Zihuatanejo!

"Tell you where I'd go : Zihuatanejo. It's in Mexico -- a little place on the Pacific.  You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?  They say it has no memory.  That's where I want to live the rest of my life; a warm place with no memory.....open up a little  hotel right on the beach, buy some worthless old boat and fix it up new; take my guests out charter fishin'....."

"That boat, that hotel, I dont think that should be too much to ask."

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice: get busy livin', or get busy dyin' !"

-Andy Dufresne, from Shawshank Redemption

Fellow fans of Shawshank Redemption may recognize those lines from a scene just prior to the famous jailbreak from Shawshank Prison, by Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins).  The good news is that you dont have to go through what Andy did to get to Zihuatanejo!  It's a beautiful city of about 40,000 (although it looks twice that size) situated on a shiny blue bay on the Pacific Ocean.  It's kind of interesting that this bay looks so similar to the other ones we've seen on our trip so far, but the city itself sets it above the others. 

The architecture is so creative --there's a lot of money here!  Everything you need is here,or rather, all of the services we need are here, plus some! 

If you missed my last entry, we had some hard stretches of road-- possibly gouged our trailer brakes with gravel during some road resurfacing.  Knowing we need to have those looked at and possibly replaced, we drove into town dragging a noisy leaf spring as well!  To our untrained eyes, it looks as though part of the leaf spring totally fell off , perhaps over one of the thousands of speed bumps (topes) we've crossed on our 3500+ mile trek thus far! This is the perfect place to have a 4-5 day layover and repairs done.  Others had suggested skipping this town, but due to the fact it was idolized in one of our favorite movies, we had to come!

 The beach here is wonderful, the RV camp is great (and actually has other inhabitants), and the town seems clean and able to support the tourism.  One thing that makes this an enjoyable tourist town for us is that you don't see the mega resorts or timeshares.  There are a billion hotels and bungalows to rent, but they fit in to the natural look of thatched roofs and native materials.  We even have our own lagoon full of 10-15 ft crocodiles adjacent to the camp!

 Apparently they meander across the beach to the ocean at night to feed. 
Our RV neighbor did tell us that he and his wife (who take late night walks with their dogs) witnessed a croc
in a deathroll with a homeless beach dog one night.  We keep a good eye on the animals.

Eli, our fit-but-aged pitbull, has met a lovely young female beach dog named "Mango" who he plays with every day.  She is kind of the adopted protector of the camp inhabitants; if any of us goes for a short walk on the beach or to the local market, she is right beside us, ready to fight off any evildoer.  There is a Doberman guard dog next door who is a bit aggressive and she communicated her willingness to take him down if need be!  Apparently one of the ladies who works at the restaurant here at the camp, volounteers at the local humane society; needless to say, Mango has been well taken care of by them when needed.  She is fixed (looks like she had a litter or two prior), and has a front leg that was broken and set twice.  Eli has donated a couple of doggie bones and shares his food and water with her occasionally, so she is almost a permanent ornament! 









The RV neighbors here in the park consist of an older woman who drove herself down here in a motorhome (first time driving one) six years ago and has never left, and a couple probably in their late 40's from Vancouver, B.C. who are very friendly.  The canucks arrived amid last fall's tropical storm and flooding, and will probably drive back next month. ( They were here for a business venture which ended up falling through.)
We told them about our venture involving the hot springs and Lake Yojoa; maybe they will end up there someday.  They feel similarly frustrated with the canadian politics as we do with the US, and are looking to retire elsewhere.
Well, we have been in Zihuatanejo for about a week, and are almost done with all of the repairs we needed; had our trailer brakes looked at for $30 US, the leafspring on the trailer replaced for about $110, and right now are having part of our propane line replaced along with a fitting for our water hook up for $120.  Almost all of the service providers in Mexico will do work onsite, and of course you can haggle a bit over price. 
Today the water was higher and waves were bigger than we've seen since arriving.  The ocean waves were actually reaching into the croc lagoon!  It may have rained nearby last night; we saw some pretty dark rainclouds on our way back from the supermarket. 

We will probably head out tommorrow for Acapulco area, then on to Puerto Escondido (which will be a real long drive, but apparently there are no good stops before that!)  We were told to anticipate fairly good roads to Acapulco, then smaller hills and curves to Puerto Escondido.  I believe that PE is our last coastal stop before turning inland toward San Cristobal and Palenque.  Then, its across the border to Guatemala and down to the Honduran border!!!!!!!  

By the way, I was asked to add more pics, but they either take so long to download or they just wont completely download.  Dont know whether its the service down here or our camera or what.  Not only that, but trying to manipulate these pics at all is a joke!  Sorry!



Life is cooler with a girlfriend! 



Fun in the Surf!





Los Gatos is a little beach with restaurants that you access via a water taxi, or a rocky path that is not good in flip-flops!  Owen Lea, who worked with Jacques Cousteau, bought this peninsula in the 60s, only to have it taken from him during various government changes; they have decided to let him live there until he dies.  He has a book on it called Prisoner in Paradise or something like that.







beto watersports has their homebase right outside the restaurant nearby; you can find their website at http://www.betowatersports.com/