When Zihuatanejo Is Not In the News

I hope no one misunderstands my post. We are in year, maybe, 25. I wish nothing would change in Zihuatanejo but it isn't about me. Zihuatanejo is not a museum frozen in time for my pleasure. Change happens. We are responsible for a goodly number of word-of-mouths. The latest being my brother-in-law and his wife from South Dakota who promise to bring their friends from South Dakota. Maybe. It could happen.

But I also came the first time because I liked the sound of Zihuatanejo, I picked it out of a Frommer's guide, Sotavento sounded like perfection, and I got a good package into Ixtapa. Into Ixtapa ecause my travel agent (remember them) thought Sotavento where I wanted to go, was, for some reason, unsuitable. I will not bore you with her reasoning but it was, in retrospect, amusing. Of course, we went to Sotavento the next year without the help of a travel agent. And the next year, we shifted to Catalina and the other 23 years are history.

But had the travel agent not gotten us a package into Ixtapa, instead of Puerto Vallarta, who knows. In this era, Internet promotions, like the Travelzoo site, are the new travel agents and it isn't good if Ixtapa packages are not in the mix.

I don't think that it's a good thing that all the first-time folks get invited to other beaches. I want Zihuatanejo to attract the next generation of visitors. Otherwise, Catalina (where I feel like home) and all the restaurants and people I like so much may not thrive.