sunrise in Zihuatanejo

Things I will miss and things I won’t

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View of sail boats from the beach

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

LA PLAYA, SUNRISE AND MORE

Tuesday we had a great day at the Playa Las Gatas Beach with friends Will and Sylvia. I’m not sure life gets anymore comfortable than a lazy beach day. People watching, seeing the kids play in the water and in the sand, watching a toddlers first water experience, seeing the passing boats and the birds in the sky all with a drink in

your hand, toes in the sand and good food on the way. It seems like life just couldn’t be better. The Senor has his favorite waiter Jose, who says he speaks very good restaurant English, but he would like to speak much more. The Senor like to talk so they talk together while I swim and snorkel. This day

I swam clear around the reef. I probably should check the tides next time as in places it was so shallow you could hardly swim and I don’t like to get to far away from the reef because of boat traffic.

Wednesday we expected it to be the day that Lety, comes to clean our apartment so we decided to take the bus to Ixtapa and just walk and prowl around. We looked in the stores, ate ice cream and then I saw my hat. This is the hat I’ve been looking for 2 years. I had seen another woman wearing it, I asked her where she got hers, she couldn’t remember I even suggested she put it up for auction at sailfest so I could bid on it. I have been coveting this hat, fearing I would have to mug this woman to get this hat and here it was in Ixtapa just waiting for me. Now she is safe and I have my hat, it’s a beautiful raffia course woven hat, light brown in color and it’s mine at last. While I was making my purchase, The Senor ran into our friend Charlie and visited with him while waiting for me. We had a nice lunch at Frank’s where we ran into other friends that live seasonally in Ixtapa. We have come to really feel like this a home away from home.

Wednesday evening we were invited to Vickie’s birthday party at the Flophouse. Where we met more new friends and learned more about people’s experiences who have seasonally lived here for over 20 years. The cupcakes were beautiful, the company wonderful and were so pleased to be able to help Vickie celebrate her special day.

I’ve been trying for days to get out to the beach to catch the sun rise and I’m usually just to late to catch the real color. well yesterday I did, but clouds were at a minimal and I should have gone out this morning when thee were lots of clouds to catch and reflect the color. Anyway yesterday was good if not great and I love to watch the day begin. Signing off KO

LAZY DAYS, BUSY NIGHTS

Sunrise Zihuatanejo Bay this morning, a reflection in the clouds as it is looking west

The warm or I should say hot weather here keeps me lazier in the day time than usual. But I cope just fine. To begin with I am a morning person and up usually up by 6:30 no matter where I am. I like sunrise, it always holds such promise. On the other hand the Senor is not a morning person and rarely is awake before 8 and likes an hour or two before moving far off the bed. And this works as I run my errands, and do our Mercado shopping early and allows my time to walk about and explore town. This morning a group of school kids were practicing drill team maneuvers at the zocolo. They were quite good.

we’ve had a bit of an hot water issue here this year. I complained to Javier the first day here and he immediately got on the phone and I thought the problem would soon be solved, I asked our balcony neighbor if he had hot water. His reply is you let it run a long time and it gets warm. That may work for him he is a guitarist working in several of the bars and late in the day the sun has warmed the storage take to luke warm, George across the hall said he liked cold showers and the girl down stairs said its so warm here it doesn’t matter. I knew enough from previous years to make sure the pilot light was lit and tried adjusting the temperature controls with no luck. Well we cook in quite bit and many times I’ve had to boil water for dishes. Since I shower early and the water was cold, I brought down a cup of the supposed hot water to Javier and stated my complaint one more time. On the phone again and in no time we had HOT water . Mission accomplished!

On my walk a noticed a cute black and white cat sitting at the street corner, while I was fumbling for my camera a street dog rounded the corner that was twice the cats size and she had no where to run. The dog looked at her, she arched her back and hissed and the dog got a look of terror in his eyes and made a very wide arc around her. She calmly resumed her position. Cats Rule!

Went to the movies last night, Ultimo Viejo Las Vegas. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. Very funny, with all the great actors. Then on to the Barracuda to listen to Steve and Allen play classic rock and roll. Another great evening. Signing Off KO

LAZY, HAZY, CRAZY DAYS OF SUMMER, IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER

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.

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.

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.

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

From My Balcony

It’s Sunday morning and from my balcony I can hear the singing in the church which is only a block away, come Monday morning from my same location I’ll hear the Mexican Navy doing there calisthenics from their base 2 blocks away. On any Friday or Saturday night ( and sometimes well into the morning) I can hear the music and singing from several of the bars and cantinas.

I can observe the fishing boat lights in the early morning as they come in and also the occasional cruise ship. I can view the street life as each day begins. I recognize the sound of the knife sharpener’s whistle, the bicycle horn toot of the ice cream vendors, the call of “coco” from the men selling coconuts and other calls as women carrying a variety of items in baskets on their heads whined their way through the streets.

I see a variety of mexican street dogs, mostly the medium-sized, yellow tail turned up variety, that some people refer to as “everywhere dogs”. Most of the dogs are skinny, flea-bitten, scared and a bit mangy looking, but sweet-tempered.

Hummingbird at next door neighbor's feeder

I watch small herds of hummingbirds as the feed on my balcony neighbors feeder and the one hung on the balcony across the street. I wave good morning to my neighbors on their balconies across the street and enjoy a cup of coffee with our friends and neighbors on their balcony next door. I watch pigeons feeding their family under an old air conditioner on the movie down the street. I watch with anticipation as they change the movie markee to see if there is a new movies I want to see.

I watch folks hanging their wash on the roof top clothes lines. I watch as a grey cat trots along the terracotta roof tiles. and if I lived here I would grow plants and garden on my balcony.

I bring my net book to the balcony and I read my kindle on my balcony. I eat breakfast and dinner here on my balcony, but not lunch as it is too hot at that time.

From my 3rd floor perch I watch sunrises and sunsets, I start every day here and end every day here. It’s been a wonderful place to observe mexican life and learn about there culture. I will miss this very much.

Sunrise from my balcony

Signing off KO