Bilbo and Agnes's Marvelous Vacation - Part 3: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa

I learned yesterday that people actually read what I write, because Mike picked up on the fact that I'd mentioned we'd spent three days at sea before arriving in Acapulco, and commented "You didn't tell us what you and Agnes did for three days at sea. Do you have video or pictures?" The full answer is coming later, but for now I will just say that we don't have video or pictures of everything. If you know what I mean...

But back to our next port of call: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. It seems that in the 1960's the Mexican government used computers to select locations for tourist development and picked, among others, a sleepy fishing town called Zihuatanejo. The major tourist mecca of Ixtapa was built about three miles up the coast, complete with modern hotels and everything spoiled tourists might require. Zihuatanejo was left pretty much as it was, serving mainly as the port where tourists arrived en route to Ixtapa.

And so it was that the Star Princess sailed grandly into the bay of Zihuatanejo early on the morning of Saturday, November 15th. The town's port can't handle large cruise ships, so we anchored out in the bay and were shuttled to the dock by the ship's tenders.

Once gently deposited at the dock, we struck out to explore the town.

At each port of call, the cruise line offered dozens of tours and other shore activities of varying length (and cost). The only thing that had interested us in Zihuatanejo was horseback riding along the beach; however, Agnes hadn't brought along any closed-toe shoes and neither of us had any jeans, so we decided to skip the tour and just wander around the town on our own. We weren't particularly interested in Ixtapa (the main attraction of which was upscale shopping and beach activities), so we struck out along the paved shorefront walkway to explore.

It didn't take long to leave the main part of the Zihuatanejo metroplex, and we very much enjoyed the beautiful views as we walked along the bay. Remember how I told you yesterday that we felt safe because of all the security forces everywhere?

Here are a few random pictures from our stroll along the shoreline...

Back in Zihuatanejo proper, we visited the Flea Market, a dense network of stalls and vendors stretching for several blocks back into town from the shore.

While Agnes shopped for gifts, I enjoyed watching the spectacle of a huge local bus trying to negotiate a left turn from one impossibly narrow and crowded street into another impossibly narrow and crowded street. While traffic backed up and an occasional horn honked irritably (unlike in Acapulco), the bus inched back and forth about a thousand times until it finally - after almost 10 minutes of effort - managed to squeeze into the new street...whereupon it did exactly the same thing again to turn left into the next street. I wouldn't have wanted to be the driver...

The ship's call in Zihuatanejo being fairly short, we caught the tender back to the Star Princess at about noon, and spent the rest of the day doing as close to nothing as possible.

As a general comment, we found the people were much more genuinely friendly and the vendors far less aggressive and annoyingly pushy than in Acapulco. This was a much more laid-back place. But small, sleepy town or not, there were still lots of security people everywhere...

And a last view of Zihuatanejo...

Tomorrow, I'll have two posts: one for Thanksgiving, and the continuation of our adventures as we arrive in Puerto Vallarta.

Have a good day. The vacation story continues tomorrow.

Bilbo