Author: zihuathyme

I'm a traveler, not as frequently as I would like , but I plan on doing more. After working full time at Mount Rainier National Park during the summer of 22 I have decided to retire completely and forever. Prior to that I was semi retired as a Wedding Officiant I officiated at about 20 weddings a season, and with my small delivery service I handled the distribution of a local high-quality Home and Garden magazine . Prior to my "semi retirement" I was in corrections and before that I owned and operated a bail bond agency. I now plan to travel to new places and exciting places, getting ready to do that as a solo as the Senior is no longer with me, his choice, and I am OK with that. For hobbies I'm a reader and love my kindle. And I enjoy writing.

Beach Day at Las Gatas

We started our day in great confusion having planned to meet two couples from our apartment building for breakfast at this corner restaurant that is just around the corner and a block away. This restaurant had been selected as it is air conditioned and that’s what our friends wanted. So the Senor and I set off saying we would get a table for 6. Well 20 minutes later no friends and there the two of us were occupying a table for 6 in a busy restaurant. We had already been served our coffee and bread when we noticed Dwight hurrying by the corner, twice. The Senor jumped up and went out to flag him down, only to learn that on opposite sides of the same corner there was another air conditioned restaurant, they were at that one occupying a table for 6,while we at the other one.  As it turned out our breakfast was excellent and they didn’t care for theirs. Oh well there will be another day.

From breakfast we were on to the beach at Las Gatas and had a great day. As always we went to Gloria del Mar to spend some time with our favorite waiter Jose.

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Jose our friend and waiter

This super nice fellow last year spent an hour picking coral out of my hands and knees with a cactus needle when I got washed onto some coral and had great difficulty getting off the reef. We swam, ate, drank, visited and generally had a great time. We ate shrimp crusted in sesame seeds, with sort of a sweet and sour dipping sauce, very tasty. The beach seemed

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Shrimp In sesame seeds

almost empty now that the  majority of the Mexican National Touristas have returned home from their holiday.

A day on the beach wears us completely out and we return back ready to nap, watch TV , movies and read.  Interesting to know that when we have difficulties streaming the Senor’s TV  shows ( wrestling) if we opt to record it and view it later we have no difficulties with buffetings or completely stoppage.  Signing off KO

 

 

 

January 6th, Three Kings Day

The last couple of days I saw the construction of all the temporary booths being erected along the main drag of Juan Alvarez to house an enormous amount of what appears to be cheap plastic toys.

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Blue tarp booths along the side walk selling toys and 3 Kings Day cakes

Since I’m told the Mexican children receive gifts on 3 Kings day I guess parents wait util the last minute to shop. Sure solves the problem of hiding gifts from snooping kids. There are also tables and tables of the special cake that has the little figures baked in it. They come in every size imaginable depending on the size of your family gathering. And if I remember correctly who ever gets the baby Jesus in their piece gets to host the whole group to a tamale

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Blue tarp booths along the side walk selling toys and 3 Kings Day cakes

feast on Candelmas  Day. Then there is the “Bike Market” along the canal.

Last night from my balcony I watched the fire dancer perform,  not the best view as the palm tree gets in the way a bit, entertaining none the less.  This was followed by a brief but hard rain shower, all done in minutes

 

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Fire dancer as seen from my balcony

There also has been a mass exodus of Mexican tourists as their holidays ends, the foot traffic around town is manageable again and hopefully the music from the Zocolo won’t be blasting down our street nightly. I’m forever amazed at how folks can party all night until six am. It’s 5:00 am and the bar down the street is still playing music, this morning the music is pleasant and not just the “thump thump” type and not so loud to be heard inside the apartment but surprising pleasant out here on my balcony.

