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The Parthenon, a Crocodile, and Wine Tasting, What a Day!

I knew Morgan would find the Parthenon interesting. She had been anxious to see it since she first spied it from the water taxi. When I last was there you could only get in on a Saturday, not knowing if things had changed I decided we would go on a Saturday and check it out. I had been warned that the Government had now taken possession of it and would be restoring it and you couldn’t get in any more. I don’t like being told no, so we went any way after a quick stop at the Saturday Morning Market we walked down Calle Adelita, up what I call Mount Irma, past the Hotel Irma to the road to La Ropa and

further down the road you come to the Military Barracks where there is a side road that clearly says cars are not allowed to go up it. I think at this point Morgan doubted my ability to read Spanish as it made her a little nervous not following rules by a Military installation. But then she grew up a Navy Brat so I forgave her her reluctance and we began the very steep, rocky climb up this road. Neither of us had had the sense to wear tennis shoes and we tackled this climb in our sandals. Once at the top we meet a nice young soldier with the very scary looking gun and I asked if we could go in. In very rapid Spanish he replied something and pulled out his phone, and finally said to us something but I recognized that we would be called and he pointed to the gate. A man soon opened the gate and at first said no, it would require a permit from the Government in Acapulco but after a bit of finagling he changed his mind and we went in.

This was once the party place for an extremely crooked cop from Mexico City. It is in very dilapidated condition, but you can still visualize and feel the elegance that once was there. Because everything from how the land was acquired to the cost of the elegance of the construction of the building and of the parties given there you have to reflect on how many little people were stepped on for him to acquire such wealth. Because of that there is a faction that would like it torn down. I would like to see it preserved, not necessarily restored as it is beautiful, even in ruins. Morgan stated she would have liked to have had 6 changes of clothes and pretended to be on a fashion shoot.

From there we walked further down La Ropa Rd and headed to the beach at our first opportunity and walked down to El Manglar to have lunch with the crocodiles. We were ready for cool drinks and a good lunch as we had logged in 3 miles at this point. We had a great lunch with a crocodile lazing about 8 feet away from us. and yes there was a 3 foot high fence between us.

I finish off the day at the wine tasting at the Beach at Sotovento. Interesting, but far to hot at the beach and nowhere was there shade. Signing off KO

The DIY Project from Hell

I’ve always been a “do it your self person”, partly out of necessity and partly for self satisfaction. I’ve been sewing clothing since I was 12 a skill that served me well since I had 4 children to dress for school. I sewed the boys t-shirts, the girls dresses and party dresses, one wedding gown and one sport coat. I don’t say this to brag just to demonstrated I really do have some skill. So you would think making curtains for this apartments three windows in the living room area would be a fairly simple task. Well it wasn’t.

It may have been partly the very light weight sheer fabric I chose, or the inexpensive singer sewing machine I picked up here, or may be it wasn’t the best thread for the fabric and it may have been just me! Anyway to make a long story short I was just making panels that were 60 inches wide with a heading at the top and a hem at the bottom and there were to be 4 panels in each of the curtains for the 2 short windows and 8 panels for the slider door as the fabric was shear I wanted volume so you couldn’t see right through from the outside, but wouldn’t feel closed in inside.

Well the seams puckered and as the fabric frayed it had to be double seamed which seemed to make it worse and the full length of the slider made it difficult to manage sewing on that much slippery fabric and as I kept adding panels, even though the fabric itself was lightweight, the bulk of it became heavy and pulled as I sewed. But I finally got the curtains constructed and it was time to hang them.

