Swimming in the Pacific Again

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We arrived here on Friday afternoon, after a comfortable four and half hour bus ride arcoss mountains and valleys from Patzcuaro.

This is a different country from Patzcuaro and Morelia..very touristy and tourist driven. Everyone attempts to speak English to us, and to sell us something....but the beaches are beautiful and the seafood great....Hotels are more expensive: we are paying $92 a night here compared to $35 in Morelia and Patzcuaro...but we have an ocean view..and direct access to the beach.

Today, Saturday, I woke up early and decided to go for a run on the beach, since I was feeling better. There were many runners and walkers; a mix of Mexicans and gringos. Again here, there are many older people, and not many backpackers. After my run I waited til the sun came up far enough to hit the ocean, and went swimming. It was great to be back in the water again!

A giant cruise ship pulled as I was swimming...it just loomed over the bay! Bill and I ate breakfast and walked into town, amongst the many cruise passengers, to get money, since we had to pay our hotel bill in cash.

After I took another swim to cool off, we hiked up and over the hill to the south of our hotel to the next beach where we had lunch, and then hiked back.

We will stay here til Monday am and then take a bus to Acapulco (four hours) and then another ( five hours) to Taxco, a silver town south west of Mexico City.

I've added some phots from earlier in the trip since this is a fast computer!

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Photos

Valentine's Day in Patzcuaro
As I said before, this is a big holiday here in Mexico. Some one had written I love you in Spanish on each of these balloons....

Morelia bus station
These are the first class buses. We are in Morelia for the second time, since we had to back track to catch the fast bus to Zihuatanejo.

Playa de Ropas
This is the beach we hiked to for lunch. It got its name from a shipwreck where many articles of clothing washed ashore here.

The towels on our bed!
These are real flowers..hibiscus...We hated to use the towels and ruin the display...

The street leading down to our hotel
The town itself has many semi-pedestrian streets. Erverything around the beaches is geared toward tourists. There is a nice paved walkway between the town beach and ours, where young couples go in the evening. The beaches are kept very clean, but we've read that water gets polluted in the summer.