Everything is closed. We’re all a bit depressed. It’s hard to find the motivation to do anything. Ali and I hadn’t done a “Field Trip Friday” since January. I’m guessing there are about 6 billion people across the world that feel like they’re in a rut. We work as much as we can and get outside a little. You know, try to find the motivation to clean, exercise, read, accomplish something each day. So what are we going to do about it? Well, WE are going to Field Trip Friday it up again!
We had to really get inventive with our process for some kind of Field Trip Friday trip. I was drawing a blank. The beaches and public trails are all closed. But I did notice people on Playa Contramar when I went scuba diving in January. It’s a small cove for beginner SCUBA divers, and not a well known beach spot otherwise. The touristy beaches all have government officials or military guys posted up to prevent anyone from making their way to the beach. However, Playa Contramar is not a touristy beach. In fact, I don’t even know if it’s considered a public beach.
Ali and I took the ATV towards Lazaro Cardenas, the neighborhood up the hill on the other side of the pier. The path would normally be hard to find, but the sign in front of the path saying the beach was closed helped us out. Maybe it is a public beach that just isn’t really maintained. The dirt path right beside the private entrance to Monte Cristo, an exclusive gated community of homes set along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the far end of the Bay to Zihuatanejo. We followed the well-worn path for about 6 minutes until it opened up to a little inlet around the bend of the Bay of Zihua.
We spent the next 90 minutes watching a few small boats fishing, several guys jumping off a crumbling concrete building into the water 15 feet below, and a group of young men sharing soda and tequila. Unfortunately the beach lacks sand, so it’s not the best place to sit in the sun. But for snorkeling it’s great. On a normal non-covid day this is a cool place – it makes you feel local.
The entire beach area looks like there was a small resort here twenty years ago. But something caused it to shut down, and time has turned it into a mess of roofless concrete bungalows and overgrown weeds. Adjacent to our little beach was a manicured area not accessible to us locals. Through the gate I could see a security guard sleeping under the palapa roof of what looked to be a bar. I think this is the area for the Monte Cristo folks.
We’ll make sure to get back in to the habit of finding some way to get out and do something more often again. I’ve heard there’s a cave up in the hills. Maybe that will have to be our next Field Trip Friday mission. We’ll be back to Playa Contramar, too.
Update: On Monday, 3 days after our field trip, five people were arrested surfing off a nearby beach. So, we’ll probably be avoiding the beaches for a little bit. We aren’t really interested in touring a Mexican jail. That would make an interesting blog, though!
