Tastes and Sounds of Zihuatanejo

We've been in the Zihuatanejo area for the past three weeks, and have enjoyed the heck out of this place. It's been a great social time, and we've had tons of fun with our great friends from Isis. We've also made a nice connection with the folks from the vessel Blue Bottle - Adrienne is a lovely, deeply soulful woman, and Joe has connected with Lisa playing music, and with Dan because they are both photography nuts. We hope to meet up with them again at some point in our journeys.

Click here to check out our first batch of photos from Zihuat.

As we've mentioned in past blogs, Zihuat has great food options, and we've explored as many of them as possible on our small budget.

Indoor Market
The central market, which is in a large downtown building, houses fruit and vegetable stands, butcher shops, fresh seafood vendors, eateries, juice bars and other shops. It is a true multi-sensory experience. Our eyes have feasted on the colorful fruits and vegetables; our olfactory nerves have been tittilated and confused while eating breakfast at a diner next to the fish stands; our taste buds have danced a jig while drinking tropical fresh fruit smoothies; and permeating all of these wonderful sights, tastes and smells is the din created by vendors hawking their wares, musicians busking for pesos, and a multitude of voices raised in conversation. We loved it all!

Beyond the Central Market
Just beyond the central market one can investigate more fruit and veggie options, and smaller-scale vendors displaying their goods in a variety of ways. For the most part the food was all very fresh and yummy, and we made several trips into the market zone as our mornings generally started with a fresh fruit salad.
Restaurants and taco stands
We love street food. Give us a taco stand with fresh salsa and fixin's and we're in heaven. Surprisingly, we have not encountered many "stand around in the street to eat" options. But don't worry, we have not gone hungry. There are plenty of overpriced restaurants located within a few blocks of the beach - the zone where most of the the cruise-ship-tourists wander. But venture a few more blocks from the beach and the eateries that cater to the local population are much more affordable.
We fell in love with the posole (spicy stew with hominy and chicken or pork) at at restaurant called Antelias, and have returned there several times during our stay. We also found some good eateries in a zone we refer to as the "French Quarter." We found an internet cafe that would serve us breakfast for 20 peso (roughly US$1.55). And Isis discovered Salvador's in the French 1/4, where we enjoyed breakfast and pina coladas on New Year's Eve for about US$4.35 per person. It's hard to complain, really. Later that day/night we feasted on seafood and good ol' cow (surf and turf) at Nardo's - more spendy than we're used to, but once in a while you have to splurge.

Zihuat is Music Town
Burke has had a very good influence on Lisa's music playing - basically by arranging gigs so that Lisa has to play. We've had great fun playing with Joe from Blue Bottle, whose guitar playing has helped fill our our sound. Joe also plays a mean tenor banjo and sings. Together we played at an open mic event at Rick's bar, a joint frequented by the sailing community. We also busked on the waterfront path, earning a stunning 39 pesos. The best music experience, however, was jamming on the street with some music students from Mexico City. This group, called Maiz Azul (Blue Corn) plays only traditional Mexican music. We traded off some songs, and did a bit of jamming - although they did not really try to join in with our rendition of "Graveyard Shift" by Steve Earle. Everyone involved, and the many spectators, had a great time.
In addition to generating our own music, we have been enjoying the music we've been hearing around town. There are many buskers. And the waterfront basketball court has been hopping over the holidays. Every night there is a music event, combined with something else - be it puppet shows, magic shows, drumming, dancing, New Year's Eve fireworks. . . And every night there are hundreds and hundreds of locals or Mexican tourists around the basketball court. This is a community that knows how to party.

Dan turns 50! (soon)
On January 1, Lisa, Kacey, Quinn and Burke threw Dan a surprise 50th birthday party. Lisa made a dinner of flash-fried dorado (a type of fish) and sushi, Kacey backed a phenomenal carrot, pineapple, coconut cake, Quinn made the Happy Birthday Crazy Dan sign, AND Quinn managed to keep the birthday party a secret. Given that Dan's actual birthday is January 13, it's not surprising that he was surprised. It was a great time, and Dan received some great gifts from the Isis crew including a bottle of very very tasty mescal, a Jimmy Buffet memoir called A Pirate Turns 50," and, from Quinn, a book called The BFG.
El Refugio
One of our final adventures in the Zihuatanejo area was visiting El Refugio de Potosi, and eco-preserve which was created 6 months ago to educate locals and tourists about the ecosystems and critters in Guerrero State. To get there we, along with the crews from Isis and Blue Bottle, caught a bus and then rode a “collectivo,” which is in this case was a covered flatbed truck, the last few miles to the refuge. We saw some great plants and critters at the refuge, including iguanas, coatimundi, various birds, butterflies and various creepy-crawly-critters such as boa constrictors, scorpions and tarantulas. It was well worth the trip. And we extended the fun by going into Barre de Potosi for a late lunch. We walked the well-populated beach and then opted for a more quiet lunch setting by the lagoon, where we ate a fabulous meal cooked on a wood stove. Before heading back to Zihuat we walked off some of our meal by taking a tour of the town, which was gloriously colorful, still decorated for the holiday season. All-in-all, it was a very good day. To view more photos of our last days in Zihuat click here.
Onward, Again
Tomorrow we start to sail north, back up the Mexico coast. We'll begin our trip with Isis, but we're on a tighter schedule so we'll leave them lounging in some tropical paradise at some point. We'll touch base via this blog again in a few weeks (or maybe a month, who knows. . .).