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| Bahia de Zihuatanejo |
After a bit of a slog in deep swells with little wind, or
too much wind, we finally pulled into Zihuatanejo. Ixtapa is the harbor just to
the north and has a marina and other facilities, but it does not have the charm
of Zihuat. We anchored out in the bay among four other sailboats in the late
afternoon. Unbeknownst to us, the area had just experienced major shaking from a
massive earthquake that had an epicenter southeast of the coast. As we went
into town the following day, you could still see whole shelves of products
busted on the floor of businesses that had not been back yet to clean up. Many
clay roof tiles were shattered on the sidewalks, but most places were open and
many vacationers were a foot since this was Holy Week, leading up to Easter
Sunday.
We found Zihuatanejo to be our favorite anchorage to date on
the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The town is charming, with many diversions, a lot
of interesting architecture and very friendly people. Unlike Puerto Vallarta,
we were not accosted with continuous hawking of services and wares as we had
been. We were approached, for sure, but a simple, “No, gracias” was the only
reply necessary to have vendors smile and allow you to move on.
Anchored in the bay, we made daily trips to town in the
dinghy or by water taxi to the beaches or to go to market. The beaches to the
south were very clean and the water was the perfect temperature. In the town to
the north, the shops and signs have all
been stylized, an obvious product of a campaign to capitalize on the charm of
this small city. But even so, it did not feel overly produced or highly
"gringo-ized". That’s not a word. We found a small cinema in town and took the
kids to see Rio 2 in Spanish and actually we were all pretty surprised on how much
we all understood in the movie. Progress!
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We also were happy to learn of the archeological dig site of
Xihuacan in La Chole to the south. An
Olmec site, the dig is really just getting underway. A museum was opened a
couple of years ago to showcase the items found thus far, and for as little of the overall site structures that have been unearthed so far, the number of items is very impressive. All of the history material we brought for 2nd and 3rd grade curriculums really centers around ancient Greek and Roman cultures, but how often are our kids exposed to Olmec, Aztec and Mayan, yet these are right in our backyard? It has made me very curious to find all educational material I can on these cultures for the kids' (and me!).
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| One of the goal posts of the ball court |
We found a reasonably
priced guide to take us down to the site and to introduce us to another local
guide who has extensive knowledge of the finds. I am looking forward to
tracking their progress over the next several years!
Zihuat was a big turning point for us and our adventure.
Coming down the Pacific coast, the family was missing the clear waters and desert
shores of the Sea of Cortez. Though I still wanted very much to push down to
Ecuador for the season, we held a family vote and I was quickly outvoted 4:1.
Ouch. When the girls saw where my vote landed, they quickly changed theirs to
show their allegiance, but I knew where their hearts really were on the
subject. As a result, we decided to rapidly get ourselves back up north out of the Pacific before the official
hurricane season starts (May 15th).
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| Happy crew finishing awesome banana leaf wrapped tamales at Any's (For those that know us, they will be surprised to see sodas on the table. Kids tasted their first Cokes here and it has been a slippery slope ever since.) |
The decision having been made, the kids and Mike were really
looking forward to getting back to the Sea and any anxiety or apprensions about
traveling further south were quickly relieved. I was disappointed, but I also know that
cruising plans are always loose, at best, and that a happy crew is absolutely essential. So, time to make lemonade! We will take the month of June to attend a Spanish language immersion school in the state of Morelos in a high mountain old colonial town. Meanwhile, Mangas will receive some needed TLC and we will have a dodger/bimini made for her so that we have much needed shade for our July and August summer sailing in the Sea. There is still so much to see and do in the Sea. Some cruisers spend years exploring the area, without having seen everything there is to see. Teeming with more cetaceans than any other single body of water in the world (some estimates as high as 35% of the world's population), we are all looking forward to more encounters with marine life and getting in a lot of diving when we are not sailing.