I had bought new curtain rods and needed to take down the old ones which had probable been used over the last century and the walls have had many coats of paint which made it difficult to get them down. I finally had to get help from my upstairs neighbor to get the screw out on the two small windows. Then I was able to put up the new ones. When it got time to do the slider door, thankfully I had a friend who was willing come over and remove the old rod and hang the new rod since it was going in a slightly different place. So the rod is up, curtains are all done except for sewing the rings on that I had brought from home. What a mistake that was, first of all my math skills are legendary and I was short 15 rings. Then I had planned to sew them on with the sewing machine. Well I couldn’t do it with this machine, mine at home would have, but not this one so it was all done by hand. Then as I couldn’t match the missing rings I ended up using plastic electric tie loops for the missing rings and the damn things are hung. But I like them, they do exactly what I wanted, the side short ones give just enough privacy with out blocking light the slider door ones pull clear off the door for the day time, and a quick pull at night and they give just enough privacy at night that we are not visible from the street. I happy, the project is done, I will never, ever, ever make curtains again and probably only use this machine for mending,

I only have one more DYI project and that is recovering the couch. I’ll let you know how that goes. Signing off KO

Social Life in Mexico

With the weather here being lovely and warm, actually it is quite unseasonably hot this year many days in the 90’s, you get your business and shopping done in the early morning, then beach or siesta during the hottest part of the day. I’ve almost become a commuter to La Ropa beach where I have never spent much time in previous years. It’s a 10 peso bus ride about 50 cents, takes less than 20 minutes and almost unending choice of restaurants and lounge chairs. It’s not my favorite place to swim or play in the water, but it’s great for relaxing with a cooling breeze, lunching or dinning or socializing or watching the sunset.

Morgan wanted to eat at El Manglar where the crocodiles swim in the estuary right beside your table. We chose to have dinner there and had a great dinner, but too dark to see any crocs. The waiter promised her if she would come back for lunch he would call them for her.

I’ve been attending several of the” meet and greets” at Paty’s with the cool breeze that blows in through her upstairs pavilion. It is marvelous in the late afternoon. It is also a great opportunity to meet many of the folks who enjoy Zihuatanejo. I frequently find I’m the only American in the group as the large portion of the seasonal population is Canadians. It’s OK we all play well together and enjoy the exquisite sunsets there.

Friday and Saturday nights Steve and friends play great rock and roll music at Rossy’s on La Ropa catering to a crowd that is primarily gray but can still dance like junior high. They play from 5-7 allowing folks to be back home before it’s too dark or go on to other places for dinner. I can still catch a combi back and not have to pay the higher taxi fee but at that time of night it is full of folks returning from work and you may be ridding with 20 or more folks on a 15 passenger combi. Such is Mexico.

Spent a lovely afternoon at El Pirita listening to Solo Tres, who sing the most beautiful Mexican music, one of those special groups where the blend of their voices is pure magic.

Several of the bars in El Centro, the downtown part of Zihuatanejo where I live, have live music on various nights. Jimmi Mamou is a long time favorite in Zihuatanejo, 10 years ago he was invited to play at Guitar Fest and he never left. Folks are friendly and will invite me to join them and some times I img_2220-1 invite myself which I did one night only to discover the lady was from my home town, Port Orchard. I don’t know who was more surprised, she or me. Life here is warm, friendly and casual.. Can’t ask for more than that. Signing off KO

Woke Up Feeling Great

I woke up this morning feeling great, it’s the first time in 2-3 weeks I can honestly say that. I have had a cough and a bowel disturbance for the past few weeks, but I didn’t consider myself sick. I feel so good today I now realize, I was sick. Guess I was in denial. I think it’s the first time I’ve been sick in 10 years or so. Glad it’s over, time to get on with life and do a little catch up here.

About a week ago I went on a nature hike guided by Elizabeth Brady, a local gal with an abundance of knowledge of the local natural plant life. We walked through an area that was completely wild, meaning nothing there had been planted it was all natural plant life. I learned about toxic plants, for one the “chile gato” plant that has a quite attractive flower and a small fuzzy tail that is some what a cross between a cat’s tail and the marsh plant referred to as “cat tails”. I’m glad I’m aware it’s toxic as other wise I would be drawn to it to either pick or touch. There were many lovely

blooms and interesting trees. One the fruit grows on the trunk of the tree rather than the branches and another was a parasitic tree, but it also can live independently of its host.