The Senor just suggested going to the beach today. I’m so excited!  Getting him out and about has been a real chore this year. Sometimes I feel a little “trapped” up in our room.  Signing off KO

 

 

 

 

 

Friends, Dinner, and Fireworks

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Lynn and Dwight our balcony neighbors

Over Saturday and Sunday more of our friends have arrived in town, Dwight and Lynn  our balcony neighbors are here, I once did a terrible typo and referred to them as our “baloney” neighbors so I’m really careful when I type that word now. Our  building is full, lots of friendly people, but reservations got confused Will and Sylvia didn’t get the room they reserved, but all is OK.

On Sunday the Senor went to the bar at the Captain’s Daughter to see the Seahawks play and stayed for the second game.  It was good for him to finally get out for a while. He is doing the rest and relax to the max. I took my kindle to the beach and read for a while then stopped in at Coconuts for happy hour.  It was two for one drinks and the drinks were only 30 pesos. That could become habit forming, it’s a lovely bar and restaurant. When I got back to the apartment a group was forming to go out to dinner so I joined them. We headed out  to Olga’s a really cute place a little off the beaten track. The food was great as was the service and the company wonderful. I took some pictures on my cell phone, down loaded them this morning and now I can’t find them in the computer anywhere and I erased them off the phone as I have a habit of overloading it’s capabilities. I still had my kindle with me and left it at the restaurant but the proprietress texted one of our group that she had it. He said he would pick it up for me, but I’ve had to go a whole day with out it.  Having withdrawals .

On Monday my new laptop computer is working again. I haven’t been able to get it to connect to the internet for a couple of weeks. I guess it just wanted time to  aclimate. I’ve discovered netflix doesn’t want to down load movies here in Mexico.I don’t know if it is all movies but the ones I wanted to watch are available in not in this geographic region. Had better luck with Amazon Prime and then I have a whole load of movies on an external drive my daughter sent me. So I have plenty to entertain myself.

Tuesday early morning went to down load pictures, all of Jan pictures are not to be found. I’m signing off to go ook fort them  KO

 

Sunday Sweet Sunday, With Nothing To Do

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Apples, bannanas, grapes and papayas

That is nothing we have to do, I don’t swim on the weekends so we had a leisurely lovely breakfast on the balcony while listening to the church bells calling the faithful. Surprisingly this is the first time we have heard the bells. The Senor is always the breakfast cook and this morning he out did himself with this marvelous fruit bowl. It would be such a healthy breakfast if we hadn’t have stuffed ourselves.

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Our pigeon bathing across the street in a “tinaco”

Our morning entertainment was watching our pigeon take a bath in the neighbors water supply “tinaco”.  This is a daily event that truly amuses me.  But I have checked out the tinacos on our roof and know they are covered, no bathing birds there.

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Roof top swimming hole

 another sight that amuses me is a half block away on about the 3rd floor roof is what I believe is an old cement rooftop cistern that has taken on a new life as a swimming hole. Several times I have seen kids whooping and splashing in it.

So much of Mexico is interesting and no matter how frequently I see it it never ceases to amaze and amuse me. Almost every evening there will be a couple of restaurants roasting this cut of pork over an open fire and continuing to

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Mystery meat

slice little bits. Not being a meat eater I have no idea how it is served, and the Senor is not an adventurous eater this will remain “mystery meat” to us.

A day or so ago I noticed the sail boat the  PATRICIA BELLE was anchored in the bay. She was hand built by the captain just a couple of

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The Patricia Belle

miles from our home in Washington. I had the opportunity to sail on her last Sail Fest and hope to do so again. She is one of the largest sailboats we see here. Signing off, KO

New Years Eve, What a Night!

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We love New Years Eve here in Mexico, it’s noisy, colorful and lots of light harted celebrating.  The fire works are  magnificent.  We had dinner at Puerto del Sol, a beautiful balcony type restaurant over looking the bay on the road to la Ropa.  I of course had a good seafood Relleno and the Senor the Pork Adobe. We danced to the music of Steve and Bryan and rang the new year in with whistles and horns.

