travel tips – Zihuathyme

Mosquitoes! Bah Hummmmbugs

I have developed a deep loathing for the nasty little critters along with developing a

near”allergic” reaction to their bites. These Mexican mosquitoes are tiny, I never see them. Also they are very silent I never hear them humming around me, yet every day I’m plagued with a new bite that swells up way beyond what I would consider normal. I have taken to spraying my self head to toe with off before going out, especially at night and I still come up with one or two new bites. My new perfume, “Channel number Off” And some times a whole group of bites. Now the Senor never gets touched by them, even when we are together. I don’t know if his hide is too tough or grouchy, old man blood has no appeal. My mother used to take garlic pills and said that worked for her, I may try it next.

I’m for ever amazed at how reasonably one can live in Mexico and fully understand why

so many gringos live full or part-time here. It’s not just the weather. It’s the cost of living. Our monthly rent is comparable to our monthly house taxes, we each pay about $12.50 a month for our cell phone service, internet is approximately $25, manicures 10.50 and similar for pedicures, The Senor got his hair cut including having it washed for $7. We have our apartment cleaned weekly for less than half of what we pay at home for a bi-week cleaning. Our electric bill was $40 for two months. I’m sure it would be quite a bit higher during the summer months as it gets hotter and more humidity and we would need to run our air conditioner. But we are seasonal and not here during the summer. Taxi’s in town are $1.60 buses from local at 40 cents to $1.40 if you go 20-30 miles. The swimming pool cost 75 cents. Groceries are not super cheap but are reasonable especially if you use local brands instead of gringo brands. Beer is $2-$2.50 wine $3-$4 a glass,

The Mexican people are lovely, warm friendly people. I had the sweetest thing happen to

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Janet dancing with the handsome cheese man

me a week a go, I was trying to hail a cab on a very busy street and most of them were going on the opposite side of the street I was standing on. A little girl about 8-9 ish came and offered me her hand. She thought I wanted to cross the street, in my very best Spanish I told her no, I was waiting for a taxi. With that she put two fingers to her mouth let out a high, shrill, loud whistle pointed to a cab he made a u-turn and I had my cab. I thanked her and put a 5 peso coin in her hand. Signing off KO

Awesome New Year Celebrations

New years 2018 has to be some of the biggest crowd Zihuatanejo has ever seen. And from my point of view the best behaved New Years crowd hands down, I’ve been to private parties with more over drinking, pushing, shoving and squabbling than I witnessed last night.

The night was warm with a bright full moon already decorating the sky as folks strolled through the streets, some on their way to dinner at restaurants, many just out strolling and socializing others, selecting street food and a blanket on the beach. There were young people, old people, children and babies. Teenagers in groups, tourists both, gringo and Mexican nationals, lots of Mexican Nationals. Part-timers like us socializing and resuming friendships from past. Everyone enjoying the balmy night and anxiously waiting the start of the fire works. The sidewalks and streets of El Centro were jammed with people and the restaurants kept expanding as one more white table was mysterious pulled from some back hideaway along with a set of chairs to accommodate another family wanting to dine there.

Music was everywhere, large speakers at the Zocolo made sure everyone could hear music whether they wanted to or not. Every bar had it’s own music, bands, recorded music and then of course the strolling street musicians.

At Daniels, where we were it was the great Jimmi Mamou.

About 11:30 folks began setting off their own personal fire works, mostly firecrackers and anything that makes horrible noise. At the stroke of 1200 midnight the firework displays began from Playa La Ropa, Playa La Madera and Playa Principal simultaneously. The sky became one color burst after another, going on and on and on. Fantastic! When it was over the crowd moved off the beach, some going to dance at the Zocolo other headed back to their lodgings, us back to our apartment.

There was no officials to direct traffic, no “in and out” lanes, no one checking for bottles or weapons, no children or small dogs were trampled. Everyone just seemed to move on to where they were going in a surprisingly orderly fashion, especially considering we were elbow to elbow with folks going in many different directions and a large

Folks on the beach waiting for fireworks

portion of them celebrating with some form of alcohol. Zihuatanejo was on her very best behavior! Happy New Year to all. Signing off KO

5 days and a wakeup to Zihuatanejo

Bear Lake is literally our front yard. Due to the excessive rain we have had here in Port Orchard, WA it is higher than normal and almost over our dock. On New Years the whole lake was frozen, but now there is just a few sheets of ice, which I refer to as “icebergs” floating on the deeper parts of the lake. It snowed today, not heavy but enough to cover the ground and keeping the temperature at 32 degrees. This really makes me ready to go “snowbirding”. The suitcases are mostly packed, my inventory lists are checked off, the only things left to pack are the things we will use Saturday morning before heading to Seattle to the airport. My son Brian will have the honors of transporting us, the time is loosely arranged as after the SeaHawk game.

We like to consider ourselves “season travelers” and have learned a few things that work for us. We go to a hotel near the airport the night before leaving so as we don’t have to sweat traffic, weather or other things that could cause us to miss our flight. We will arrive at the hotel in our oldest sweat suits and underwear as they are disposable, literally. We throw them away in the morning and put on our Mexico clothes, we shiver all the way to the airport but are kept warm by reminding ourselves that we will be in 80 plus degree weather before the end of the day. We order chinese delivery in our room that evening and go to bed early to get up early. We are budget travelers and sometimes that translates cheap, but it works for us. I always pack my own meals for the flight as I eat a little different than most and I am unable to eat the type of meals the airline serves. The “Senor” prefers what we pack to the airline choices so no money is spent on poor quality food on the plane. It greatly upsets the Senor but I frequently pack my own brandy for my coffee. Good grief we are half way to LA before beverage service starts and I prefer to fly relaxed.

I performed my first wedding ceremony of this year tonight and I have one more day to work on our delivery route and will be done with work for over a month. I’ll have the last few days to make sure everything at home is ready for our house sitter. Morgan, my granddaughter takes care of everything here for us, but there are things we need to do for her so she can take care of stuff. Also I need to practice on this blog. Making sure I can up load photos, learning how to add tags