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3.
Isla Ixtapa, Las Gatas, El Faro (Lighthouse)
  On
Saturday (Jan 19) we headed off to Isla Ixtapa. One of the
chronic problems in Zihua is having small change. The ATM's
give you 200 and 500 peso bills but nobody wants to take them.
So collecting enough change to actually use the bus system
becomes a daunting chore. Combining that with the fact that
we wanted to get there early while the snorkeling was still good, we
opted for the cab to Playa Linda ($13) where we catch the water taxi
over to the island. First pictures are from Playa Linda - a
great egret on the left and a great and some smaller snowy egrets on
the right. Below right is also a collection of brown
pelicans who hang around the pier hoping for handouts. And on
the left is a good picture John got of one who had just swallowed a
fish.  Isla Ixtapa
has 5 different beaches but the one for snorkeling is Playa
Coral - sort of at the "back" of the island where there are some
shallow
coral reefs.  First order of business was to grab
a spot at
one of the restaurants along the beach (easy when you
are on one of the first boats across - we
picked Ristorante Princessa) and
then into the water. I didn't even bring an underwater camera
this year since there was so little snorkeling to do, but the fish
here were far more plentiful and bigger than I remembered
and they come right up to the very shallow part. You could
just wade in and see many without even swimming. John got a nasty
little bite from (probably) a damsel fish who didn't like his ankle
being in its territory. Below is a view of the beach looking back at it from near the point at the end of the island. Seven years ago I took a picture like this, from behind the same rock and so couldn't resist reproducing it.  After
our first swim, we ordered drinks and just relaxed and
read for a little while. At least that was the theory.
I had a naranjada (orange ade) and I had noticed a bee
buzzing around it but didn't pay it much attention. I glanced
up from my book, didn't see the bee, so took a big slurp of juice . . .
well, the darned thing had crawled down into the straw so I
sucked him up and he stung my tongue. Ow ow ow ow ow!
I grabbed an antihistimine right away (John will no longer
make fun of me for carrying around my little bottle of "pills I might
need") and he used my small pocket knife to get the stinger out.
I put an ice cube on it and, when that melted, I crushed up a
half of a benadryl tablet and put it right on the sting. It
all worked, thank goodness, and within about 20 minutes it was down to
just being tender like any bite or sting would be. It will be
a long time before I take a sip through a straw without making sure I
can see all the way through it first!After I recovered a bit, we walked around the island to the "wilder" side of the cove for some beachcombing. Shortly after our "together" picture I went back to the beach and my book; John continued and took more pictures of some of the things he wished he could have brought home! 
      Another yummy
beach lunch. However, a
sour note occurred though when we paid the bill. A 15% tip
was already added onto the total, which was fine. But then
the waiter claimed 10 pesos additional from
the change he brought us. Now, it's not that $1 is a big
deal, but it's the way it was done that was annoying. This
had never occurred on any of our previous visits but I had read about
it on some internet message boards and it happened to us at three different
beach restaurants this year so it seems to be pretty
widespread these days. I wonder if this is
related to the new flocks of cruise ship passengers? These
are typically one time only visitors rather than folks that come back
repeatedly. It's too bad, though, when
visitors leave on a negative note. As we walked across the island to catch the return boat, we saw these vultures (left) hanging out. Back at the Playa Linda pier, we watched some fishermen unload their nets (center) and saw this colorful pelican (right) who was apparently confused about the seasons. A friend told me this is the "spring plumage" of the brown pelican - but this was the only bird who thought January was "spring." 
We
walked down
to De Donde Eres for
dinner. Wonderful place! It is owned by an
Australian of
Figi extraction (the chef) and his Italian wife (hostess).
Sadly, it will be
closing at
the end of the season as they are returning to Australia. But
we
very much enjoyed their "world food" as they call it. They
have
just 3 entrees featured daily that vary from day to day; price range
$10-$15 for entrees. Tonight John had Thai Pork stir fry and
I
had Sicilian spinach lasagna - both marvelous. For the next
few
months, probably the best food in Zihua!
 Sunday
we went to a worship service at Zihuatanejo Christian Fellowship, a
mission led by John and Beti Sullivan. Besides offering an
English worship each week (in Marisqueria Bar - Prietro's at the end of
Calle Adelita, across the footbridge from the museum) they are involved
in numerous missions in the area - working with children, prayer
groups, bible studies, health ministries and more. Following
that, we stopped at Banamex (their ATM is the type where your card is
put in and removed so it can't be "eaten") and then walked back along
the beaches. On my beach walk this afternoon I finally saw one of the crocodiles at the estuary (right). We had a relaxing afternoon walking the beach, lying around reading. Here is my version of reading in the pool (they had nice shallow steps) and a beach scene including readying a parachute for a trip. 
   We
walked into town again in the early evening (I snapped another view of
the bay from La Ropa Beach on the way - left; and a lone fisherman with
a large audience on the right) and visited the town square (aka the
basketball court) where a fun community gathering happens every Sunday
(left below). We enjoyed watching the people, especially the
kids, and sampled the fried bananas (center - with condensed milk
poured over them - yum); John also tried out the traditional creamed
corn that many of the vendors were offering. Then, having
had
our appetizers we went to Mi Chayito for supper. This is an
Asian/ Mexican restaurant that is very good and also very reasonable.
John had red snapper with tamarind and plum sauce; I had
chicken
teriyaki kabobs. We saw a part of the football playoffs
(commentary was all in Spanish) taking place in Green Bay where the
temperature was below zero. I was very glad to be in Mexico
instead of Wisconsin (or Iowa)! I liked the grillwork around
the
restaurant "windows" - can you see the turtle and the fish in the
picture to the right?      Monday
we walked downtown to Bananas for breakfast - good food, good service,
good prices. To the left is John going down the steps at the
bottom of the steep hill leading to La Ropa Beach - we made this climb
almost every day, sometimes twice. After we cooled down from
the
hike back to the room, we climbed over the rocks to Las Gatas beach
again, passing a yawning (I guess) crocodile on the way, with the
objective of hiking to the lighthouse (El Faro). A couple of
people we asked along Playa Las Gatas said it was "cerrado" (closed)
but when we got to Otilia's, Franco (the head waiter) dispatched one of
his assistants, Carlos, to show us the trail. It
turns out
that the problem is road construction. They are building a
new
road back there - probably for very expensive villas - and it cuts
right across the trail to the lighthouse. It should have
continued on the other side of the new roadbed, but it wasn't obvious
and Carlos just said "Oh, this is new. Different than last
year."
So we hiked up along the road instead and got views of the
Pacific (left and right), of Zihua Bay (center) and of the lighthouse
from there.     We
saw lots of butterflies (that didn't hold still for me to photograph
them) and an interesting spider (left). When we got back to
Playa
Las Gatas we ordered lunch, I took a dip to cool off. Food
and
service were good but Franco played the "keep 10 peso" game we had
observed on Isla Ixtapa. He asked how much change we wanted
and
we gave him a number that allowed a 20% tip. (I had already
tipped for the assistance finding the lighthouse road.) He
brought back 10 pesos less. When we questioned him about it,
he
just laughed and said "Well, then I owe you 10 pesos next
time, my
friends." Yeah, right. Well, we're learning.
We read and watched the birds for most of the afternoon - the frigates (above right) soared around gracefully, looking for gulls to chase in an attempt to steal their fish. Below left is a Little Blue Heron and at the right a young Snowy Egret looking for his lunch. I think the black and white gull in the center is a Heermann's gull. 
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