So happy to be back in peaceful, quiet Zihuatanejo. With no agenda other than with a vist to the chickens as now my neighbors in our building are saving their scraps for me to bring to them and a little shopping. As I headed out to the Mercado for fruit a colorful serape caught my eye as the ideal thing to put across the foot of our bed for the sole purpose of keeping the bedspread clean, as we lay on the bed to watch TV and read.
Serape for bed
We settled on a price and it was mine, I put it in my rolling bag, where it soon was joined by cucumbers and cheese . A stop at the Merza for bug spray and milk was added to the bag, then on to the pink bakery for “bollios,” probably not spelling it correctly, but the senor wanted to try them instead of regular bread, Purchased three and the daily shopping was done. Why is shopping here such an enjoyable experience, where back home it’s just a chore? We quickly put our new sarape to test for siesta time. A great addition to our little home.
Evening found us at the Flophouse Bar listening to Al Alto and soon joined by
Allan Alto
Nelson on the saxaphone. What a great combination.
We visited with old friends, made new ones, learned the best place to get the rolls or “bollios” is just up the street from the Flop house,
Later that evening several of residents of our building gathered together for a bit of wine and/ or tequila and conversation. A great end to another great day. Signing off KO
Our last day in Acapulco at Los Flamingos I started the day with a few laps in the pool and a breakfast of fruit and yogurt, gosh I almost feel like a heath nut. I can’t say enough about this hotel, with its interesting Hollywood past, hammocks on every terrace,
the beautiful grounds, good terrace restaurant right on the cliff, sunsets to die for, rooms with a terrace and a hammock and are naturally air-conditioned by the ocean breeze. So we packed,
Beautiful grounds
watched the news, read lazed in the hammock, ate a lite lunch, but mostly interested in getting home to Zuatanejo.
KO in hammock on terrace
We wished we had scheduled an earlier than 3 o’clock bus ride. We left the hotel at 1:30, caught a cab and didn’t arrive at the station until 2:40. This should have been a 20 min trip at best, but…… Traffic during the day is horrendous, half the streets are torn up, but Acapulco drivers are the rudest, most aggressive, inconsiderate drivers I have ever seen.
Beautiful sunset from our room terrace
absolutely no rules of the road. I’ve been in heavy traffic in Rome and Naples, this was far worst. And to make matters worst there are 2 bus stations in Acapulco, Ejidio & Central. We of course had no idea which we arrived in and our ticket s said Centro, but when we got to Centro we were told take a taxi to other station. The trip home was uneventful, but long. Even though it was a first class bus that didn’t mean non stop. More and better research next trip. The only reason I would return to Acapulco would be to stay at the hotel, it is a little slice of paradise on the highest cliff in Acapulco and possible to go to a bull-fight. I know the current trend is that they are barbaric, but I have been to bull fights in Spain, and that bull is as mean as a junk yard dog, and the “torerros ” are as graceful as ballerinas, and the pageantry is beautiful. Enough said!
We were welcomed home by a trail of ants from the balcony along one wall to the front door. Not welcome visitors, fortunately we had bug spray and solved the problem quickly. So glad to be back in our little home away from home. Signing off KO
Our trip to Acapulco is all about seeing the cliff divers again, and getting some good photos and of course relaxing in the beautiful Hotel Los Flamingos.
Beautiful swan dive
Our day started with breakfast at the hotels terrace dining area, then we walked around the grounds, a veritable jungle of plants and trees and path ways, we located the pool with plans to swim later. Next we flagged a taxi outside our hotel grounds, most taxi’s are VW bugs. This makes getting in and out of a bit difficult as some have the front seat moved all the way up to make it easier to get in the back and others have it pushed back so you can sit in the front. Either way it’s a bit difficult and when you ask “cuanto cuesta “ to your destination they say “very cheap”, or “what you want to pay.” Mostly it’s about 5 bucks to everywhere.
