The Beach, Tacos, Beer and Diving

Normally when I visit a new place, my google brain goes into overdrive looking for things to do and places to explore. Mexico is flush with Mayan ruins and Xihuacan was a 45 minute bus ride from Zihua. There are turtle sanctuaries, fishing villages, Ixtapa to view crocodiles, parasailing and other touristy beach fun things. My plan did not include any of those things. I looked at the map of the area that I was staying at and it's proximity to the beach. It included everything I wanted for what I planned as the "laziest trip I have ever taken." This trip was all about the beach, tacos, beer and diving. Sure there would be a few "longish" walks to various beaches but other than that, my zone was going to be very local and very lazy.

First things first, I needed to get organized for diving. Dive Zihuatanejo is about 30 feet from Zorros, on the same street. Maude and Simeon owned this small shop and Angel was the boat captain. If you look at their bios on the website you will see that none of them are slouches when it comes to diving. Definitely do not disparage Angel as a "local dude who drives a tourist dive boat".  Simeon loves to talk diving and we chatted for about 30 minutes as I set up my diving schedule. The first dive would be the next day with 2 a day dives through the week including Christmas day.

Lazy Daze

With my dives book it was now time for my first beach message. There are two shops along Madera beach, each with advertising sandwich boards on the beach. I went to the first one with the intention of trying the second another time. I have had beach messages all over the world and NO, they are not the types of messages you are thinking about, although I am sure they are available somewhere in town. There is a large tent with 6 professional tables set up and the girls were dressed professionally in blue scrubs. The girl gave me a large bowl to put my things in and placed it under the table when my face was looking down so I could keep an eye on it, obviously so they do not get accused of theft. It was quite a clever solution. The message was excellent, if not better than any $100 message I get back home. However, this hour message costs 300 pesos, about $21 Canadian. I made a mental note to have a message every other day.

I walked the Malecon, which ran along the beach and returned past Madera beach and back into the touristy area. It was time a cold beer but I did not want to go to Zorros again  I stumbled onto Daniels restaurant, one of many along the beach. There was a cool little L shaped bar in the corner with about 20 bar stools. It was open aired with a full on view of the beach and the Pacific. I did not need to be asked twice. 

Now the thing that was quite obvious once I cleared the travel and time zone change fog from my brain, was that this was definitely a retired Expat community. It was about two in the afternoon and the bar was hopping, average age was about 65 and they were NOT staring at their phones. It was lively, everyone was quite chatty and the bartender Arturo was crushing it. He knew everyone, had a massive smile and actually seemed like he was enjoying himself. Beer was 45 pesos each but this was Happy Hour! I think it's always happy hour in Zihua.

Street Tacos, good for the soul

What started as a relaxing day wandering the beach turning into Happy Hour madness. The people at the bar were happy to chat, I think because I was a new face. It seemed everyone was from the west coast of Canada or the USA which made sense once you thought about it. Vancouver and Victoria in BC plus Oregon and Washington was the top of the charts. I did not stumble across any europeans at all during my time here. There were a few confused looks when I said I was from Niagara Falls. Not the town but the location being the east coast. I talked about the Yucatan, Cancun and Merida but I wanted to experience someplace new. This now drunken crowd, were the best Expat Marketers that Zihua could ask for telling me how amazing living or vacationing in Zihua was. 

My Happy hour turned into Happy "To many hours" and I had not eaten all day. Arturo asked my name and I told him Ken (remember the word "who" is spanish quien and it sounds the same.) He laughed quien es Ken, and so I just answer "Yo" to which he thought was hilarious. I followed up with I am "Ken sin Barbie" (Ken, no Barbie) and he love that. He poured me a tequila, laughed and said, "Lots of Barbies here." 

street food madness

I headed into maze of cobblestone streets looking for street food and it did not take me long to find what I was looking for. A "pop up" night market had been set up just behind Daniels and I could smell the tacos like wolf hunting a wounded deer. 100 pesos got me 5 and I devoured the chorizos in about 3 minutes, so I went back for seconds, this time spicing them up a bit with the nasty green chile sauce. I will worry about that in the morning.

My belly was full, I had more than enough beer, my message was great and I set up my dive schedule. I was heading back to my room and it was around 7PM, what a rock star. I had a feeling that "late nights" were not a thing here and I was good with that. My dives did not start until 9AM so there was ample time to get a jug of water from the OXXO and a good night's sleep.