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Steve and Bryan

Shortly after midnight, just as  we were getting ready to leave we met a very nice couple who stay in the condo that his brother owns.  A lovely place with the thatched palm roof right next door. It was late so we said our goodbyes and went to hail a cab. All were full coming up the hill so we walked down the hill a couple of buildings hopping to sport an empty one coming up  the hill. Finally there was an empty cab going up who said he would turn around at first opening so we jumped in. That was our first mistake, just as we passed the restaurant we were just at and past the next building we noticed a fairly small fire on the palapa roof.  The bomberos, (firemen) were already there and waved us on and our cab turned around to go back

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from the street

down the hill only to come to a complete stop.All traffic was blocked both ways.  Over the next hour a few cars got out of line and headed back up the hill and we inched forward until we were to close to what was now a roof fully engaged. Embers were flying, falling on the street and the cab wisely moved off the street into a drive way. No traffic was moving on the only road in or out of this area.We decided to pay off the cab as he wasn’t going anywhere and decided to see

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From Puerto del Sol where we had dinner

if we could safely walk past this conflagration and fine a cab on the other side. Surprisingly we walked right through the police and bomberos, (no yellow caution tape here) We got as far as the Puerto del Sol on the down side of the fire and went back in where we had just left a little over an hour ago  to discover the couple we had previously met had just enough warning to be able to get there things out before the whole building was fully engulfed. Our hearts go out to those who lost so much in the fire, be it personal belongings, a home away from home, but glad all were safe.  Fortunately the fire didn’t spread to any of the other buildings around with palapa roofs.

Earlier in the evening I had commented on how much I liked the “sky lanterns” or “Illuminarios”, as they were quiet and some times as many as 7 or 8 would be just quietly casting this red glow, floating across the sky.  But what they really are is a paper bag with a candle in it and exceedingly  dangerous.  It only took one to take out this beautiful condo. I will never look upon them as beautiful again, only as a dangerous, destructive weapon.

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Sky lanterns over Zihuatanejo bay

We only had to  walk about a couple  blocks before we able to catch a cab and arrived back to our apartment in El Centro at 3:00 am.  That is definitely the latest these old times have stayed out in years.  Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!   Signing off KO

Living vs Vacationing

It’s so very different when you “vacation” in Mexico for a week or two compared to “living” in Mexico for 3 months. It’s taken us two weeks and at least 6 trips to the Telcel store to get two cheap Mexican cells phones operational so that we can communicate with each other. (We used to bring a pair of walkie talkies.)  Unlike the US where all directions come in 14 different languages, here only one and it is not English.

Siestas are now to be enjoyed now, where in our vacationing timeline they were a waste of precious minutes that could be better used site seeing and shopping. I still love to poke around the stores, but now it’s a leisurely activity spread out over our entire time here.

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“Pidge” who lives in our balcony planter

We have a daily morning  guest, our pigeon sleeps in our balcony planter and wakes during our breakfast. I’m sure our presence is an annoyance to her.  At night we have a very small gecko that decorates the balcony wall or ceiling.  The Senor talks to him in Gecko and gets answers back.

The weather has been a bit warmer and a little more humid than usual here according to the locals and the “year rounders”. As it rarely gets lower than 75 all night long, night life is quite lively here.  We rarely eat before 7, no matter if it is on the balcony or in a restaurant. And the activity in the Zocolo, which is just a block away goes on many times until midnight, especially during the holiday season.

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Cook with parrot

I took the bus to Puerto del Sol to make our New Years eve reservations, it was early and the cook was preparing a cake in the kitchen while her parrot kept her company. I walked back and as always I discovered many interesting sites along the way.

 

 

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Wall mural

The Senor suggested breakfast out this morning so I took the bus back from my swim instead of walking as I normally do and on the bus was our favorite waiter from Las Gatas, Jose on his way to work with his handsome 16 year old  son Felipe who was going to work with him that day. It was good to pry the Senor out of the room, we tried a new restaurant that served him two of the worst looking eggs I have ever seen. He tried to eat the yolk, the whites were too crisp to try, when suddenly the waiter reappeared with two marvelous looking eggs for the Senor. Nice service like that isn’t forgotten. I don’t know the name of the restaurant but they are at the corner of Vicente Guerrero and the unpronounceable Cuoctemoc or something similar.