One plant produces a fruit that can be used to launder your clothes with. Saw a couple of beautiful spider webs complete with occupants and caught a glimpse of a small herd of cattle who are lucky enough to reside there. img_2146-1 All in all it was an interesting morning. Signing off KO

Settling in to Every Day Life

It didn’t take me long to settle in to a pattern of every day life here in lovely warm Zihuatanejo. I swim 3 days a week, I discovered that with all the lovely improvements at the pool they now have a daily fee of 25 pesos and a monthly pass 225 pesos. Obviously the pass is the better deal , so for a month of swimming I pay about the equivalent of $11. At home when I swam at the Navy base it was free, but when I return home I will need to join the Y and pay $60 a month. I walk to the pool usually about 7 ish, takes me about 20 minutes then I lap swim for 30 minutes and walk back.

Now the walk back can take a long time depending on what errands I have, the route takes me by two fabric stores and the Mercado where I can wander and find just about anything I could possibly need from clothing to vegetables to fish to tiny restaurants. I have bought parts for my cook stove there rope for my clothesline, you name it can find it but that sometimes in the problem. Naming it! Not only do you need to know the Spanish word for it but also how to pronounce it correctly. ” Google translate” is my friend.

In the mid afternoon when it is the hottest, I either keep to my apartment or go to the beach where you most always find a breeze and read there. My apartment is equipped with 3 ceiling fans. One in the kitchen, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. To conserve electricity I try to only run the fan in the room I am using and try to remember to shut them all down when I am gone. Between the fans and the fact that a breeze blows in from the bay, just a block away , in my back door and out the balcony slider I am quite comfortable and never use my air conditioner. And therefore keep my electric bill down, which all the Canadians refer to as the “hydro” bill.

Two days a week I take Spanish classes. I am finding it challenging, but important. Usually after class, my friend Fay and I go for coffee, trying many new and different places. I have joined a book club and frequently attend “meet and greet” affairs in the evening.

One day a week I go to the “Laundaria” and for 45 pesos (1.45) I do a load of wash which I bring back to my apartment and hang my clothes to dry on the back porch. They are dry in just 2-3 hours, I let the laundry do my sheets and towels and it usually runs about about the equivalent of $5 a week for them to wash and dry and fold. I don’t have room to hang them.

I take the little “combi” buses just about everywhere I don’t want to walk. 10 pesos ( $.50) gets me any where in Zihuatanejo I want to go. They hold ten to 15 people

comfortably but not uncommon for 20 plus folks to cram inside. Taxi’s are 35 pesos for in town, which I use only for grocery shopping on when purchasing big things like my new little desk. I thought it might double for a sewing desk, but I do prefer my card table for sewing.

Beach days and lunches with friends, keep me busy, also I find that I am a bit of a “sun-

downer” once the sun goes down and the air becomes so soft and cool I love to walk about town. I’ll stop and listen to the music at many of the open air bars, stop for drinks with friends or just wander around. It’s a lovely way to spend an evening.

I have a TV, but I swear it is cursed. I can’t operate it. It is only a year old and is supposed to be a smart TV, I can only find NBC in English and I know there are many other English speaking channels, but I am remote control challenged and can’t even find Netflix. So when I want a movies I do Netflix on my computer. Signing off KO

Dia de la Revolucion Parade

Mexico’s Revolution Day (Dia de la Revolucion) is a national public holiday that celebrates a 10-year revolution that began in 1910 to end the struggle against dictator José de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori. It is on the third Monday in November, near the official day of November 20. In Zihuatanejo it is celebrated with a huge parade with most of the schools participating. It was a perfect day for the parade, Zihuatanejo gave her brightest blue skies for the event, temps in the low to mid 80’s. The parade route goes down my street, so we watched the parade with our morning coffee from the balcony.

The parade was scheduled to start at 9. Nothing starts on time in Mexico but at 8:40 the parade was coming down my street. Never heard of anything ever happening early than the announced time, usually an hour late, but the parade was here and we watched all 4 hours of kids dressed up as revolutionary characters in traditional dress, drum and bugle groups, dancers in beautiful costumes. Teen age students building human pyramids, others somersaulting through hoops of fire. Like everything in Mexico, it was loud, colorful, beautiful and very interesting.