Divers scaling the cliff
It is truly amazing as they start from the water and scale the cliff they are going to dive from. No safety harness, no repelling gear, no pick axe or pegs, their only equipment is the “Speedo” they wear. There are several different natural platforms in the cliff they dive from, that is if you can call a flat spot on the cliff that really isn’t more than a few inches wide a platform. Their dives are graceful, and obviously well times with the tide and current.
The inlet is no more than 13 ft deep
The tiny inlet they dive into is only about 13 ft deep at the highest tide deepest current, with beautiful blue water, but the divers do a sweep to clean the water it of any floating debris that could cause them injuries
We choose to watch them from the lowest vantage point, a small pavilion a couple of hundred steps down the hillside. It costs 40 pesos to watch from there and that money goes to the divers along with any tip money they can get from the tourists.
Going down was easy, going up hot and tiring but well worth the show, one of the divers we visited afterwards said he’d been diving for 18 years, which would have made him about 10 or 12 when he started. Some of the other divers we saw were young, but not children. They were very gracious and signed shirts for our grandsons.We were amazed not only the height of their dives but at what beautiful dives they did.
Next we flagged VW cab and headed for the Zocolo. Acapulco has a beautiful square with huge trees, and a large gazebo facing the very busy street that runs along the water front, on the opposite side is a very beautiful church. Along both sides are shops and restaurants filled with people shopping and alley ways off the main square with shops and booths of just about everything. A small shop with very bright colors caught our eye and I purchased two pairs of capri’s and the Senor bought 2 pairs of shorts for 6.90 pesos each.
Church at the Zocolo
Although it was past lunch time we weren’t really hungry and decided Ice cream would be just right. We picked a side-walk café and ordered “malteados” which were listed in English as milk shakes. Well milk shakes they were, I don’t think there was any ice cream in them at all, but tasty none the less. Then back to our lovely hotel for siesta and dinner.
As we opened our door on to the veranda, the wind came up quite strong, but it was a warm wind and continued most of the night. We had a nice dinner of broiled chicken for the Senor and a tuna stuffed tomato for me as once again we watched the beautiful sunset. We retired to our room to read catch up on the news and sort through our pictures. A very pleasant day in Acapulco, a lovely place to visit, but too crowed and busy to ever want to stay here. For some reason the internet went out and ended the news for the Senor and brought our day to a close. signing off KO
We boarded the Estrella Blanca bus about 2:30, noting it was first class, but not luxury class like the Parihuni bus we rode last year. It had a few hanging TV screens and showed a couple of movies during the trip in Spanish as would be expected. We mostly dozed and I read and dozed as we passed through small village after small village, often right on the cost line.
The highway is strictly 2 lanes, not even a shoulder and the bus moves fast even on the curves.
We arrive in Acapulco about 6 pm, catch a cab and head for the beautiful Los Flamingos hotel, former playland of the rich and famous hollywood stars of bygone days. We get settled in our room and head to the dinning terrace for dinner and to catch the sunset. I had baby shark peccadilloes and onion soup, which was excellent, the Senor choose a pork chop that was a little tough. We watched the sun set visited with other dinners from Minnesota and watched as the waiter prepared bananas flambe, one more drink and we retreated to our room for the night.
Banannas Flambe
The room has ventilator windows on both sides and a ceiling fan. No need for air conditioning as we are situated right on the cliff above the ocean and the breeze blows right through the room while you listen to the waves lapping at the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Not a fancy room, but attractive and comfortable. This morning as I sit on the veranda right out side our door this is my view.
Looking out from our verandaVeranda looking to my left
Sundays are usually quiet for us here in Zihuatanejo, but I’ve been harboring a head cold so I decided to go to the Farmacia and get some medicine to knock it down. While I was out I brought the left over meat scraps from Doyle’s steak he brought home from the restaurant and was going to make some street dog very happy. Little did I know that the street dogs take Sunday off. Did not see nary a one! At the pharmacy, with a little Spanish, a lot of pantomime I got my medicine, although I think now she might have spoken some english. Went down to the TATA’s, took my medicine along with a Mango Margarita, still looking for a hungry street dog and none to be seen.
