We spent the last week with my mom, dad, and brother in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. They stopped there on a cruise last year and wanted to go back. For Lelaine and me, it was our first time.The town sits on a bay and is surrounded by hills. Our place was on a hill overlooking the south end of La Ropa beach, which is the biggest beach in town.
Sunday morning we lounged around the condo most of the day, listening to the Chiefs-Cardinals game on the radio and the NFL games that were broadcast in Mexico. All of us but Mom went down to another of the beach bars, where a group of Canadians were watching Canadian football. It was 20 degrees and snowing in Saskatoon or wherever the game was being played, a good 70 degrees less than the temperature in Zihua.
On Monday Lelaine and I spent all day on the beach at the Tides, a big fancy hotel on Playa la Ropa. While it wasn't the cheapest place to spend the day - beers and food were more expensive there than almost any other place in town - it was very relaxing. My dad had to leave that day to work in Texas for a couple days, and that night the four of us ventured into town to eat at an Italian restaurant.
On Tuesday we went to Ixtapa, but didn't do a whole lot there other than my mom doing some shopping. The towns are pretty close to one another, and if we ever go back I would definitely stay in Zihuatanejo. Once again we went into town for dinner and Lelaine and I split beef molcajetes, which was a stew type dish served in a molcajetes that was one of my favorite foods of the trip. They also made salsa tableside, which was pretty tasty.
One of my favorite things for breakfast is chilaquiles, which is tortillas soaked in salsa with chicken and eggs. Wednesday morning we went to this dive that I had read about that had a good version and I was pretty pleased. Matt seemed to enjoy them as well. Later in the morning Lelaine and I went into town and took a water taxi to Las Gatas beach, which is a smaller beach on the other side of the bay. The water there was really clear and Lelaine snorkeled and I kayaked. We also each had a huge pina colada served in a hollowed out pineapple.
Thursday my brother, dad, and I went out on the Picante, a big catamaran. Lelaine was going to go but she was afraid that even with an anti-motion sickness patch, she might get sick (like last year when we snorkeled with Maya and Tyson in Cabo and I thought she was going to die). It was a great day. We sailed out of the bay and down the coast, did some snorkeling, sailing, drank a few cervazas, and swam. That night we found a hotel that had a Thanksgiving buffet, which was pretty good. The pie was awful, but the rest of the food was pretty good considering no one at the place seemed to be too familiar with gringo holiday food (Mom claims, but Matt disputes, that someone called the ham "cow").
We spent most of Friday, our last full day, on the beach. Lelaine and I went into town to eat tacos al pastor, which we had been eying and a guy on the catamaran the previous day recommended. After eating about eight of them (they were small) and a chile relleno we headed back to the beach. Being the kind son that I am, I even took a few back for Dad and Matt, who were back at the beach and being solicited by guys asking if they needed senoritas for the evening. I tried a michelada - lime juice and beer - which was maybe the worst drink I have ever had. That night we went to a restaurant we had read about as being pretty authentic, and it was really good. I had chicken enchiladas with green mole, a tamale, and a couple margaritas. I thought they may have been the best margaritas of the trip (I sampled a good number), but Mom, a margarita connoisseur, claimed otherwise.
Saturday we woke up, sat outside for a bit, had one last order of chilaquiles, and then went to the airport. When I woke up Sunday morning back in DC I was sad that we couldn't sit out on the patio and look out to the beach.
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