An Exercise in Spelling

Zihuatanejo. If you pay attention to the cultural zeitgeist at all, you’ve heard of it, maybe without realizing. It’s the Eden that Andy Dufresne was dreaming of, the place he would escape to after Shawshank. Of course, it’s not like that now (if it ever was), which the guide books are keen to remind you, but damn if it didn’t impress me in nearly every way.

If you’ve read the last post, you’ll know we’ve just come through some strange times. Now, in the state of Guerrero and on paper at least, we still weren’t doing ourselves any favours: this was another region we told to stay away from. In my defence, we were just dipping our toe in and keeping to the main roads. And reporting back to you from the other side I can confirm there was not a second of concern across our five night stay.

It was much the opposite, actually. The pale tourists had returned, along with a strong Mexican contingent. On our first lap around town, waiting for access to our room, we saw all the fixtures of a low-key resort: signs in English, intriguing restaurants, boutique lodgings, vendors, and a real effort to keep things clean. What it didn’t have was big resorts. As much as the tourism element was ingrained here, it seemed mostly independent and low-key. It’s also a proper town, with a busy downtown and plenty of commerce on the fringes.

The parallel that comes easiest to mind is Puerto Vallarta, if you excised all the sprawl and crammed it all into a tight little bay. Downtown gets the little but of flat turf in the middle, neatly gridded and surprisingly pedestrianized once you breach the perimeter. To the north, a residential area spreads up into the hills. A lagoon (or is it a river mouth) separates this side from town and is the site of our rented apartment – you’ll have to walk to the beach each day, but it’s quiet and easy and cheaper than the south side by a mile. Squished between hills and the sea, a series of beaches loop around the bay to the south.

You can skip the Playa Principal – it’s a nice backdrop for the city center, but is too close to boats and outflow for swimming. Instead, a short walk will take you to the wonderful Playa Madera where we did most of our swimming. They’ve done a good job with a walkway that runs south from the boats to the end of this beach, the Fisherman’s Walk. If you want to go to Playa la Ropa (and we would recommend you check it out), you’ll have to walk the road up and over this headland. The beach there is much longer. Well away from town, it’s really its own mini-center, much more built up than Madera. But is it better? I wouldn’t say so.

A short boat ride across the bay brings you to Playa las Gatas, really the only disappointing thing in our six night stay. First, the beach is narrow and the sand just below the water line sharp with rocks. Yes, there are the remains of a reef making it a convenient place to snorkel (like so many places, in Zihua you need to get on a boat to somewhere distant for proper snorkeling/diving). No, the underwater creatures here are not extensive or really worth all the other negatives of this beach. It’s a zoo (of people) and I would strongly urge you pass on it.

Aside from our daily swims, we didn’t get up to much else. If you come by plane, I’d recommend renting a car so that you can visit nearby Ixtapa. This purpose-built resort really surprised us. I was ready for the worst excesses of mega resorts; the kinds of things you see down the Mayan Riviera, the kinds of things I despise. And yes, there is some of that, but dare I say that it was reasonably tasteful. There’s really no town to explore, but there are some leafy streets of holiday homes to check out, some wild stretches of sand way at the northern end, and, best of all, a wonderful paved trail that connects it all. Traversing first past giant homes, then in front of the resort strip, it then heads inland along rolling hills where you feel surprisingly removed from the bustle near the beach. There’s even a stretch that leaves the road altogether, into the ‘jungle.’ Our regret was not exploring the trail system further. A note to start your day early – Zihua/Ixtapa was the hottest place yet. Sarah has more about it here.

I don’t do a lot of hotel/rental review here, but wanted to make a quick note about it. As a popular place with limited real estate space, Zihua appears to be a bit pricey. It’s attracting a different sort of traveller and I found options expensive. On the cheap side, you may find bungalows that appear to offer what you are seeking. Take care with these, they probably won’t have AC and are likely to be more rustic than reviews (or their own descriptions) might suggest. That said, this is a place where you want to be central – this is where the real draw of Zihua is. We walked to a place that sold funky baked potatoes. There’s a spot downtown with a little enclave of international ‘food trucks.’ The evenings are made for wandering the various drinking spots, ice cream or street food. If you’re out on Playa la Ropa, you might miss all that. So, as ever, do your research.

Next up, we were at last leaving the beach. New year, new adventures: we had about ten days to cross central Mexico in order to arrive in Veracruz for Sarah to run a half marathon…