Went back to the apartment and slept all the rest of the day until 5. The new movie across the street from us is The Impossible, about the huge devastating tsunami in Thailand. We can see the bill board from our balcony but I still have to go check and make sure it’s in English. It was so we went. The seats are old and cracked, the popcorn is microwaved. A few years ago you could get guacamole and chips instead of pop corn which was infinitely better, but not any more. The Senor got a hot dog and I opted for an Ice Cream during intermission. surprised to see intermission but it also happens at the theatre in Ixtapa. Movies was good, story was a true story and after the movie we had a night-cap at the new location of the Beachcomber Bar. For the first time in months I slept until almost 8 o’clock. No sunrise for me today. The medicine did it’s trick, I’m not sneezing, blowing or coughing any more. I never felt bad, just not real good. Now I feel great.
Fruit vendor making a sale
Monday morning while our room is being cleaned we head out to Tres Amigos for breakfast where we watch the fruit vendor make his first sale of the day. Then on to feed the chickens and I’m still looking for a hungry street dog to feed the Senors left over steak. We are almost back to our apartment when I see “Scruffy”, our cute little friend from La Madera beach the other day. He was more than happy to be given a breakfast of left over steak.
Scruffy getting breakfast of left over steak
We are headed on an adventure today and need to pack. We are off to Acapulco to see the cliff divers. We made this trip a couple of years ago and now that we are the seasoned travelers that we are we know how to do it better. We purchased !st class bus tickets from Autovisa at the bus station here in Zihuatanejo, I made our reservation for the Flamingo Hotel on-line in Spanish, as our computer is smart enough to know we are in Mexico, but still has us on Pacific North west time. We stayed at Los Flamingos before and just love the place. So more on that Manana. signing off KO
Moon set on 1 26 13I’ve been so busy trying to capture the sunrise here that I’ve missed a site of exceptional beauty. Yesterday I discovered if I looked the other direction there was a bright orange full moon rapidly setting. In less than 2 minutes it was gone and I was so excited my shots are blury but it was breathtaking. I tried again this morning, while beautiful it wasn’t quite the same bright shade of orange.
I enjoy the many differences in the way of life here, that’s why I come to Mexico. If I just wanted warm weather I could go to Palm Desert or Honolulu. I enjoy the culture and life style here and am fascinated by the many things that are so different.
This roof dog is clear out on the tile awning
Roof dogs for one. The first time I saw a roof dog I thought he got accidentally trapped on roof and was going to jump off to get out of his predicument. At home I would have been calling the humane society or the fire department to have the dog rescued. But I learned thats their security system. One that is always on duty.
Street dogs are sad. So many of them have very sweet dispositions and would make great pets, but no one wants them, no one takes care of them, they have scars and sores that speak of their tough life, yet none are agressive, except with each other.
Roof cats seemed to have it pretty good.
I’ve seen this cat slip into buildings through small cracks
They travel the town from building to building, no danger from people, cars or street dogs. They know where the cracks and the holes in the walls and ceilings are and slip into their favorite buildings at will. Although one one them is making themselves an unwelcome mid nite visitor to our planter boxes on our balcony. We can always tell when he has visited us as the dusty paw prints show his route
Black roof cat on the prowl
The only part of the Mexican culture I find fault with is the all night bar in El Centro. Tequila town has been going strong for more years than I’ve been coming here, but it is basically an indoor venue and while some of it spills into the street it’s not keeping us awake at night. On the other hand the one that is across from Zorros and Murmello’s dosen’t start ther LOUD music until 200AM and it is an out door venue. They pump out what they believe is music until 6AM. Then they roll out into the streets, make a lot of noise, drop a lot of trash on the streets and are barely out of town before the churrch bell rings calling the faithful to mass. I just don’t understand why they continue to operate in an area that caters to mature tourists, has many apartments and hotels that cater to an older clientel We’ve learned that no door or window can be left open on Friday or Saturday night, run the air conditioner as it’s hum helps drown out the noise. Ear plugs and “sound canceling ” airplane ear phones all help reduce the sound to a level conducive to sleep, while we entertain diabolical thoughts and ideas on how the establishment could meet it’s demise.
