Friends invited us to go with them for a day trip to Troncones. Much to my surprise the Senor said yes, he would like to go. Even though his sciatica is really bothering him he was tired of doing nothing. So 3 couples set off for Mi Casa Es Su Casa, a new destination for us in Troncones.
The trip in itself is always an adventure as you travel through many dusty little villages with folks getting on and off along the way carrying a variety of packages, including one very well behaved chicken that sat on his masters lap and was very content to just be petted. Luckily we caught the big bus on the trip out and it wasn’t even crowed, but not so lucky on the return trip, where our 14 passenger bus soon held 20 some people and a large basket of bread, the kind they wear on there heads while hawking it.
Mi Casa Es Su Casa is a lovely place right in the village with a white sand beach with
White sand beach and rolling surf
rolling surf, a nice pool and covered patio dinning area. I think paddling around in the pool helped the Senor feel better, at least relieved some of the stress. .water in the pool was delightfully warm and we all began to look “prune-ified” before getting out. We enjoyed a pleasant, leisurely lunch while watching the waves.
At the Sailfest auction Paul and Faye had purchased a 2 night stay at this establishment and wanted to make reservations for it plus one
Paul and Faye
night. We enjoyed our day so much that the Senor decided we could come out again when they did and we reserved for 2 nights in March. All in all it was a lovely day with good friends, and looking forward to more good times.
Today was my first open water ocean distance swim. How did this almost 69 an eleven twelfths year old lady from Port Orchard WA end up in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico swimming? Well it’s been an adventure begining April of 13 when I first heard about Sharkfest in an entry on ZihuaRob’s message board. Always willing to try new adventures, I said to my self “I can do that”. Then I said to my husband, the Senor “When we are in Zihuatanejo next winter I’m going to take part in the Sharkfest swim at Troncones. The Senor’s prompt reply was “your nuts! You’ve never swam in open ocean waters.” True, but that got me going and the next morning I was at the South Kitsap High School swim pool at 6:00 am ready to start training. And train I did. After a couple of weeks I put together a string of 16 beads on a leather thong to count laps with and I was doing pretty good I could do what I thought was a mile in about 40 min. But the life guard set me straight you swim up and back to complete a full lap in the 25 yards. Gee I had a long way to go if I was going to get my time down to 1 mile in under an hour. So I swam 5 days a week lost a couple of pounds and figured if I watched a little better what I ate and dropped 20 lbs it would help with the speed. In a month or so I needed a new suit, in another month another new suit, my swim mates kept commenting on the shrinking me and I got faster. So 40 lbs later, with much encouragement from my swim mates and life guard I’m in a speedo swim suit displaying my wrinkled legs and arms and not caring because I AM A SWIMMER, maybe an old one, but one with great adventures in her heart.
As the Senor and I headed to Zihuatanejo for our 2 month vacation there was the conundrum of Seahawks Playoffs vs Sharkfest, both were going to happen on the same day. I would not have been happy if the Senor was to miss my big moment, and he would have if the times had conflicted. But there is a god in heaven and the Seahawks were to have their game in the late afternoon and my swim was going to be in the early morning.
So Saturday January 11,2014 arrives and I put on my suit, pack my fins, goggles and under water I pod and the Senor and I head out to catch a cab to Troncones which is around 20 or so miles away. Now at 7:00 am there aren’t many cabs around but we found a willing one and headed to Hacienda Eden in Troncones . I’m already registered so we don’t really need to be there that early, but the the Senor has a thing about time. Along the way a pick up truck with 4 guys standing up in the pack passes us and then slows down and pulls partway on the shoulder motioning us to pull up. Now we both are doing about 60 and we are wondering what the heck is going on. The two drivers exchange comments and the just is the pick up driver owns the cab and wants to know what the driver is doing so far out of town. He explains and all is good and we move on, but single file now.
Kathleen #1 at Sharkfest
It’s a beautiful day and a beautiful place at Hacienda Eden, the participants start trickling in along with folks who are doing support service on kayaks and paddle boards. Everyone is registered we each have a number written on our hands so that everyone is accounted for at race end. Mine is 1 as I was the first to register. The participants walk the 1/2 mile or so to Majhaua Palms where we will enter the water and swim out past the point back to Hacienda Eden. As we prepare to enter the water 2 pigs and one baby pig arrive to cheer us on. After a group picture everyone enters the water, putting on goggles, fins or what ever they prefer and the swim is on. Do remember this is not a race it is strictly a group event, everyone swims at their own pace. Now I knew I wouldn’t be the first one to finish, but I really didn’t want to be the last one to finish. The Senors parting words to me were “now if you get tired let them help you in the boat”. And I thought to myself it would be my lifeless body they would have to drag in that boat, I’m swimming the whole way, I’ve worked too hard to give in at any point now.