After breakfast the plan was to find a white shirt for the Senor, no luck but I ended up the receiving end  of our shopping trip getting a lovely silver turtle on a silver chain. With the exchange rate very favorable for the american dollar I’m starting my next years Christmas shopping next week. Singing off KO

 

 

Ixtapa Island

A few years ago Mexico completed a highway that runs from Zihuatanejo clear to Mexico City which has steadily opened up beach holidays to many folks from the interior. The holiday time during and between Christmas and New Years makes Zihuatanejo a prime destination.

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Beaches full of touristas

Town is full of Mexican touristas.  They arrive in these huge luxury buses and descend upon town and beaches in mass.  Large multi generational families toting large coolers and picnic baskets is frequently a complaint of local beach restaurants but today at Ixtapa Island we saw little of that.  The beaches were full the mood was festive, but we were not prepared for the long lines to

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Linning up to board the pangas

board the “pangas” to the  island as they only take 10 passengers at a time, but were boarding from 3 sides of the pier so it went surprisingly quick.  I was surprised the Senor didn’t want to “bag out” as soon as he saw the lines, but seemed to be blessed with a touch of patience today. T get to the island we take a 10 peso bus ride to Playa Linda and then take the Pang a to the Island. Upon our arrival at Playa Linda the Mexican pole

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Pole dancers

dancers were just starting their act, but since we have watched them before I didn’t get to see more than the very beginning. They dance on top of this pole and hang from ropes and spin around and are truly fascinating.
Once on the island we settled in at Paradisio Escondido where the owner Juan and his wife have become friends. The senor had the fish soup and I had a Fish relleno and we were both delighted with our choices. Our

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The Senor

day is full of swimming, visiting, eating and drinking and a visit from the shell fish boat that

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The shell boat

stops there daily. Oh I might add a little silver shopping. I’m sporting a new ring and a pair of earrings. signing off KO

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The marina keeping us safe

Lazy Zihua Sunday

We had a nice dinner last night at the Italian restaurant just down the street, never can remember the name of it, but I get good fish there and OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAthe Senor likes the spaghetti. The proprietress is very friendly and always remembers us and treats us like friends. Then on the Flophouse for drinks where we met old friends and made new ones, made plans for Ixtapa Island with Charlie and

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At the Flophouse Bar

Christina and turned in early which is becoming a regular plan as the Senor does tire out more readily now.

I’m an early riser, usually about 5:30 which is just before a couple of the bars in our neighborhood close. They are noisy with loud thumping music, but with the doors and windows closed and the air on they are only a

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Morning moon from balcony

distant hum. Until I grab the computer and slip on to the balcony, then it gets very lively as the bars close and the young people spill out onto the street,  motor scooters starting up, people laughing , yelling as if they were still yelling over the music a veritable feast of sounds. But this morning there was a different sound, anger. Lots of anger, this time people yelling at each other and several pushing and shoving at each other. I was happy to be three stories up and just a silent observer, but I’m wondering if real trouble is about to break out. Then slowly up the street walk two figures in camouflage riot gear holding shot guns and then two more arrive. The crowd didn’t disperse instantly, but with a half dozen more armed policia in the pickup truck at the foot of the street I thankfully knew it was over, and slowly they all went home just as the sun came up. Excitement all over.

The rest of the day was spent with errands to Waldo’s, and laundry. It takes about 2 hours for a load of laundry to wash and by the time you hang that load out your previous load has already dried and is ready to bring in. Takes up quite a bit of time, but not much work, easy enough.

