Here is a link to a map of most of Zihuatanejo:
Centro is the area from the top of the map down to Playa Principal. El Manglar Restaurant and RV Park is on Playa la Ropa, at the end of the road that is third from the bottom. The road to Cerro Del Vigia doesn't really end at Playa Las Gatas; it is about 1,000 feet above it. To get to Playa Las Gatas you either have to scramble across the rocks at the base of the cliff or take a boat. There is a water taxi from centro.
Unfortunately it is not possible to walk the beach to centro. The road between Playa La Ropa and Playa Madera climbs high above the beach there. The rocks shown on the map are at the base of the cliffs, which support a variety of hotels. To walk the beach to centro it is necessary to walk a very steep pedestrian way to the road, along the road for a bit then down hill to Playa Madera.
A note on a couple of beach names; two are named after shipwrecks that occurred in the bay. The one to the south resulted in a large quantity of clothing and fabric washing up on the beach, hence Playa La Ropa. Ropa=clothes. The one futher north was the repository of masses of timbers. Madera is Spanish for lumber.
Tuesday February 2nd, Start of SailFest!
We woke very early this morning to the typical sound of rain pouring down, drumming on the roof. For several hours the rain was accompanied by the rumbling of thunder and flashes of lightning. Sounds normal? Not for us--we thought we had escaped the wet, dark, dreary Victoria winter weather by taking our motorhome to Mexico!
Dog walking today involved a bathing suit and rummaging through cupboards for rain gear!
Zihuatanejo locals tell us that they have never seen rain in February but are happy for the rain as last summer, the rainy season,was far drier than normal so they need the life giving water.
We heard from others in the park that in town water was spewing out of the storm drain manholes up to a metre high!
More pics to come when I figure out how to do the link to Picasa photo albums.
Current temperature about 22C, thinking of the furnace!
We later discovered that we got off easy--only minor damage here in Z. Other parts of the country were hit much harder:
Here is a link to a news video of the flooding in the town of Tuxpan, Michoacan, which is located about 20 kilometres due west of the town of Rosario at the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, which we visited 4 years ago. The sanctuary is now closed to the public due to severe damage and danger of slides. The town of Rosario destroyed. It is a day's drive by car from here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/feb/05/mexican-floods-kill-three-michoacan
As we mentioned earlier, this is Sail Fest week—The rain and the depressed economy may result in less than the target total though the response from the merchants has been excellent.
Tuesday was the opening party and live auction which unfortunately because of the rain (though it had decreased for the time being) to mostly shower had to be moved inside to Ricks Bar. This made for a very crowded and smoky environment so we didn't stay long. The crush around the bar was so thick we gave up trying to push through and ventured a few doors down and bought a couple of cold beer from a small variety store. We hung around the area for a while then headed home.
Wednesday evening we went to the SailFest Benefit Concert at El Pueblito Restaurants, always a great evening. Though there were a lot of no-shows (who had at least paid for their tickets in advance) the crowd was better than we expected. Since the road in front of the RV Park was flooded about 6 inches deep and the car still under the collapsed cover and soaking wet, we phoned for a taxi which as usual arrived promptly and we were dropped at the restaurant door—no hunting for a parking place. Taxi fare: 40 pesos—about 3.50. 
Two our favorite local musicians were there, Jimi Mamou and Josie Kuhn and several others that we hadn't heard before. Two whose names we remember were Juanito Zihua, and a Canadian jazz and blues singer, Michelle Lavalle. Michelle plays once a week in a restaurant about 5 minutes walk from here so we will certainly hear her again. We stayed until closing, a bit after 11:00 and caught a ride home with one of the other Canadians here in the park.
Thursday again by taxi we sloshed on to Centro for the Chili Contest and silent auction. Here Art found that he had won a raffle prize: dinner for two at a beachfront restaurant—TATA's. Before some of our
incorrigible friends make comments on the name, it's the owners surname. This could be embarrassing, as this was one of donations Art had obtained—but only after several visits. He will feel uncomfortable using a gift certificate that he had filled out! We'll have to find a deserving person to give it to.
Pics above, Tanya of Hija del Capitan and a competitor with a secret ingredient! Or a bribe?
We stayed at the chili contest to sample taste 5 of the 10 offerings, and cast our vote—done by placing a bean in the corresponding container. We still haven't heard who won, but there was a wide variety to choose from, from a white bean and chicken to chipotle flavoured chili.
Gillian trying Lorenzo's entry. Lorenzo is the SailFest Chairman. Don't know how he found time to make chili!
We bid unsuccessfully on a few items in the silent auction then decided to return home so went in search of a taxi. This was the first time we have ever been on the front near the basketball court without a row of taxis waiting. We spotted one as we approached but another couple beat us to it. We started walking towards the main street and in about half a block a taxi showed up. Another set of clothes to hang in the motorhome to dry!
Friday dawned with a big yellow thing in the sky! The sun was back. As soon as he had had a cup of tea Art started getting the laundry together—he had planned to do it last Monday but slept in a bit—the laundromat gets busy after 9:00 AM and there can be a wait for the machines. So he ha decided that manana would be fine. Ha! That's when the rain came down, the canopy came down, the car was soaked inside. . .
So Friday morning, prop up the canopy, bail out the car—there was an inch or two of water in the footwells and the carpet in the back was soaked—load up with dirty clothes and off to Centro. Although he was a bit late there was still parking in front of the Lavanderia and two vacant machines—one large one (huge--will take 27Kg!) which took most of the towels,bedding and coloured stuff and a regular sized front loader for the rest. Feed them their tokens then down the street to Margaritas for breakfast and to read the newspaper.