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After a morning of no internet, signing off KO

Living Local

Items I purchased at the Zihuatanejo’s Publico Mercado

I try to live as local as possible, I do shop every 2 weeks or so at the Megga Soriana grocery store which is similar, but still quite different from our supermarkets. In between I pick up, any forgotten necessities at any of the local mom and pop “miscelleneas” for my eggs, fruits, veggies and fish I prefer the large individual stall type mercado. A week or so ago I bought some dried hibiscus (jimica) flowers and boiled them to a concentrate to dilute and sweeten to taste and you have a delicious refreshing drink called jimica. It very healthful like cranberry juice.

At the little Saturday market I bought fresh flower petals, the center parts have been removed, and boiled them into the concentrate. I may have over sweetened it as the sweetener I used said 2-1 tsp which I did, good thing I like thinks sweet.

I am taking Spanish classes again, this is a real luxury for me on my new budget but I enjoy the classes and our new teacher this year keeps class moving and fun. I can read and understand much more than I can verbalize, and mentally composing then speaking is very difficult for me. But I have no fear of going anywhere, I can read all the signage, menus, cooking directions on food products or ingredients. This class they say is the hardest we are learning the

past tense of verbs, everything gets easier after this, supposedly.

I let my landlord know the hot water side of my shower was dripping and he said manana his friend would be by to fix, manana came 4 days later and the plummer spent hours working on it, lots of banging and clanging leaving bring more tools back. Well the

end result was the back wall of the shower will need to be removed to get to the piping and fix the issue. It was going to be two to three days work and my land lord wanted to move me to the hotel across the street while the work was being done. My first thought was wait till I leave in the Spring. I have just gotten all cozy and really comfortable I don’t want to leave. Then I remembered I am going home for 10 days over Christmas and I told him he can have the work done then. This made us both very happy, especially as I know 3-4 days can easily stretch into a week. The only issue is I will have no hot water in my shower until it is fixed. In this warm weather it isn’t really a problem, just a minor inconvenience. Signing off KO

La Chole, the Archaeological Site

I’ve been not at my best the last few days as I have been hit with with one of Mexico’s famous intestinal disturbances. Actually ill one day with chills and probably a fever all symptoms point to it being viral and not food borne. Slept for 24 hours, feel fine now but still have a intestinal issue. This should have posted a couple of days ago.

Last Wednesday Morgan and I visited La Chole the small Mexican village where an ancient Aztec civilization once flourished. I have been their several times but this was a big thrill for Morgan. By asking friends we were able to secure a taxi driver who spoke good English and was able to share lots of local information with us I highly recommend Guillermo Otero. He has a nice large air conditioned taxi and was very personable and informative. Originally there was to be 4 of us, but early the morning of the tour Guillermo call me to let me know his friend from the village had called him to say it was not safe to come that day as their had been trouble on the road near by with a bus and a garbage truck having been set on fire. Of course we canceled and were thankful we had a guide with good contacts. These things don’t happen often but it’s wise to avoid trouble when you can. By the time we rescheduled we were down to just 2 of us as Morgan’s co worker had to work the rescheduled trip day and my friend opted not to go.

As we set out 9ish that morning, our guide asked if we minded making a quick stop in a village called Coyacocoyul which I’m sure isn’t spelled correctly, to make a stop for some special cookies. His wife is from this village and her very large family still lives there occupying many of the homes on one street. He picked up his package of warm home made cookies and shared them with us and we were off to LaChole.

First stop was the museum, where our guide had arranged for Jose to meet us and conduct the tour. Jose was born and raised in the village and his family discovered many of the artifacts that are housed in the museum. His heart and soul are in this project, he is very proud of his knowledge and loves to share it with you and answer all your question and his English is OK, because all the signage is in Spanish even though our taxi guide told us that it is primarily Canadian and American tourists visiting the museum. He said Mexicans visiting Zihuatanejo don’t go out there, all they want is the beach, beer and the bars. It would be a create project for someone to produce at least a printed guide book explaining the different exhibits. With out a guide you would not understand the significance of what you are viewing.

