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March 12, 2005
Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico
I think the plane ride and shock of winter (snow!) and work upon our return has had more of an adverse effect than I anticipated. I just spent the morning in bed with frozen corn on my head -- and we went to bed early last night. Hence the delay in part II of the travel blog. Blog entries are also piling up in my head but I can't seem to summon the energy to post things.
Click here for photos from Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (March 3-8).
We drove back to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo on Tuesday and met up with Derek's parents and Aunt Nancy, who had just arrived. With Derek's grandparents and his Aunt Debbie, we were eight.
Zihatanejo sits on a bay and used to be a tiny fishing town. Its transformation to a tourist-friendly resort area began in the 70s (when D's grandparents first started going there). Right next door is Ixtapa, which also sits on a bay and was built as a resort town. It has new roads with manicured landscaping, a pedestrian area with restaurants and gift shops, and several huge resorts. It looks like L.A. Many of the tourists don't venture beyond their own resort area once they arrive. Some hotels are all-inclusive (read: very expensive). To get on and off of Ixtapa beach in some spots you have to pick a resort to walk through -- we picked an all-inclusive hotel one night unknowingly and found a Disney-like reproduction of a Mexican fiesta inside populated entirely by Americans and Canadians. There were tables with jewelry and handicrafts, there was a band, and people were milling about, but it was so strange -- a much more authentic (and cheaper) version of the same thing could be found in Zihuatanejo on Sunday, but these hotel people chose the "safe" artificial version.
Zihuatanejo, thankfully, is still partly the real thing -- it hasn't lost its local character. Fisherman still camp out on the beach, and if you walk around outside of the touristy center you can find all sorts of Mexican shops -- there are meat shops selling whole chickens with their heads hanging off the table, Mexican stationary stores, shoe stores, etc.
We usually ate dinner as a group at places where D's grandparents are regulars or know the owners (their favorite is Daniel's -- you can see a photo of Daniel in the slide show). They have relationships with many fellow retirees and locals in the tourist industry (they've been coming for 30 winters), so we were always greeted with open arms. During the day, Warren, Ruth, and Debbie tend to go to the Pacifica Resort, which is on Ixtapa beach and has a nice pool/restaurant and plenty of umbrellas set up on the beach.
We spent a couple of afternoons with them, but also did a few things on our own. We visited Playa La Ropa -- Zihuatanejo's long, lazy beach -- and ordered pina coladas and tacos at Restaurant Cocodrillo ("Crocodile" -- there are a couple of crocodile sanctuaries in the area) . We also rented a Hobie Cat and sailed around the bay one day (circling a huge, HUGE, cruise ship anchored there, which kindly dumped sewage in the bay that we had to sail through).
We took one day trip with Derek's parents to Petatlan -- a town about a half hour to the south of Zihua. It was also more of a local experience -- we even had a bunch of kids call us "gringos" and laugh hysterically outside of the church. Normally I'd have a retort for them in Spanish, but I held my tongue -- I mean, we were totally obvious gringos (fanny packs, cameras, etc) doing little to blend in with the crowd.
Petatlan is known for its church and gold trinkets (which people buy and leave for the statue of Christ in the church). It's the first place where we ventured into a real taco stand offering tacos with "head meat" -- we asked for tacos de bistec, but I'm not entirely sure what kind of bistec that meant (bistec=beef). They were very flavorful -- they come with onions and cilantro on top and the tortillas are fresh -- sooo good. We started with a cautious order of two and ended up eating seven. I also tried one of chiva -- goat -- which was good but not as good as the bistec ones.
A list of food finds on the trip:
- Authentic chile relleno -- something I had not tried before. We had it with beef and cheese -- but my favorite part is the chile itself
- Peanuts roasted with lots of chili (they make your fingers red)
- Cajeta en obleas (milk candy wafers)
- Hauchinango -- red snapper grilled with spices
- Tamales -- something we'd had, but one with zucchini flowers at Any's was great
- Pozole -- Ruth calls it popcorn soup. It has puffed corn pieces in it along with chicken and there's a white version and a green version. It comes surrounded by toppings -- onions, jalapeno, sliced radishes, chile powder, oregano, lime, tortilla chips, pork rind (the real thing! I like the fake things, so this was exciting for me)
- Sopa tarasco -- the soup from Patzcuaro with the tortilla chips in it
- Mexican candy -- we bought tons of candy from a candy store in Petatlan. It's usually something sweet -- like mango gummy candy or a lollypop, covered in a mildly spicy chili and sugar mix. I didn't think spicy candy would be for me but now I'm addicted
- We bought a block of something on the beach that was like a huge solid fruit roll-up -- no idea what it's called
- Also bought something like maple fudge or solid dulce de leche on the beach -- it was like milky caramelized sugar and comes with a walnut on top
- Corn-on-the-cob, Michoacan-style. This involved a coating of sour cream and white cheese
- Mexican roasted peanuts -- better than American ones, for some reason -- the flavor is slightly more intense/different
- Mexican breakfast: huevos divorciados (divorced eggs, one in green sauce, one in red on a tortilla), huevos revueltos mexicanos (Mexican scrambled eggs, w/peppers and onions)
- Fresh papaya juice
- Horchata -- a cinnamon rice-milk drink
- Fluffy sugary donut-like rolls we found at a bakery
On Sunday we went with Derek's parents to Tamales y Atoles Any -- a restaurant know for its tamales and "the most consciously traditional Mexican cuisine in town" (Lonely Planet) -- and had my favorite meal of the trip -- Pozole, tamales, a chile relleno, a pitcher of horchata, and tacos. We took a walk around town afterwards to walk off the meal and discovered that there were people everywhere. There was some sort of fiesta going on, and we caught the end of a (Riverdance-like) dance performance in the town basketball court.
The other notable day was our first, when we went to Isla de Ixtapa for the day with John and Bonnie. We met Luis, a guide, on the boat ride over (I was shamelessly practicing my Spanish on him), and he took us snorkeling. We had both forgotten our contacts (can't snorkel with glasses), so we couldn't see much, but Luis scattered some saltines in the water and we were mobbed by fish. Some were colorful Seargent Major fish and a larger one (I forget what they're called) nibbled on Derek's hand. The current was too rough to see coral, but we were blind anyway so it didn't matter much. We had a great spread of Huachinango and lobster (grilled on a wood fire in the sand) for lunch.
I have to say (again) that sun does wonders for your mood. Ruth and Warren both just celebrated their 80th birthdays (the occasion for the trip) and they both look a lot younger than 80. They also eat healthy food and take vitamins, but I can see how relaxing on the beach might have contributed something. I think we need to spend a few years doing "research" on coral in Australia or something -- why suffer through ice and snow when you could be sitting in the sand with a margarita and a good book?
Posted by csageday at March 12, 2005 09:43 PM