The mercado stall where we buy our Fruit & Veggies
Banditos, a great restaurant where Michelle La Valle performs
Most of our days start with breakfast on the balcony beautifully prepared by the Senor. One of our favorite purchases we have made here was at the Waldo (Mexico’s equivalent to the $ Tree) is a large plastic tray. It cost 10 pesos and is blue with a bright red Santa on it. But it serves a great purpose as it is just the right size to move every thing we need for our meals from the kitchen to the balcony in one trip. Mornings are it’s marvelous as the day starts with no agenda, no calendar to check, no rushing out to do anything. Actually we have’nt rushed or hurried since we arrived here. After breakfast the refrigerator suggests we should go to the “mercado” for fruit , veggies and eggs.
The mercado is an adventure all in it’s self, I never tire of the sights the sounds and the enormous amount of items I have either no idea what they are or what they are used for, especially the seasonings, it’s all just fascinating. we buy our fruits and veggies at our favorite spot, one person weighs then writes the amount on a scrap of paper, you hand that paper to the cashier, she takes your money and the person who weighed it hands you your purchase.
Handsome cheese man’s handsome son
We then put it in our canvas shopping bag on wheels, and move on to my handsome cheese man who today has his son working with him, his son is also very handsome. I buy my cheese by the yard and get a yard of a stringy type cheese and another type that is more grainy and a bit salty. My friends and family know how I love cheese. Next it’s on to the egg man, but he tells me “no tengo”, he is all out, we should have come earlier, but no problema we will stop at the Merza, a small grocery store, on our way back to our apartment and pick up a plastic sack of eggs and a quart of milk. All our purchases are safely tucked in our rolling bag for the walk home, so much easier than carrying a lot of plastic sacks.
By now it’s siesta time, the Senor turns on the news, I have my kindle, I think I’ve read somewhere between 7 and 9 books, just finished Herman Woulk’s The Lawgiver, good, but not as great as some of his others. By late afternoon as the sun is starting to get low in the sky I get restless and go out for a walk, the shops are starting to reopen, restaurants are gearing up for the evening crowd, I usually stop somewhere for a drink or an iced coffee and return to the apartment for the big decision of the day. What shall we do for dinner and the evenings entertainment?
Steve and Allan and friends at Pacalo’s
Not a big decision tonight as we have been looking forward to going to Pacalo’s for the return of the Steve/Allan Show. Both these gentlemen are from our home area and tonight Ralph and Lionel are playing with them, the house is pretty well packed as they play all the music we grew up with. Absolutely great musicians, and a great dinner,
Fish Fillet in Garlic
Steak for the Senor and fish fillet for me as I don’t eat meat, I’m not a vegetarian , I’m a “fishatarian”. We stay for half the show and head home, stopping for a night cap at Zorro’s. It’s a tough life here in Mexico and we are so glad that we get to do it. Signing off KO
As we get more and more experienced here is Zihuatanejo we have learned that a day at the beach is exhausting. Sun and fun and beer and Tequila just wear you out. So I had planned a crock pot dinner of ribs as I was pretty sure the Senor would not want to dine out and I knew I would not want to cook upon our return. So before we left the ribs were slow cooking in the crock pot.
Our friend Juan, proprietor of the Pariso Escondido restaurant on Ixtapa Island, offered to “chauffeur” us to his restaurant in his boat. By us I mean a group of 10 people, now his boat could accommodate us all, but his car couldn’t so 6 of us were to walk to the bus stop and
Ixtapa Island from the boat
4 would ride in Juan’s car to Playa Linda were we would all meet to ride to the island in his boat. The Senor and I have always caught the bus at a certain spot so we led the pack, only to find out there is a closer location that would have cut the walk way down eliminating about 4 blocks. We arrive at the bus stop hot and tired but as luck would have it the bus arrived right away and with the windows down, we cooled down and were ready for an adventure. It’s probably a 30 min ride from Zihuatanejo to Playa Linda the stopping point for getting the water taxi to Ixtapa Island.
