Friends invited us to go to Escollera with them for the afternoon. There were 8 of us so we piled into two taxi’s and headed up, and I do mean up. Escollera is a beautiful restaurant located high above Zihuatanejo with a killer view. It was our first time there and our friends said as long as we ate and drank we would also be able to enjoy their pool. It is a beautiful infinity pool with all of Zihuatanejo Bay below. So enjoy we did.
So why do I keep thinking I can. I have prepared meals since I was an 18 year old bride. I raised 4 children and none of them starved to death so I can prepare a meal. But to “cook” is different. It is to follow a recipe, especially one with more than 3 ingredients and maybe with different cooking directions on how to prepare those ingredients with the end results having people rave over your abilities. This isn’t happening here! No matter how hard I try. I cook just well enough to keep my husband from wanting to take me out to dinner every night, but not the kind of cooking that gives satisfaction to me..
Once again I tried tonight, it was certainly edible, but not memorable. And certainly not worth the effort, of toasting the bread in olive oil, pulsing it smooth with almonds and fresh parsley. None of which I have ever bought at home, let alone in the Mercado, which had to be done strictly in my fractured Spanish. I know I deserve an A for effort, but I would prefer a night out! Why do I keep torturing myself, and admit survival cooking is as best as it is going to get. You will note, there is no picture of my shrimp dinner. The most fun part of it was shopping in El Mercado Publico, that part I enjoy. Golly gee, I’m a shopper not a cook, who could have guessed that! Signing off KO
Friday afternoon we went out to the village of Troncones and checked into the beautiful Inn at Manzanillo Bay. Checked into our beach bungalow to discover they have been completely redone since last year.
Very luxurious, complete with a private outdoor courtyard shower. Had a lovely dinner, a couple of drinks and retired to listen the sound of the rolling surf.
Saturday morning at 8:00 am we walked a short way down the road to check in for the swim at Hacienda Eden, get our numbers written on our hands which is how we check in and out of the water. We walked about a 1/4 mile down the road to the beach at Majahua, giving us a chance to meet each other and get to know one another. Several of the group have swam the Alcatraz to San Francisco Sharkfest and other like me are mostly pool swimmers. At just short of 73, I am one of the oldest swimmers. My goal is always to finish strong and not come in last. At Majahua we got our instructions on how to swim way out past the rocks and the current at Punta Majahua, then make a left turn and use the light house on the beach as a beacon to head for. We counted out our numbers and into the water go 15 swimmers. The 8 paddle boarders serving as spotters and guide posts were already in the water. One paddle boarder was accompanied by her small dog with his life jacket on. A panga (small motor boat) accompanies the group for anyone who might choose not to finish.
The distance is a little over a mile. The challenge for me is not so much the distance but swimming in the open ocean. It is very different considering the waves, currents and no black lines on the ocean floor to keep you oriented. At one point one of the paddle boarders placed her board in front of me so I would run into her so she could give me a course correction. I was swimming way to far out to sea. That’s their job to keep everyone on course and account for all. Being a crawl stroke swimmer all I see is sky and sea as the land is on my left. So you swim awhile and stop to check the direction and swim on.
Last year I had a great deal of trouble at the finish point as the surf was very high and I needed help getting oout after being tumbled several times.. This year was so much easier, but I did come in with a side stroke so I could keep an eye on the waves and made it “no problema”, proudly calling off my number to man checking the swimmers in. I don’t know and really don’t care where I placed, I’m not fast, but pretty steady. Friends said they thought I came in about 6 or 8. Middle of the pack, feels good, and I know I’ve had a good work out.
This year we were awarded medals, kind of a nice touch, had a group picture, and were busy congratulating ourselves. What made this year special for me was I had my own rooting section. Along with Doyle, friends Faye and Paul with two of their friends and Bonny were all there at the finish line to cheer me on. Hopefully some one has a picture of me coming in as Doyle was on guard to help me if I got caught in the surf.
Bonny went back to our hotel and we had a great breakfast and returned back to Zihuatanejo. Will I do it again, probably, but will just have to see what next year brings. Signing off KO
A few days ago I received an e mail from a friend I met at swim with at the pool back home. She was letting me know she and her husband were going to be in Ixtapa for 8 days and could we get together. Of course they have an agenda of things they want and need to do and we had some prearranged plans and it looked like we might not meet up. But today it worked out. We invited them to Zihuatanejo, they came and fortunately prepared for the beach. So after a quick tour of El Centro and our apartment we were off to Las Gatas Beach.It’s a water taxi ride out to the beach which is always fun, then we walked down the beach to our favorite spot,Gloria del Mar and our favorite waiter, Jose. Some how he has radar and seems to sense when we are coming as he spots us a half block down the beach and starts waving at us.
