Desde Zih con Cariño

The first week of the Semana Santa / Semana de Páscua vacation period apparently didn't deliver the expected results. Although beaches were overflowing with tourists, many weren't spending any money here because they apparently brought all their foodstuffs with them. Even the local restaurants are saying sales were way down from the previous year. While hotels in Ixtapa were full, thanks to their mostly All-Included packages most of their guests made no purchases off the hotel property, if they even left it at all. This is a yearly pattern that has gone on for too long, and even though, at least to me, the problem appears easily identifiable and remediable, I see almost no one discussing it beyond a very few locals. So I'm not expecting things to get better in this respect for the foreseeable future. And that's a damn shame.

The city's workers have been working hard to keep the streets and beaches clean, and so far so good. As far as I know there's been one drowning rescue in Zihuatanejo at Playa La Madera and two at Playa El Palmar in Ixtapa.

Apparently the pier will be left operating until the end of the Torneo Internacional de Pez Vela. According to calculations by "folks who know" that would mean that at the earliest it could be finished by next December, though personally I think that's an extremely ambitious projection. If the short stretch of the Paseo del Pescador took over a year then I tend to believe a pier the size of ours will also take at least as long. And if they push it just to meet a deadline for the politicians to get their photos taken then I fear the work will be somewhat shoddy and possibly dangerous, and we need a sturdy well-built pier able to last at least another 50 years, IMHO.

This is the view practically right out our front door of an Amate tree that's shed all its leaves growing by the beach in front of the Plaza del Artista. Soon it will be full of fresh green new leaves, a color we call verde tierno.

The bay has mostly emptied of traveling sailboats and cruisers, but local fishermen were busy this morning trying to put food on their own tables.

Is an "amate" tree in fact a kind of "fig" tree? Sitting at Casa Arcadia we get bombarded about twice a year with bat guano.

Is an "amate" tree in fact a kind of "fig" tree? Sitting at Casa Arcadia we get bombarded about twice a year with bat guano.

Yes, it's a type of Ficus and is also known as a Strangler Fig. There used to be three huge Amate trees at the zócalo and another one between Daniel's and the Hotel del Pescador. Two were cut down for "remodelación" and two others I believe were poisoned by food vendors dumping their grease on them. They make a terrific shade tree and they also feed our neighbors the fruit bats who feed on their figs.

Here it is dropping a gazillion figs. Pobre barrendero.

We used to stay in condos in Zihua when we traveled with our son, even rented a couple of times from your moms company. When you look at packaged deals the 2 of us can stay at the Azul Grand for less than a nice condo on La Ropa without anything included. I don't know what your brilliant idea is to stop people from selecting the best deal unless it consists of taxing the cr@p out of the AI's. We leave the resort at least once a day but I agree with you that most don't as they want to get their moneys worth. We have only stayed at the Azul Grand the last 3 Octobers and most are Mexican tourists so maybe going out to town is no biggie to them.