Lots of stories of the damage done by the rain and the municipality's response to it. It made for interesting (though slow) reading. Art thinks that he gets best value for money buying the local papers: about 40 cents worth of Spanish language newspaper takes him about as long to read as a second hand 4 dollar English language paperback!
Breakfast and a couple of articles later the laundry was ready for the dryer—one very large dryer did the lot in half an hour. While waiting he wandered down to another restaurant (Zihua Pancake House) for an espresso and to continue with his newspaper.
Total cost; laundry, 125 pesos, 80 for the breakfast, 5 more for the paper, the espresso was 25, another 50 for a kids jigsaw puzzle map of Mexico (why?) and detour to the mercado for fish for dinner (mackerel) 60 pesos.
A morning out on his own?—Priceless! :)
By evening, most everything except the car mats were dry. Those will take several days.
Art cooked the fish as recommended by the man he brought it from; pound the filets flat (they weren't very thick to start with) then breaded with lots of garlic and whatever other seasoning comes to mind, saute in butter (used butter and olive oil). It was actually was quite edible!
One half of one filet was enough for the two of us, the dogs got the the other half (without the breading garlc and seasoning) for their breakfast in the morning along with a bit of left over rice. And we still have half a fish left! Probably fish tacos for us and dogie food with the rest.
We are going to have to start making food for Trekker as he is rapidly running low on his dog food. We bring food for him because of his allergies—grain--and it is almost impossible to get grain free dog food in Mexico. Some how we had miscalculated in Arizona when we stocked up.
Saturday Feb 6th
Sunny again this morning, Gillian and our friend Anna went of to “Curves” (a gym). We laid out the grass ground mats to dry a bit more and when Gillian got back from town she parked the car in the sun with doors open to continue the drying process. Its going to take a few more days.
In spite of all the rain and excess water on the roads, fields and in the ditches, Zihuatanejo has been out of water for the past while. It started with an illegal strike by the waterboard employees last week, we're not sure what the current problem is. Water does not flow to every area all the time, it's on a rotating schedule with each property filling holding tanks when there is water in the mains . For the time being water is brought in by tanker truck (“pipa”). The water is free—just pay for the trucking!
Sunday started with quite a lot of white fluffy clouds, some with quite dark undersides—a bit ominous but by 10:30 skies were clear. Art again took the camera down through the restaurant to the beach and noticed that though the ocean waves and tides are building up the sand, the estuary was still filling, very close to breaking through the sand and draining again. These two pictures were taken about 22 hours apart. One yesterday around noon, the second this morning. It will be interesting what tomorrow morning looks like.After breakfast and a short dog walk it was off to the grocery store to stock up. Art has decided that in the interest of science and economics he is going to try making his own Margaritas! Therefore first items on the list were: tequila, controy (generic Mexican Cointreau) limes and jarabe (sugar syrup). This had him off on another scent: he also picked up a dozen smoked chile flavoured wieners and a container of tomato sauce for tonight's game get together.
OK, OK, here is the top secret recipe:
Chop a bunch of wieners into a pot. Pour in some tequila and controy, squeeze in a bunch of lime juice, (about equal to the tequila volume) add a chopped chili or two if you want, add some sweetener—jarabe if you're a margarita purist--but Art used brown sugar for the flavour. Stir in some tomato sauce and put on the stove. Art put it on the BBQ as it is too hot to cook inside if you don't have to. If the mixture looks too wet don't worry about it, just let it simmer longer! If too dry. . . . do you really have to be told to add more tequila? After a while taste the sauce to see what you need to add more of. Oh. Gillian says don't forget the salt! Put some in at the beginning. Not too much though.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday—a bit of tradition in the park even though many of us aren't American football enthusiasts. Brian and Arlene set up a TV borrowed from Cal in front of their 5th wheel. We all get together and enjoy the fun, food, companionship and the rivalry which seems to depend more on pool scores drawn than team favourites.
Before the game however we had to attend the windup SailFest BBQ at Playa Madera. Here were the last speeches and presentations—the sailor who placed last in the pursuit race was presented with a phone—so next time he was out so long he could call home and let everyone know he was all right! Lots of laughter and applause.
We couldn't always hear the announcements clearly, but we think that a Canadian boat, a catamaran from BC called Pantera, was first to finish.
Another fund-raiser for the sailors—every minute of engine use cost 10 pesos (about 80 cents).
We walked along the path above the water at the south end of Playa Madera ( actually, this section is probably more correctly Playa Caracol) to Calle Adelita and walked to the end where we found a single vacant taxi at the stand. We waved from a block a way and were soon back at the RV Park just in time:
The game was about to start. Though neither of us are football fans by any stretch, this is always good fun. Art put his Margarita Wieners back on to simmer until half time, grabbed a beer and sat down just as the game began. Gillian missed the first quarter walking the dogs, and didn't win on the pool ticket that Art had bought her. He didn't win on his either!
We had a great time snacking throughout the first half and at half time grabbed a platefull of hot food--chicken, ribs, chili, Art's wieners etc and watched the half time show. Keith commented about The Who--"Geez, are they still working? If they had invested their money properly they could be retired by now like us!"
Teaser for next blog entry:
Gillian bolted awake at dark o'clock this morning to the sound of rain on the roof once again! She dashed outside to put the tarp over the back windows of the car while Art snoozed on peacefully.
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