Zihuatanejo

We had a wonderful stay at Isla Grande, near Ixtapa. We wish we could go back for the great snorkeling and clear water. There were at least 4 separate dive areas all with something different to offer and visibility in excess of 25 ft. The water was warm and refreshing. Even though the beaches were full of palapas and tourist during the day, everyone was gone by 5:00pm and the area was dead quiet. You might have noticed my comment about wishing we could go back, well it happens we are stuck here in Zihuatanejo till we get parts for our anchor windlass. Whether it is age or something else, we tore up both of the gears inside the gear box on our windlass. We almost didn't get our anchor out of the sand at Isla Grande. Once we got to Zihua I spent all day taken the unit apart only to find the worst possible news. On the bright side after 4 days of waiting for an answer, DownWind Marine in San Diego was able to find the parts in California. We also lucked out and Don Quixote's husband is up in the states and coming home next Tuesday. He is willing to bring down my parts so a really bad situation has tuned out to only be a pain in the butt, but we are stuck here in the mud till then.

Now there are worst places to be stuck. Zihuatanejo is a pretty cool place, even though it is touristy when the cruise ships arrive (3-4 per week). There is pretty much anything you could want in the area including a machine shop for when I get my parts. Helen has become involved in the planning of Z Fest next week so most days she is in town for a couple of hours. There is a central tourist district with cobblestone walking streets and all sorts of shops and restaurants. Some are ok but to get better food and much lower prices you have to get away from the normal tourist hang outs. There is a canal that runs along the town with a pathway to follow to the more commercial area of town. Everyday when we are in town we explore a little more of the older less traveled area of town. They have a flower district, a fruit district, a shoe repair district, and a doctor district. It appears they put all the competition together so the customer can see what the options are and choose the one on the left, right, or middle. The local markets are wonderful and we actually found a new fruit. It looks like a brown avocado on steroids and it has the same type of hard seed, but it has orange flesh and it taste like a fruity sweet potato. We still have one more so I will try to take a picture of it. The Z-fest supports building schools in the hills above Zihuatanejo for Indian children. We are going to take a tour of the hills on Thursday. Then next week the events and parties start. Every day from Feb 3-8 something will be going on. We will miss the famous guitar fest that they hold here, as we are still working our way south as planned.

Life is still great and we enjoy at least most of every day. Some days the heat is a bit much.

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