Having been there before I was aware of the multitude of colorful fish and brought fish food and an under water camera. Always before we rode the water taxi, but this time we were leaving from the beach and landing directly on the beach at Pariso Escondiso. Well not exactly on the beach, we had to wade out a bit and then climb into Juan’s boat. But soon all were all settled and ready for our adventure but it took some pushing and pulling and rearranging the load and the right wave action to get us off the sand. As a group we are not lightweights!
Wadeing out to the boat to climb inThe Senor and Dwight in the bow of the boat
The Senor and Dwight rode up in the bow and the rest fit in anywhere we could for a total of 12. a quick trip to the island and soon the boat was beached and we only had to wade a little to get to shore. Soon we had acquired beach chairs, and lounges under palapas and umbrella’s. We ordered our drinks, our lunch, swam, snorkeled, laughed, told stories, poked fun at one another and generally had a great day. The senor and I live in the Pacific Northwest where oysters are prevalent and tasty. When we order oysters in the shell they are steamed or grilled open and that’s what we were hopping for, but ours arrived raw. I enjoy one or two that way, but not a whole dozen. We sent them back and asked them to be breaded and fried. They were good, just not great. Our mistake. All in all everyone had a great meal and a great afternoon. Our generous host even treated us to a couple of shots of some very nice tequila.
Oysters on the shell
My snorkeling didn’t offer me the opportunity for any underwater picture-taking as the multitudes of colorful fish live on the other side of the island. I could have easily walked the path to the other side and done some snorkeling, but I was enjoying the company and there will be other opportunities.
Upon returning home our dinner was cooked, we washed the sand out of places I had no idea you could get sand, hung things out to dry, ate and called it a night, We had wanted to go to the flop house to see Allan Alto in the early evening and then Pacalo’s to welcome back the “Steve/Allen Show”, but that will have to wait until another night. At our age we need to pace ourselves and we still time have lots of time. Signing off KO
I started the day off with great ambition. As I’ve said before I’m an early riser so at 5:30 I’m up on the roof top with my coffee to photo the sunrise. Then I decided I would go to La Madera beach and swim at first light.
Sunrise on the way to La Madera Beach
Friends told me the other day how calm it was and how the porpoises were playing in the bay. That was not the situation today however. I looked at the waves and decided since I forgot my goggles I would pass. While there I watched a woman push an object back into the surf several times. thought it was a dead fish. But no, it was not dead, but definitely a little under stress. I must have watched for 30 min as this fish was pushed back out in to the surf and I could see what looked like 2 fins twitching just above the water as he tried to make it out past the breakers only to be brought back to the sand. The beach cleaners came and tried with their rakes to give him a good push out to sea, but back he would come. After some time and a few good waves he was no longer visible and I hope he made it back out to sea. I know how he feels as sometimes the breakers just work against you. I may try again tomorrow.
More surf than I wanted to swim into
The Senor slept late, I got bored so I took myself out to breakfast to the Zihua Pancake house. One of our favorite places. They have eggs Benedict and will do them my way. Just eggs and the sauce, nothing else. Ran in to Jack and Barb there only to find they have been under the weather and that’s why we haven’t seen much of them. Suddenly my phone rings and I know it is the Senor, he has woken and is doing his own breakfast. That’s only the second time were have used our phones, but someone else is using them big time as the Senor has 24 messages. Our plan is to go to Telcel in Ixtapa where they will fix this problem for us, then on to the Comercial for Groceries and back home.
In Ixtapa at Telcel we wait 20 minutes while all 9 windows are busy and of course we get the window where the nice lady speaks almost no English. So I explain our problema and she says she fixes it “cancelar all calls” but 5 min after leaving the phone is beeping with text messages. Of course we don’t answer, but the constant beeping is irritating.
