This is a beautiful time of year in Zihuatanejo. We all look forward to this fantastic display of poinsettias in all sizes and colors. The red will always be my favorite.
I took the 1/2 mile or so walk along the paved bicycle path with my cart to get to Kyoto Circle to select my poinsettias. That way I don’t have to carry them home. This little cart doubles as a laundry cart, a shopping cart and has even helped people move from one apartment to another. It’s the 3 wheeled type that makes climbing stairs easier.
The poinsettia vendors are enjoying what I call a “pallet park” with swings, tables and chairs all made from pallets located beside where they have set up
My balcony is now decorated for Christmas. I may add a string of lights across the front. The old ones I had wouldn’t light up this year. Tomorrow I will have to purchase new. I tried to bring some solar fairy lights from home for my large fern type plant at the end of the balcony, but with the street light at the opposite end of the balcony they won’t come on. It just won’t get dark enough. Surprisingly I haven’t seen any solar Christmas lights here at all.
Just a reminder to tap the small pictures to see them full size. Signing off KO
I never tire of sounds of Zihuatanejo. It’s music to my ears. There are the sounds one would expect in a beach side community, like the crashing waves which on a very still night I can hear from my back porch although I am a good block away. There is the sound of music coming from the neighbors back yard or the restaurant across the street, but my favorite sounds are the songs of the street vendors. Each of these have there own song. The loudest is the propane truck that announces his presence in your neighborhood with a horn that plays “the charge sound followed by “gaaaaz”.
Bolillo Man hawking his wares
First thing in morning one hears the call of the bolillo man calling “boy-lee-yos” with a basket on his head filled with just baked, warm, crusty buns from the oven of the bakery 1/2 block away. I put a few pesos in my bag, lower it down on a string from the back porch. He takes the pesos and puts a fresh bollio in my bag and I pull it up. This is so much more efficient than looking for my shoes, purse and mask and keys to go down stairs out on to the street and hope he hasn’t moved on. It save both he and I time and is more, fun and more Mexican.
The knife sharpener is another of my favorite mini merchants. He pushes his sharpening wheel through town to the tune of a high pitched penny whistle. Fruit carts of every size and shape are pushed others are powered by bicycle. The coconut man cry’s out “cocooo, cocooo” and then with his machete he will wack out that coco nut, put a straw in it and you have a delicious drink. The candy man is strangely quiet as he moves from one location to another pushing an enormous wooden wheelbarrow filled with the most beautiful array of candy. Ice cream carts have the sound of a tricycle bell, or a clown horn depending on what type of ice cream. I still prefer the home made ice cream that you get from the big metal tubs. They usually sell 3 types from their divided tub, vanilla, lemon, and coconut, all really yummy.
Come evening you hear the hamburger carts getting pushed across rough streets to their corner locations where folks say you can get the best ever hamburgers. And listen for the steam whistle of the “comote” man selling his hot roasted sweet potatos with a sweetened canned milk drizzled over them, one of my favorite dinners. So much of life here is just as it has always been from the earliest times, the fishermen selling their catch on the beach and carts being pushed through the streets.
And yes there are still tiny children selling trinkets to the tourists at the bars and restaurants while mama watches from a distance, frequently with this years baby wrapped up in her shawl.
Still having trouble getting pictures placed where I want them, and some just won’t up load. This iPad is quite the learning process. Signing off KO
My balcony is like an extra room to our apartment, while quite small about 10×4 ft it is all we need. We have a nice table and 2 chairs to which we have added cushions and a birds eye view of much activity. It is on the shady side of the building so we eat breakfast out here and if we are eating in we also dine out here.
Breakfast with lots of fruit
Balcony view towards Bay
We have small view of the bay, but if the palm tree keep growing we we see it only through the fronds in a couple of years. Mornings are so soft here it’s almost impossible not to be out side. Just the gentles of breezes blows while I watch the morning activity.
Every morning a small army of street sweepers descends upon the streets to remove all signs of the prior evenings revelry, soon the street vendors begin their calls, bakery items, coconuts, fruit juices and fruits, in the afternoon the clown horn sound of the ice cream vendors and yesterday I saw the candy man for the first time. Just wait and the store will come to you. The sound of roll up garage doors signals the shops are opening, and soon each shop owner has their dish of water to scatter across their portion of the sidewalk to sweep clean each day, some throw scraps out in the street for the pigeons to peck at. Morning has arrived on Cuauhtemoc St in sunny Zihuatanjo Mexico
Today the sky is so blue and not a cloud in sight, just the frigate birds circling over the bay. The roof dog of last year is no longer with us and we don’t miss him. He set up a ruckus everytime a street dog passed this way. But we have a flurry of roof cats this year. I was entertained by two white-ish male cats after a small grey female cat who
Cat out catting around
was determined to resist their attentions. So far she is winning. Last year the midnight cats would use the new planter boxes on the balcony and leave dirt scattered everywhere for us to clean up. So far no problem. I’ve thought about leaving some left overs from dinner they might enjoy, but I guess I better not encourage them.
For us life slows down here, we notice more, laugh more, spend more personal time together and fine each day a new adventure. For all of this I am so thankful for.
Today my mission is to buy a USB cord to connect the laptop computer to the flat screenTV. The Senor get his TV over the computer and we would like to transfer it to the flat screen. I know it can be done, but with both of us being very non tech and with my very limited Spanish it should be an adventure in itself. Signing off KO
Zihuathyme 