We stake out our territory, get buckets of Dos XX’s and margaritas. (Drinks not buckets) and settle in to the business of becoming better acquainted. Siuling and I swim together, and mostly just visit in the locker room. Our husbands have never met, but both are retired military and soon we are all laughing and joking like we have known each other for years. We order a red snapper and some shrimp, all heavy on the garlic and all but lick the platter clean. The guys decide they want to go deep sea fishing. We ask Jose, our waiter if he has a recommendation for a captain and soon the “Black Tuna” arrives and the guys make all the arrangements while Siuling and I swim. Sunday is to be the fishing day. We’ve had all the sun and fun we can handle for the day and head back to the water taxi for the ride back to Zihua, with plans to meet on Sunday. A wonderful day with great amigos. Signing off KO
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
It’s been a couple of interesting days, trying to get organized and setting up our living quarters. The Senor dropped his partial plate on the tile floor and of course broke it. So we drop everything and are off to the dentist. Fortunately she is english speaking and in the same building as the wonderful doctor we found last year. She was able to put it back together for him but he is having her make a new one as the price was right. I marvel at how simplistic doctors waiting rooms are here compared to what we see in the US. Some what like my doctors office was when I was a kid back in the late 40’s. Strictly utilitarian, actually the waiting room furniture looks like it came from a 2nd hand store, no fancy paintings on the walls. But the medical and dental care is very modern and up to date and extremely reasonable. I have no problem with this philosophy. Ahhh, it’s Mexico
Tried getting our cell phones up and running but the cell store we usually go to was closed and neighboring stores and other cell phone kiosks said we had to go to Ixtapa to get new “chips”. So we make the trip to Ixtapa, lined up and waited our turn only to be told our phones were locked they can’t do it, only our carrier But Verizon tells me that they don’t lock their phones like mine. At least that’s what they say on line (can’t phone them, no phone). But the upside is we got to go to the movie theater while we were in Ixtapa, saw Passengers,very good movie, and then had dinner at Franks.I like eating out! Ahhh it’s Mexico!
Today as I was headed to the bank to get more money as our landlord upped the rent $200 a month, even though we had a written contract. Ahhh, its Mexico. I discovered the Telcell store that was closed yesterday,the one everyone said couldn’t help me and I needed to go to Ixtapa, was open today. And guess what, they were more than happy to put a chip in my phone and it works perfectly now. Ahhhh it’s Mexico.
The first few days we are so busy getting what we need where we need it. Just starting to get in the relaxed mode of rolling with the punches, sometimes it takes a little time to get into that laid back mode of a mexican minute could really be sixty and manana does not mean tomorrow, it simply means not today. AHHH it is Mexico
This is how holes in the sidewalk are fixed. At least this on has a “bandaid fix” most don’t along with odd pieces of metal and re bar that have been cut off close to sidewalk level leave walking the streets a bit of a challenge especially at night. Ahhh, it’s mexico
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.
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
We traveled this year with far more luggage than usual. Normally 2-3 suitcases max, but due to wanting to get our shopping cart that rolls upstairs to Mexico we had to put it in our largest suitcase. Between the suitcase and the cart we had already used up 25 lbs of the allowed 50.That and 3 months supply of meds for the Senor 3 months supply of protein
powder for me and a few other items that we can’t find in Mexico we soon had two big suitcases and 3 carry ons, only one of which we planned to carry on. We had arranged for a wheel chair for Doyle as he doesn’t walk or stand well for long periods. We breezed through TSA with just the customary full pat down I receive because of my artificial knee. But after 20 years or so of traveling to Mexico we finally hit the “red light” where their security folks take a very in-depth look through all our 5 bags and my small back pack. No problema, just a few questions about my protein powder , were soon on our way We got a cab only to discover that both the Senor and I had a brain fart about the name of the street we were going to. We know the way and can give good directions, but not so good in Spanish. A few blocks from our apartment our driver fell afoul of the local traffic cop and got pulled over. I have never heard such arguing, hand gestures and money offered. If it hadn’t have been for our luggage we would have bailed at that point. But again no problema and we were soon on our way . From there it is a right turn and 2 lefts and we are at the foot of our pedestrian street where our apartment is. But it is at the opposite end of the block, and here we are with 5 bags. Doyle was going to wait with the baggage and I was going to run them up the street one at a time. ( That’s figurative speech) As I started up with the largest bag the friendly “little old lady”who sells fans, grabbed my suitcase and almost ran it up to our building. What a dynamo! Needless to say I bought a fan and gave her a bit extra. Friends and apartment mates were gathered outside socializing and bless them they carried it all up the 3 flights of stairs. Isn’t Mexico wonderful!
I arrived with a bit of a cold, which has left me with less than my normal energy and since the Senor’s energy is improved but still very low we have been slow to get organized and out to shop for supplies. Oh well, manana! Signing off KO
Our time in sunny Mexico is drawing to a close, sadly we are on our last day. I love Mexico and Zihuatanejo with all it’s quirks and interesting culture. There is so much I will miss, but there are somethings that you just have to say “Ah it’s mexico” and overlook. I will miss all the friendly faces that speak to you on the streets and greet you with a quick Hola! or Buen Dia even when they don’t know you at all. I will miss warm days at the beach with
the breeze blowing, I will miss nights without ever needing a sweater, I will miss 25 peso cab rides, and riding water taxis, I will miss the pigeon who lives in our balcony planter and the iguanas that entertain us during dinner on the balcony at night. Let’s face it I will miss my balcony!
I will not miss toilets with no seats in public facilities. Where do they all disappear to? I won’t miss needing to discard TP in the waste basket instead of the bowl. I will miss daily fresh fruit. I will miss fresh fish cooked to perfection. I will not miss Mexican bars that play music until 6 am, but I will miss yummy drinks expertly prepared. I will miss mercado shopping, but not barking roof dogs, but I will miss the sweet, gentle street dogs.I will miss swimming long course at 8 am at the “Alberca Olympica.” I will miss walking all over town and taking 10 peso bus trips for longer distances. I will miss our Zihuatanejo friends new and old.
I will miss always seeing folks I know where ever I go in town. I will miss taking my camera every where as there is always something interesting to see. I will miss the time I have here to read book after book with out guilt. I will miss having time to blog about simple daily events. I won’t miss washing dishes by hand.I will miss coconut palms, flowers and greenery all winter long.
I will miss my trips with Sylvia to the the little Saturday morning market, where everything is home grown, or made or recycled and hand made or organic. I will miss lovely sunny mornings as we return to gray rainy weather, but all good things must come to a close. So this is my final blog of the season Signing off until December 30 2016. KO
Zihuatanejo 