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Mexican clothes dryer, takes less time than the dry cycle at home

The Senor has taken to watching the football games in our apartment instead of going out to the bars to watch it since we now get channel 13, 4,5 and 7 on cable.  I know it’s better for him, but that used to be some of my best movie time.  Oh well I can adjust.  Signing off KO

 

 

 

 

The pier, the yogurt and the Christmas Dinner

Christmas morning was very quiet, that is after 6 AM when the last celebrants left the bar around the corner. The streets were empty of people and cars, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this town so quiet and it was PC250069.JPGlike that most of the day.  I walked down to the pier, it just reopened after a major patch job.  It looks great and lets hope it does the job. Many folks were headed to Las Gatas as the town is full of Mexican tourists getting their beach fix during this holiday time. Coming back from the pier I stopped at the new ice cream shop right across from the Zocolo., well it does have ice cream but what it features is frozen yogurt, which I really enjoy. There were several flavors of syrup, I selected Baileys  which he swirled around the bottom and sides of the cup, then added the yogurt  and wanted me to select toppings.  I’m a purist and don’t want toppings. I guess I had expected the yogurt to be just like at home, why I don’t know.  But of course it wasn’t. What came to mind is Al Alto’s song “Con Limon” how everything in Mexico comes with lime. There was just a touch of tartness, but very good. I think I will become a regular there. It has nice seating lacking in other ice cream spots and a great place to watch the daily parade go by.

We were invited to Christmas dinner at friends Joanne and Will’s

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apartment. There were eight of us for dinner and we sort of expected it might be traditional Christmas fare. What we didn’t know is Joanne is fantastic creative cook. And yes there was turkey and gravy and wonderful stuffing and the most delightful sweet potato dish I have ever had, all beautifully displayed and served. It was a true feast!

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Steve and Janet opening stockings

So not only was there this wonderful dinner but stockings had been prepared for each one of us with little treats and goodies and really personalized. I had in mine some of the lovely earrings that Joanne makes  The Senor found a carton of the V8 juice he so loves in his. It was such fun, and so thoughtful. A truly great Christmas!

Our bounty from the Christmas stockings, that should keep the Senor in chocolate for weeks to come.

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My beautiful new jewelry
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Lights of Zihuatanejo from El Hujal colonnia

What has surprised me this year is that even though we are less than a block from the church, I’ve not heard church bells at all.  I miss that!

Signing off, KO

Merry Christmas To All

We had a pleasant Christmas eve dinner last night at Daniels, they had a holiday menu of turkey with an interesting stuffing, I think was mostly

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adjusting the microphone Mexican style, keep tying knots until it’s at the right height

sausage and raisins. We had a wonderful fruit salad and a creamed corn and poblano soup that was just great. Not being one who eats meat I came prepared with a ziplock bag to put my turkey away for the Senor’s sandwiches later

 

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Then we were on to Porto d Mare for night caps.

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Barkeep at Purto d Mare

 

For 3 days last week my right knee began to bother me, felt weak swollen, stiff and was uncomfortable walking. Some times it felt like it might buckle under me when I would stand up. This knee shouldn’t bother me as I had it replaced several yeas ago, I never have trouble with it but I do know that infections can go straight to it. That’s why I take penicillin before any dental or medical treatment. Also my middle finger or my right had became swollen and sore. The joints ached and I couldn’t make a closed fist, that finger just wouldn’t bend and ached horribly. During all this I still went swimming every morning, but one day I couldn’t get warm swimming and quit after 25 minutes.  Which is something I never quit early. All in all I just didn’t feel 100%, napped several times a day, no get up and go, no interest in going much of anywhere that I didn’t have to. Questioned that maybe I was beginning to feel “old”. Anyway to make a long story shorter. I believe I had a mild case of “chikungunya”. I had collected several mosquito bites before we finally got some repellent and I think one of those sucker gave it to me. It seem to only affect my most vulnerable joint, those with previous injuries. I knew chikungunya was in the area, but after I began to feel good again, I looked it up on line and I do think that’s what I had. Certainly not a case of old age.

Merry Christmas from Zihuatanejo Mexico

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poinsettia mart

 

signing off KO