Category: Uncategorized

Each morning I head up to the pool about 7:30, since the weather is warm here it t-shirt

and shorts weather.  At home it takes me about the same amount of time to get to the pool, but I’m in a car using gas and bundled up in hats gloves,scarves and warm jacket.  My pool is an Olympic size pool which I occasionally share with two or three others.  As it is covered it is a little chilly to jump into at that time of day, but not as cold as the heated pool on the Navy base I normally swim at. Since I walk to and from the pool I only lap swim for 30 minutes instead of the 45 minutes at home and my wonderful fitbit tracks it all. At home the locker room is very nice with lots of good friends to visit with, here the locker room is a horror and no one to visit with. The showers don’t work, only few of the stalls have doors and the toilets flush via the “clarifacador” .

One of the anomaly’s of mexico is that few of public restrooms have toilet seats.  You have to wonder where they all disappear to. It’s Mexico you just  roll with the punches.

I usually make a stop at the Mercado Publico on the way back from swimming for fruits and veggies and the occasional chicken.  Our food is so fresh here I shop almost daily to take advantage of it.  Beautiful ripe strawberries, avocados, papaya and stuff I have never seen before. The mercado is a site and sensory over load, no picture can capture the sites and smells. One of my favorite places, also the money I spend there stays with the local people, no big corporation involved.

Today we had lunch with old friends at the Villa Mexicana where two of our friends are staying,  It’s a lovely hotel, good food, but great friends doing  some catching up with and reminiscing with.  Signing of KO

Thursday morning, January 5 as I headed out for my morning swim the temporary vendors were setting up in the street in what was normally be the parking area. Metal frame work and blue tarps make instant booths where they sell the traditional Rosas cake and cheap plastic (junk) toys for children to receive on 3 Kings Day.

They obviously don’t do much plan ahead shopping as these booths arrive on the 5th and are gone on the 7th. But they will return again only on a slightly smaller scale for Valentines Day.

The rosas cake is a wreath shaped cake with tiny manger scene figures baked into it. Families gather to celebrate the arrival of the 3 kings celebrating the birth of Christ. It is traditional that whom ever finds the baby Jesus in their piece of cake must host the dinner next year. The children here don’t return to school until after 3 Kings Day. As a result Zihuatanejo has been full of Mexican tourists from the interior enjoying a warm beach holiday.

Yesterday we did some shopping  and wanted to buy this led flashlight set..  It required a staff person and a pipe wrench to unlock the security lock.  We used our 3 wheel  cart to haul our stuff up the stairs. Because the cart itself is a little heavy, 14 lbs, it’s a little awkward hauling it in and out of cabs so we now off load our stuff from the cab and I go up to the room, get the cart and we will load it and roll it up the stairs. This picture may not look heavy but there is a 12 pack of coke, a bottle of Kahlua, a bottle of Gin, 2 boxes of wine and 2 lbs of sausage and a half dozen smaller items.

By the time I have hauled it up 3 flights of stairs I know how heavy it is. But it’s faster and easier and safer than making several trips with plastic sacks that tend to rip. We  are satisfied with it.

Now that we are into the playoffs every bar in town has Super Bowl specials football pools. The Senor has decided he is only up to watching one game at the bar this year. ( We won’t even discuss last year} and he has opted to watch the other games in our room and will head to The Captain’s Daughter to join his buddies for the Seahawks game. Signing off KO

December 31-January 1 20 17

We have loved New Years in Mexico.  The Mexican people are friendly, colorful, loud, and love to have fun. New years is colorful, friendly and loud.  Very loud. We started with New Years Eve dinner at our favorite breakfast spot, Mito’s as we had seen their menu on line. It was excellent, appetizer of stuffed mushroom cap with goats cheese, a wonderful salad that I’m sure had cerviche in it (but I never mentioned that to the Senor) and choice of mahi mahi or steak.  I’m the fish eater he is the meat eater and followed with a small serving of ice cream.  It was a wonderful meal.  We then went on to Daniels to enjoy Jimmi Mamou play the blues and old-time rock and roll and visit with friends.  We had planned to watch the fire works from there as that is where they shoot them off from.  But not being quite the party animals we used to be we got tired and decided to watch from our roof top.  We fixed our drinks, pulled out the patio chairs, watched the fireworks and promptly went straight to bed.  The fire works were spectacular, shot from 3 different beaches around the bay.  Quite the show! It is definitely where we will watch the show in future years.

Fire

New Years day arrived with hopes of doing our grocery stock up only to discover there was a city wide taxi strike.  That’s OK I love to eat out.  Not knowing what might be open for breakfast we headed down our pedestrian street and went to the first place we found. Won’t do that again.  The menu was interesting, I ordered strawberry crapes.  My Spanish isn’t great but I can read a menu quite well. The Senor ordered 2 eggs over easy and 2 hot cakes.I ordered coffee he black tea. 10 minutes later we were told no black tea, OK, he got and received an orange juice. She made coffee, but other patrons filled their own cups before my cup arrived and of course no sweetener.  Ok, that is my problem for wanting something special. Finally my crepes arrived filled with strawberry jam and  chocolate syrup drizzled over them and a large hunk of what she said was ice cream.  What in reality it was was frozen cool whip.  Not exactly the breakfast of my dreams, but I ate half of it and the Senor ate the other half, him having quite a sweet tooth and being hungry as his

breakfast had not yet appeared. I am way done before his eggs finally arrive with 4 pieces of bread. We thought maybe they ran out of hotcakes, or she forgot. But half way into the eggs, his pancakes arrived,  again drizzled  with chocolate syrup. He was not happy, but  at least the eggs didn’t have any chocolate syrup.  Interesting place, just not to our liking. We didn’t take a chance with dinner and went to LaBella Vita where the proprietress greats you like you were her best friend. Never had a bad meal there either and the service is excellent

