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Published: March 15th 2013
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Marie and Virgil.
Marie is a retired ICU nurse from Quebec. She has traveled extensively thru the U.S., Canada and Mexico, mostly by herself. Sadly, Virgil passed away a few days after this photo was taken. We left Maruata on Monday, February 25th and settled in at El Mangler RV Park in my favorite Mexican city, Zihuatanejo.
The park is about two thirds full. Some regulars have left already but others arrived after we did. Situated behind a high wall, we don't get much breeze. Its hot and humid. Temps are in the upper 80s but weather reports say "it feels like 93". Power for air conditioning is excellent so the cats can stay cool during the day. The temperature cools down after the sun sets. GiGi and AnGi enjoy sitting out at night. Internet service here is ok. The cold showers are not. We have to shower in the camper.
The only real drawback is that we can't get enough exercise here. It takes only half an hour to walk the entire beach and return. We make two or three laps a day but that gets pretty monotonous. We make a trip into town about every other day but because of the steepness of the road and lack of sidewalks, it is necessary to ride the bus or take a taxi.
We're getting fat. Food is just too good and too inexpensive here.
It is hard to refrain.
Zihua, as locals fondly call it, is my favorite Mexican town. It grew from a small fishing village in 1970s as the Mexican department of tourism FONATUR began to develop nearby Ixtapa as a mega resort. The area population is approximately 40,000 with Ixtapa's workers residing in blue collar Zihuatanejo. The city is small enough to be mostly navigable on foot but large enough to have plenty of bars, restaurants and other activities. Zihua is still Mexican enough to retain both a central market and a meat market where many local vendors sell and where most local people shop and eat. Ixtapa has numerous high rise all inclusive resorts whereas few of Zihua's hotels exceed four stories.
AAA says that the Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo area is the third most visited in Mexico after Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.
Many people remember Zihuatanejo as the ultimate destination of Andy Dufresne in the movie Shawshank Redemption. Although the closing scene was not actually filmed here the lure remains.
Tue, March 5th. Tonight, we had a most memorable meal. We caught the bus to Ixtapa to eat at Bogarts. This is the swankiest restaurant we've ever dined
in. The whole Casablanca theme was carried out from the lush tropical vegetation to high rounded back wicker chairs, arches, fountains, reflecting pool and even a white grand piano. There was no entertainment tonight though appropriate music played through out the sound system. Photos and movie posters of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall adorn the walls in the cocktail lounge.
Our meal, surprisingly, did not "cost the proverbial arm and a leg". The menu was displayed outside of the restaurant so we knew before we entered that we would order Chateaubriand for two listed at 375 pesos ($30). Other menu items ranged from tuna steak 190 (about $15) to rack of lamb 490 (about $40). We splurged on Caesar salads prepared tableside by our waiter Rey. I have always been leery of ordering Caesar salad because of squeamishness about anchovies. But tonight, I thot what the heck! If there were anchovies in this salad they were some very tasty fish. The salad was out of this world. Ray likes his meat medium rare. I like mine medium well so we split the difference and Rey flamed mine a little longer. Our tenderloin was so tender we could almost cut
it with a fork. It came with both a béarnaise and a mushroom sauce, baked potato, steamed vegetables and huge basket of assorted rolls and breadsticks. Although most Trip Advisor reviewers reported that they had eaten there many times, I doubt we'll ever return. I'd call it a once-in-a-lifetime extravagance that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting this area.
Incidentally, we recently saw the movie Casablanca for the first time and in the way such a great film should be viewed. We saw it at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. The theater was built in the 1920s and restored by the Bill and Lucile Packard Foundation (think HP) in the 1980s. This is one of those old balconied theaters with seating for 1175. Some evenings an organist is seated on a dais which is raised and lowered for his performance prior to movie showings and during intermission between double features. Even tho it is at least a 35 mile round trip, Ray and I love seeing movies at the Stanford. They only show popular movies filmed between 1920 and 1960. Senior admission is $5.00 and large popcorn costs $2.50.
Wed, Mar 6th. Today we caught a
bus to town, visited the meat market where we captured all those of great photos of dead animals. We topped it off with a vegetarian lunch of chile rellenos, rice and black beans. One of gals had energetically hawked their food every time we passed her stall this week. Finally, we succumbed. After lunch, we caught a water taxi to Playa los Gatas (no that is not misspelled). This beautiful snorkeling beach is named for some inoffensive sharks that used to inhabit the sheltered cove but no longer hang out there. The water was comfortably warm but we left all of our snorkeling gear home this year.
For our "last supper" in Zihua, we ate at Carmelita's Cafe. This little open air patio restaurant is listed as the most recommended of Trip Advisor's 169 Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo's restaurants. We visited with Carmelita's son, Paco for quite a while. Paco works for a coffee distribution firm in Guadalajara and speaks excellent English. I commented on his mom's restaurant's Trip Advisor status. He showed us her commemorative Trip Advisor plaque and told us the place is also a favorite of Carlos Slim. Forbes Magazine has listed Senor Slim as the world's richest man
for the past three years. Carlos has a home in Zihua and patronizes or sends his staff for takeout when he is in town. When Carlos or his staff visit, the streets are blocked and the restaurant is closed to other patrons.
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jon
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nice blogs
hey nice blogs, we are enjoying reading them from victoria b.c. my parents are thinking of taking their rv down south for their first time next winter and are hoping to find some fellows rv\'ers to caravan with for the first little while... keep up the great posts!