Next stop Comercial Mexicana where we pick just enough to last us a day or two. What we can contain in our “old lady shopping cart”. We find this much better as then we aren’t lugging bag after bag a block from where the taxi can let us off. The Senor has become very big on taxi’s this year, just as long as I verify what the fare will be in advance.
Lazy afternoon of napping and watching the news on our sling media set up. Salad and a baked potato for the Senor for dinner on our balcony while watching probably the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen. The colors were so vivid, but my camera didn’t catch the full effect. The view towards the sunset from our balcony is across some roof tops that are just plain ugly, but once you get past the roof tops it is so exquisite you forget the forefront.
Sunset from our balcony at dinner
As I sit on the balcony tonight sipping my vino, I hear the bongos and assume it it the couple that play and dance and throw fire torches while they dance. But by the time I get my self down the stairs to the street Javier tells me I’m too late, but offers me a chair and of course then a shot of Tequila. While I sip my tequila I meet an Italian lady, a BC lady and a Mexican deaf lady. What a variety of languages we have going on. I tell the Italian lady in my spanish that my daughter lived in Gaeta Italy and one of my grand daughters was born in Napoli. What a small, wonderful world we live in. Signing off KO
The Senor does not handle adversity well. This was not his best day. He is always the breakfast cook, in the 15 years we have been married I have never fixed breakfast for him. In the middle of frying the eggs it became apparent that we were about to run out of gas. Before the gas was gone the eggs were done and then the microwave quit during the nuking of the bacon. Anyone who has ever camped with us understands the seriousness of this situation. The Senor is completely frustrated with the “cocina” gods! To sooth his ruffled nerves I promised to report our deficiencies to the management as soon as I was showered and dressed. There was still enough hot water for my shower, but by the time the Senor entered the shower it was luke warm at best. Actually he handled it all much better than one would have thought.
So after reporting our problems to the management, we were headed to La Madera to meet up with our balcony neighbors and friends that are staying at La Madera. On the way this cute, small, scruffy, wire-haired street dog joined us and with no encouragement followed us to the beach where we soon lost track of him.
Our Madera friends were no where in site so we decided to lunch at a pavilion restaurant there, not quite sure of the name, but it was quite elegant for a beach restaurant. And their prices were equalLy elegant. The Senor is never impressed with elegance, but took it in his stride and we had a nice lunch.
They first brought out this leg of an animal with the hoof still attached and offered to slice us some Serrano ham off it, we gracefully declined. The gentlemen had hamburgers and the ladies had soup. Small bowl, large price. tasty, but small.
Friends on the beach
Our friends arrived and we joined them on the sand under a palapa and a beach umbrella and had a lovely visit, and watched our scruffy dog friend play with a young boy in the 3-5 age bracket. It was really very sweet. They chased each other, boy would throw a plastic bottle, dog would retrieve, they would run in the surf and play with a surf board which dog retrieved from the water, plopped it on the sand and then had trouble picking it up again. He could flip it up, but not get a good enough grip on it to drag it around. so he tried to bite the end of it off and thats when boy’s papa came and got the surf board. Boy and dog resumed the games of chase and splash when large man came and scooped the dog up and waded out into the surf and proceeded to dunk the dog in the surf or throw him into the waves only to retrieve him again and do it again. The senor was just about to go talk to large man when boy’s papa came out and talked to him. Dog was released but not going near large man or water. Dog then found a bird flying just above him and the chase was on, dog being young was very fast and bird was high enough that he was in no danger, but we worried about large man. So the Senor decided it was time for us to return to our apartment and we would get the dog to follow us and out of the reach of large man. But scruffy dog prefered playing with boy and birds and he chose not to follow us even though the offer was made. I really would have liked to held large mans head under the surf and see how much he liked it!
scruffy street dogWhen asked what this fruit was our waiter said “Gringo Balls”
Upon return to apartment, we have gas for cooking and hot water, and a replacement microwave is on our door step. All is right with the world. And just when I thought I had pictures mastered, the captions get screwed up. Never a boring day in sunny Zihuatanejo Signing off KO
Zihuatanejo 