Tag: Alberca de Olympica

SOME OF THE MANY PLEASURES OF “LIVING THE GOOD LIFE” IN MEXICO

One of my many pleasures I enjoy in Zihuatanejo, Mexico is the freedom to read. With so little responsibilities here I have no problem waking up in the morning rolling over and grabbing my book and laying there reading for a couple of hours before I get up. But then I am prone to waking up around 5 AM. At home I can’t do that, I have to get up as soon as I wake up. It seems like there is always something to do, places I must go, work to be done, schedules to be kept. At home in Washington I feel like I’m lazy if I just sit around reading. Like wise with the TV. It can’t be turned it on until the evening. Here I no longer feel compelled to be “doing something”. Here the living is easy!

Eating out and socializing friends has become one of my greatest pleasures. There are so many interesting people here from all walks of life and from all over the world who have done so many interesting things and traveled to interesting places. I’m finding I can do more of this since I now check out my books from my home library to down load to my kindle. I to purchase them of from Amazon. Sorry Amazon, but this has saved me a bundle as I read 5 or 6 books a month. And I love the dictionary feature that the kindle offers. I miss that when I do read a “book book”.

Swimming is one of my pleasures. I lap swim at the community pool where there is rarely more that a couple of other swimmers. It’s an Olympic size pool and because it is covered, it is cold in the morning at 9ish when I like to swim. I’m only doing about 10 laps which is about a third of what I used to swim and the pool is laned crosswise. Covid stopped me from being able to swim on a regular basis and now that I’m not training for anything I just swim for the pleasure of it. I also swim in the bay where the water is warm and salty. You just float like a cork.

Signing off KO

Every day I learn something new

img_1151Yesterday I finally made it to the swimming pool, now I am talking about the Zihuatanejo’s Olympic size Alberca de Olympica at the sports complex.  I have been swimming there for years, quite frequently I would be one of two or three people in the pool at 8 AM,  nice for lap swimming.  A few years ago they covered the pool with a Quonset hut type roof and it kept the pool cool as the sun didn’t beat on it, but it was ice cold in the morning.  The locker room was a disaster,  gang showers that didn’t work, toilets that flushed with a bucket, doors missing and no running water.  Few gringos would venture forth, but I am dedicated lap swimmer and you would find me there most mornings at 8.  I knew they had remodeled and I hoped it would be nice and and is it ever nice.  Stall showers with actual running water, new flush toilets, sink with running water.  It is  beautiful, they did an amazing job

My next surprise was when I went to get in the pool, it wasn’t ice cold. Very pleasant to  jump right in, none of that shock of taking your breath away as you hit the water.  Now that may be just because the temperature has been so hot, or possible a heating system, time will tell.

So today my second pool day I carefully read the new signs posted where you pay at the entrance and between the sign and my conversation with the attendant in my fractured Spanish I learned I can buy a month log pass for $150 pesos.  I can swim as much as I want for 30 calendar days for that price, twice a day if I like, ( but that’s not going to happen) or I can pay 15 pesos every time I go  Even if I only swim 3 times a week I’m ahead!  I like this new system.  But the down fall is so does everyone else in town!  The pool is busy with both lap swimmers and classes.  But that’s OK, I’m up before the crack of dawn and I will just start swimming a little earlier in the morning and maybe avoid the class of 10 or so young boys racing across the pool. If you haven’t ever tried the pool or if you have and were turned off by the experience give it a chance. You should like it.

From the pool I walked over to the Megga. There is a real bad intersection to cross near the new Waldos where another lady and I stood there for an eternity kind of shaking our heads wondering if we would ever cross.  She saw a break in the traffic, grabbed my hand and we ran across the street together, safety in numbers. People here are so helpful, how can one not love Mexico.

At the Megga I discovered how to sign up for a “frequent flyer card” so maybe by the end of the season I will have enough points to save a few bucks on something special. And I bought packages of grated cheddar cheese, nothing in a block, but cheddar none the less.  Signing off KO