The only difficulty I encountered was keeping oriented, as I kept swimming out to sea and had to keep correcting my direction. For some reason, my left arm works harder than the right. The paddle boarders were a god send for folks like me who seem to be directionaly challenged as you could see them standing tall on the boards and I could keep altering my course towards them, but I know I swam a lot further than others as my arc was much wider.
Kathleen trying to get the fins off in the surfKathleen finishing in about 50 min
None the less I finished swimming strong and not the last one in and feeling quite pleased with myself. I missed being in the group finish picture as I was stuck in “el bano” but they said they might be able to photo shop me in. I know I will hear flack from that one.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast at Hacienda Enden, called a cab and back to Zihuatanejo as the Senor was worn out and need to rest before his game started. We took a short nap and now I’m going to go out and find some ice cream.
So before I turn 70 I have accomplished a 1.1 mile ocean swim. What is next? I don’t know but I know I will continue to swim regularly as I feel better physically than I have in many years, I wore the same dress this New Years eve that I wore the night I met the Senor 20 years ago.
Kathleen at New Years 2014
Please don’t say he should buy me a new dress, I love that dress and look fantastic in it. I’m just waiting for the next adventure so keep me in mind.
Yesterday we embarked on a great adventure. We wanted to go to the shell beach that Wil had shown us on our tour with him. When we were there before Wil was driving, but this time we were going on our by bus. I knew where the “bus depot” is having been there once before, well at least I thought I did after 3 wrong turns I found it. Good thing I had scoped it out the day before and really did know how to find it. Now when I say “bus station” you enter throw a very narrow hole in the wall walkway and find yourself in a courtyard with lots of parked buses. A young man asks us Donde? and we tell him Troncones he points to a bus and starts it up, we get on 5 minutes later with 2 other passengers we are on our way.
It’s slow going, no chickens or pigs, but 2-3 blocks down the road the ice cream man loads his 5 gallon stainless steel tub and the wheelbarrow carts he transports it in on to the rear of the bus, folks get on others get off and finally we are out in the country side hoping we will recognize our stop. Almost an hour later we do recognize our stop, a sign post helps, and we get off at the cross roads to Troncones. There there is a palapa where we wait for the next bus that takes us in to our destination. This bus is a small van with benches dow the sides and across the back and the back of the driver’s seat. It’s a dusty ride as the pavement has ended.
We keep looking for where we want to get off, and don’t see it, we think we’ve gone too far so the Senor suggests we get off and have lunch at the same place we did last time we were out in Troncones. As soon as we sat down to eat, the Senor recognized the area and we knew we just hadn’t gone far enough, so after a great bowl of Poblano Soup we walked about a mile down the road and found the wonderful shell beach. and each of us had a bag and sifting tools and loaded up on great shells for my bird houses. Most of the shells are quarter size or smaller and we picked up about 5 lbs. We started walking back , knowing the little bus would soon be by and we could just hail him down. He came, we reversed the whole procedure and surprisingly enough we ended up exactly where we started. We now feel like we could go anywhere we wanted to on the bus.
After a brief siesta I plan to go to the opening festivities of “Sailfest” this is a live auction and usually lots of fun. The Senor has begged off saying he’s tired from his day
Some of the sail boats in the bay
in the sun, which is probably true. But also he has a terrible time at auctions, he is “IN TO WIN” and I think he decided the best way not to spend too much money is simply not to go. I, on the other hand, can be cheap and frugal, unless it is something I really, really want. And fortunately I came home empty-handed except for 2 raffle items I won. A 200 peso off gift certificate for dinner on La Ropa Beach and tickets to the Animal Refuge Park.
The Senor is going fishing again today, so I’m going to go swimming at La Madera beach. It’s just a short walk from town and I feed my flock of chickens on the way. Madera beach is very shallow for a long way, just rolling waves none that pull the sand from under your feet. Couldn’t take a picture of it as the Senor has the camera to take pictures of his catch, but alas there were no fish to be caught today. Another siesta and we are headed out to attend the Sailfest Concert.
Interesting tree we saw on our walk, suspect it is a vine growing on tree
The concert is featuring 5 different groups that perform in the area. It should be great fun, and the location sounds interesting, an old colonial building with a court-yard garden. Signing off KO
Zihuathyme 