Monday January 2

Truly getting settled in. We have by now discovered everything we thought we packed and didn’t. Have our shopping list in order and will go to the Comercial this afternoon to stock our shelves. Promptly at 7:30 am I head out to the community pool which is about a mile and a half from our apartment. One of the maintenance workers greats me, saying so happy to have me back.  I’m a senior citizen so I don’t have to pay so isn’t for the money, it genuine. I love this place! I swim for 30 minutes, the only one in this Olympic size pool.  Afterwards I stop at the “mercado publico”  for my fruit and veggies and this time I also bought chicken from one of the chicken sellers.  These chickens are so fresh they arrived there that morning still clucking with their feathers on. This market is the very traditional old mexican style market that has been there forever. I make a quick stop at the bank and back to the apartment to fix breakfast.

In the after noon we do the rest of our shopping and arrive at the bottom of our block long pedestrian street with about 15 bags of groceries.  Half are in our rolling cart, so I head up the street with it only to get a strap caught in the wheels, a couple came and helped free it.  The senor stayed at the bottom of the street with the rest of the bags sitting on a bench waiting for me to return with the cart. That cart is a real “ATV” of a cart I pulled it up the stairs with out a struggle knowing it was too heavy for me to even lift.  Before I had it off loaded the bartender and a patron had grabbed the rest of the bags and hauled them up our 3 flights of stairs.  The Senor strolled in after them carrying 1 small bag.  Where else would you find so many helpful people.  Love Mexico! Signing off  KO

I was surprised when the Senor suggested going to La Ropa instead of our regular Friday at Playa Las Gatas then it dawned on me, no walking. We could catch a cab at the end of our street and it would take us directly to El Marlin. At Las Gatas we would need to walk a couple of blocks to the water taxi and then the length of the beach. He is really having a tough time getting around.

La Ropa was wonderful, the surf was low, the sun was high, we snacked on jicama, bobbed in the water.  I don’t care for the swimming at La Ropa, too many boats and skidoos

zipping round. It’s always fun to watch the Picante come in and see the folks flying on .the spinnaker. And nice to see the Senor out and enjoying himself.

I enjoy getting out and around town, nice people to meet and  visit with and interesting things to see. Zocolo there is art in many forms, at the artist park there is always something of interest.

And if you choose to take a break a little charmer will sell you her wares, with mama always close in the background.

Last night was Guitarfest at the Casa de Cultura, a fancying sounding name for what at first glance looks like a large out door lot with some sail shaped coverings overhead. But it truly is a spectacular music venue.

Of the 3 performers I watched Lipbone Redding was my favorite with a New Orleans vibe. I have a ticket again for Thursday night and I’m looking forward to it. My taste in music run more to the country/bluegrass than anything classical so I was fairly selective as to which nights I purchased tickets for but I will say there was something for everyone’s personal taste. A really great week-long event.

Today we meet up with friends Paul and Faye for a couple of days at Mi Casa Es Su Casa in Troncones. Then back to Zihuatanejo for a couple of days before heading home.

Signing off KO

I finally figured out how to download pictures from my cell phone. But because the phone part doesn’t work I’m not in the habit of carrying it with me. As a result I have no pictures of a lovely day spent prowling around Troncones with my friend Bonnie and no pictures of the grand opening of the Flophouse under new management featuring Jimmi Mamou.
The Flophouse has long been one of our favorite spots. Carlos the proprietor and bartender served good drinks, friendly ,knowledgeable conversation with great music weather live or recorded. We will miss him. Time will tell how successful the new managements endeavors will be, but it will never have the same vibe.
I wanted to buy dorado but there is none at the fish stalls at the Mercado, so I decided I

would try buying direct from the fisherman at the beach. My spanish is quite limited so I have shied away from shopping at the beach as it is a super busy place with folks buying fish by the bucket or bag load and I just want a couple of fillets. In my very best spanish I requested dorado and the reply was the same every where “no hay dorado, muy dificil” There is

no dorado, it’s very difficult to find. I think it is probably the end of the season or run as there seemed to be plenty in December.

The fishing industry is the heart of Zihuatanejo, weather it is the commercial fishing, subsistence fishing or sport fishing. It’s what pays the bills here. I was Playa Principal at 6 AM, the night fishing boats were in with more arriving on the beach every few minutes, the ice seller was busy delivering ice, women selling fruit drinks, knife seller hawking wares and of course the fishermen and their wives were selling their fish.

Some bought fish by the bucket load, other by the fillet, house wife and restaurateurs alike. At the pier it was crowded with folks headed out for a day of sport fishing trying to find the right boat captain, packing coolers of drinks and little mystery sandwiches just purchased from the ladies at the head of the pier. Out on the bay are the net fishermen who seem to be in competition with the pelicans. All

dependent on the fishing industry.  Signing off KO