After the museum, we move on to the ball court and then the pyramid. I had been out in img_2005-1 this area 15 years ago before these ruins were unearthed, the fellow told us then that there was a pyramid and they were working to uncover it I really wasn’t sure if he knew what he was talking about, but the locals have known forever. There area few, very few archaeologist still working out there as there is still much to discover, but progress is slow, money is tight and some of it is on private farm land and can’t be touched.

Our guide Jose next took us into his village and to his home where he showed us his private collection of artifacts. Morgan was in 7th heaven getting to hold these ancient relics in her hands.

Jose’s family farms the land there and among other things they grow tobacco and Jose rolled a couple of cigars for Morgan to bring back to friends

It was a great day and a trip I highly recommend taking the time to visit this interesting bit of history. You can hire a taxi or take the bus to Las Achotes and then wait for the passaherra to take you to the site.

Morgan is having cigars rolled for her and is touching ancient artifacts, oh happy day! Signing off KO

Morgan and the Turtles of Ayotocali

Morgan, my granddaughter, is volunteering at the turtle sanctuary. She goes out at night and patrols the beaches of Playa Larga and Barra de Potosi looking for signs of turtle nests and for laying turtles. When nests are discovered they are carefully removed and transported back to the turtle sanctuary’s incubator area and reburied at the exact same depth that mama turtle placed them. Then the nest is labeled with the exact geographical coordinates of their original location, time and date and any other information they might have about the particular nest. When a laying turtle is discovered they stay with her until she is finished laying her eggs and safely back to sea. They do this to protect the mama turtle from predators, both man, wild dog packs and other wild animals that might be about. Only one in 1000 of the little hatch-lings will live to adulthood to mate and return to the beach where they were hatched to continue this life cycle. That is why this project is so important.

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When the nest hatches in about 60 days the turtles are care fully released on the sand at sunset. They head towards the light of the setting sun and then swim out to sea. The staff and volunteers are careful not to handle the babies so no human bacteria is transfer to the babies. And what is best of all you can personally participate in the almost nightly turtle releases. The staff will give you your turtle(s) in a little bowl and when instructed you gently let the turtle slip out of your bowl on to the sand and the race to the sea is on!

The sanctuary does a lot of work with the local children, teaching them why it is wrong to harvest and eat turtle eggs, or turtle meat. They have camps during the summer and work with the schools during the rest of the year. If you are in Mexico with children this is a must see project. They will learn a lot about turtles and their life cycle and have an unforgettable experience. If you are an adult, you also will learn a lot and enjoy the great experience of giving mother nature a helping hand.

There is a $200 peso donation asked for visiting the turtle sanctuary and participating in the turtle releases,and all donations are appreciated. This is an all volunteer program. They do have programs where for a nominal fee you can adopt a nest and of course T shirts and other souvenirs are available for purchase to help fund this very important program. There are almost always volunteers from the sanctuary at the Eco- Tianguis Sanka, the little Saturday morning market that sets up across the street from the museum next to the school. They will be more than happy to share their knowledge of turtles and the releases. Signing off KO

IT’S HOT AND HUMIDITY IS HIGH

As we move further into November it keeps getting hotter. Most unusual! It should be getting cooler. Depending on which weather channel you tune into the highs are in the low to mid 90’s and you get the “feels like” at about 100-106 . The breeze that usually blows in off the bay is non existent.

img_1904-2 — Sun setting on Zihuatanejo Bay

A storm is predicted for Tuesday which hopefully will cool things down a bit.

I have a couple of home projects that I am working on. Yesterday I bought new curtain rods for my apartment. I have an electric drill and drill bits for concrete. I also picked up fabric to recover my

couch. It got stained last year and i wasn’t able to get it clean.

My limited Spanish helps in making purchases and “google translate” helps me with words I don’t know . But Tuesday I will resume Spanish classes. Last year I started with my friend Faye and another couple and it will be with the same group again. It should be fun.

I came across a little restaurant with some unusual seating and then later saw these beautiful swings. In my yard at home I have had a wood board swing for years. I think I will have to replace it with one of these beauties. Signing off KO

swings on colorful ropes

Restaurant seating

Beautiful swings on colorful ropes

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