Pacifico Coast: Z i h u a t a n e j o

Last Friday night after work, I hopped on an overnight bus and woke up early Saturday morning with the sun rising through the bus windows on one side and the Pacific crashing on the other. After about 10 hours total, I was finally in Zihuatanejo in the Mexican state of Guerrero (about 2.5 hours up the coast from Acapulco). A group of us rented an apartment in Zihuatanejo for little beach holiday. While I’m usually not so good about actually relaxing on vacation, this was good practice and for the four days I was there, pretty much did nothing but beach hop. The first day was spent on Playa de Ropa (supposedly named because clothes from a shipwreck washed up on shore).

On Sunday we headed south along the coast to an area called Barra de Potosi.

And arrived back in town for a little dance presentation

Sunday we wandered over to Ixtapa, a very touristy town centered around large resorts (compared to a more low key and laid back Zihuatanejo). We didn't end up doing much in town, but took a boat over to Isla Ixtapa for the rest of the afternoon.


Tuesday we took a boat from Zihuatanejo to a beach called Las Gatas, which is supposed to be great for snorkeling. Unfortunatly, while there were some fish, it wasn't the best snorkeling.

So while we had been in Zihuatanejo, there had been a series of wave-related deaths along the pacific coast only an hour south, but luckily we had not really seen anything to be concerned about. So while a boat pulled up on the beach and unloaded a sword fish (see below), one of the approaching water taxis was toppled by a wave, sending all the passengers into the sea. Many Mexicans cannot swim and lets just say that lifejackets aren't really a common sight on boats. Luckily there was a quicky response from the other boats in the area and all the passengers (including 3 small children) were quickly fished out of the water.

The water taxi being dragged back to shore to be bailed out (was later successfully emptied and the motor restarted)