spend the rest of the day at the pool relaxing. I felt like we were at the 4Seasons in Punta Mita. The only thing missing was the cabana boy spritzing us with Evian water.
We are now provisioned and ready to depart tomorrow at high noon. The plan is to make an overnight run to Acapulco (about 20 hours), where we will stop for fuel only and then motor around to Puerto Marques, just to the south. A quick overnight there and then on to Huatulco, yet another two days and nights further south. We will wait out the Tehuantepec winds there before heading direct to El Salvador. I'm sure we'll have much to say about that when the time comes.
But before we go there, there is still much to say about getting from Barra de Navidad, our last blog post, to Zihuatanejo.
We had a great stay in Barra (about a week). We were mostly anchored off in the lagoon, but spent our last two nights at the marina. Barra is a great town. Water taxis pick you up at your boat or from the marina and ferry you into town. Again, our favorite spot was La Brueja, yes another coffee shop. Janets's cousin lives in Barra and we connected with them for dinner one night. Dictating the timing of our departure south was the Seahawk vs SF 49er game. We watched the game at one of the local restaurants with a crowd of Seahawks fans. It was great fun.
After leaving Barra, we headed about 20 miles south to Santiago Bay where we spent three nights. One day we caught a bus into Manzanillo and spent the afternoon touring the town. Not much to say really. The city is home to Mexico's largest port facility so it is very industrialized with lots of container ships coming and going and containers stacked everywhere.
We then motored across the bay to Las Hadas, a large, up scale resort with a wonderful beach and small anchorage. Other than the pool at the resort, which you had to pay $200 MXP to tie up your dinghy to use, there really isn't much to say. Because of the cost of landing the dinghy we felt somewhat trapped. On our second night they set up a huge stage and the rumor was that Gloria Trevi, one of the top Latin American singers was to play a concert that night. The stage was facing out toward the water and it appeared to be a corporate event of some sort. We decided it was time to go and pulled anchor at about 8 PM to make the two night passage to Zihuatenejo. Friends from sv Nekko who were anchored next to us said that we didn't miss much.
The passage was uneventful and you now know the whole story.
Zihuatanejo has been a great stopover!
 |
| The resort at the marina in Barra de Navidad. You can just see Talos IV's bow in the foreground. |
 |
| The sign says "Closed, out surfing". Not what you want to see on the door of your favorite coffee shop first thing in the morning. |
 |
| Tia enjoying the cool morning air. |
 |
| Janet keeping watch as we rounded the corner into Santiago Bay. |
 |
| The beach at Santiago. |
 |
| The Manzanillo malecon. Paul is dwarfed by the size of the artwork. |
 |
| Paul always has to be in charge. |
 |
| We're pretty sure the pilot boats they use today to guide the freighters in are a bit larger than this. |
 |
| Manzanillo Harbor is a busy place. |
 |
| The Las Hadas resort from the deck of Talos IV at anchor in the bay. |
 |
| We really wanted to get our monies worth for the dinghy landing so we took a stroll up through the resort. |
 |
| Janet posing for a photo op. |
 |
| The beach at Zihuatenejo. |
 |
| The Navy base at Zihuatenejo. |
 |
| The old mercado. They had everything you needed to provision. |
 |
| A $45 MXP lunch of chille rellenos, beans and rice at Irma's Fonda in the mercado. |
 |
| Janet enjoying a swim in the pool at Parque Bio overlooking the Zihuatenejo Bay. If you look closely you can see Talos IV anchored right about in the middle. |
 |
| This hawk just couldn't get enough head scratching. Parque Bio was a wonderful visit. |
No comments:
Post a Comment