Settling in at Zihuatanejo

We are settling in here at Zihuatanejo. Jesus, our dingy valet, welcomes us when we motor into town in the dingy. Besides the port captain's office we have found most of the essentials. These include the laundry, the local farmer's market, the larger commercial grocery store and one of the cruiser hangouts, Zorro's. We joined other gringos, cruisers and others at Zorro's to watch the two Seahawks playoff games. Of course we wish they had beaten the Atlanta Falcons but it was fun to watch anyway.

 

Zihuatanejo is not a large town and it is very dependent on tourism. We walk around town and waiters almost drag us in to have someone sitting at one of the many empty tables. On the weekends there is more activity. We are anchored off Playa la Ropa, a long white sand beach on the south side of the bay. When there are tourists around, the beach is busy. Pangas shuttle folks to and from the center of town out to the beaches or out fishing. Jet skis race around while fast boats pull tourists in parachutes (please don't hit my mast) or on large inflatable banana looking things that bounce over the wake of other boats, occasionally dumping the riders in the water. In the evenings it is quiet again in the anchorage.

 

Last week we motored over to the marina at Ixtapa for three nights. It gave us a chance to charge up the batteries and do some provisioning. The marina is up a river and the bugs were biting. Many signs warn you not to swim in the water or to throw food or garbage as many wild crocodiles live in the area. There are many building around the marina so there is little breeze. We were glad to get back to the anchorages of Zihuatanejo.

Wednesday we took our laundry in and after a walk along the beach in front of the central part of town we walked on the road, up and over the hill to Playa la Ropa and found a palapa close by to stop, have something cold to drink and some guacamole. Most of the clientele were gringos. After a rest we walked along the beach checking out the other places. As we walked along the water we saw a sea snake working its way back into deeper water. Hmmmm.

We grabbed a taxi back to pick up our laundry. The ride was shorter than expected as the taxi had engine troubles but at least we were over the hill. We stopped at Tata's on the beach, then Zorro's after a little window shopping as our laundry was not done until 6:00 pm. Jesus helped us get our dingy 'back on the road' and we zipped our way across to Windarra.

More sightseeing another day.