Exploring town on foot. We would walk to Centro for most of our meals and souvenir shopping, to La Papa Loca – our local favorite potato dinner restaurant, to MEGA Soriana for groceries, to Playa La Ropa and Playa Las Gatas, to Centro Mercado for fresh mangos and a cheap lunch, and walking just to get lost somewhere new was always fun. Centro is only a 1/2 mile walk along the malecón and beach from our condo. Check the video for the walk to Centro.

Pool time. The casa pool felt great, and since the entire condo building was still 6 months from completion, we had the pool to ourselves. We always finished the night off with a dip in our pool. Even after the condo was finished in April, 2018 there is rarely more than two other people at the pool.

Happy Hour. During our time in Zihua we made a lot of friends with the bartenders. The most difficult decision was which bartender would we be visiting with for happy hour!

Walking to Playa La Ropa and Playa Las Gatas with my parents. The walk there was a lot of fun, and we got to Playa Las Gatas before the crowds showed up. We got overcharged for the water taxi trip back to the Zihua Pier. And then the overzealous pier workers dropped my father on to the pier cement, splitting his shin open. We found the Port Officers, they brought in the pier workers, the boat driver and the boat owner, and in a surprisingly customer service friendly move, they refunded us in full for the ferry trip. We had nothing but positive experiences with the people of Zihua. This was the closest to a bad experience that we had.

Taking the bus to Playa Linda to see the crocodiles and birds. The trip requires two separate buses from Zihua at a cost of 12 pesos each. After our incident with the ferry from Playa Las Gatas, we decided against taking the ferry from Playa Linda to Ixtapa Island.

Walking to Playa Municipal by the Zihua Pier in the morning to see all the fishermen sell their catch from the previous night. It’s very busy, and funny to see a man put a 4 foot long fish he just purchased into the back of a taxi cab.

Attending the First Annual Mezcal Festival. Tequila and mezcal that had been in the sun all day doesn’t sit well in the stomach, even if the samples are free. We still found a couple cool bottles to purchase and bring back to the States.

Horseback riding at Playa Larga with Alisa’s parents. For me, this was the perfect horseback riding experience. We were only on the horses for about an hour. It was a little pricey at $45 USD per person. But we got transportation to and from Playa Larga, and we were back at our casa by noon. It was a nice 2 1/2 hour excursion.

Walking to Zihuatanejo’s Parthenon. We could see this mansion from the other side of Zihua Bay, but we weren’t sure which road led us to the mansion. After examining a few photos Alisa took from the Zihua Pier, we felt confident we could find the “Parthenon del Negro”. The Parthenon was built by Arturo Durazo. He was Mexico City’s Chief of Police from 1976 to 1982, when he fled Mexico due to racketeering charges. The first set of steps we walked up led us to a security guard that escorted us back to the street. But a few minutes later we found a dirt road across from Sotavento Condo’s that led to the massive gate protecting this abandoned building. Pay the security guard, if you can find him, 100 pesos and he’ll let you roam the grounds.

Alisa and her mom took the bus to Ixtapa and got their eyebrows tattooed for 2,000 pesos each. Crazy.

Lots of beach massages. Between Alisa and myself we managed 9 massages in less than a month. Each massage cost 200 pesos. Also crazy.