Loving it in Zihua

Sitting at the desk at my hotel typing this, I can hear the waves crashing and see the boats in the bay and enjoy the beautiful weather. In a short while I will go pay a visit to Playa Larga with friends. Life is good!

Friday was another relaxing one, sleeping in and then off to Margaritas for my usual huevos rancheros and fresh orange juice than back to the hotel to do a bit of internet browsing and more relaxing. Then off to centro for my coffee. Enjoyed my favorite espresso in town at El Cafecito while waiting for a friend and then I was off to the Sunset cruise aboard the Picante. We had 60 tourists this time with a different spread than what I have seen earlier in the season with 12 Canadians, 2 Americans and the rest Mexicans. It was fun with a beautiful sunset but at $59 US I find it too expensive for someone like myself. It does include an open bar and a light meal but I'm not a big drinker and find that many try to get their moneys worth by drinking more than they would normally do and since the owners often mention on sites like Trip Advisor that they don't want this to become a booze cruise the pricing seems counterintuitive. I have been to countless sunset cruises in different part of the world and this is rather pricey but I guess as they have no competition for such a boat they get away with it. Several folks on the cruise mentioned the same to me but I guess it is one of these things you do once. I did manage to get lots of good pictures and bought a couple pills of dramamine for myself and my friend before the cruise at the last shop across the pier and it was the best 10 pesos spent as I had no health issues. The cruise leave from Puerto Mio in Zihua at 17:00 and we were back at 19:30. Good friendly staff and the food was ok consisting of a brochette of grilled chicken and grilled veggies or a vegetarian option, a side of mexican rice and a small side of guacamole. Just the right size to settle your stomach if you have issues with the ride.

Then we went for a walk after geting back to Puerto Mio and decided to go to Los Braseros for dinner. I love that place and with well over a hundred items on their menu, there is plenty to choose and always something for everybody to enjoy. I had some tasty guacamole with some fish tacos and they were great. Washed down with a glass of horchata it was perfect. I got tempted by dessert consisting of a caramel flan and as I was still thirsty had a jugo verde, a nice refreshing blended juice of veggies/fruits. After this it was time to walk it off and then spend some time to cool off in the pool to finish the day.

Saturday, I finally made it to the Eco Tianguis. On my last visit in February, I forgot all about it for the first Saturday I was here and then had party a tad too much on the last Friday here and had to sleep in the day after. This event is every Saturday from 09:00 to 13:00 and although it wasn't as busy as earlier in the season, it was wrth checking out. I tried a couple of vegan tacos( one made with flor de jamaica and the other soy based and they were both very tasty). I also had a drink similar to horchata and it was good. Caught the end of a set from a nice trio and as I was leaving another musician was setting up. Some nice artwork available, good organic coffee and good food.

I went off to get my espresso fix and a chat and relax some more before dropping by Bananas. This is a great restaurant in centro for breakfast/lunch with an awesome collection of pictures of old/new Zihua. I had a fruit plate with a jugo verde while watching a bit of soccer and baseball and then it was off to my hotel for a siesta.

Came back to centro and caught some of the basketball tournament at La Cancha. Bumped into Lupita and Rob and had a chat before joining my friend as we had dinner plans with friends of mine. We went for dinner and drinks to La Katrina. If you haven't tried it yet, go! It's a new style mezcaleria, very nicely decorated, with good staff and a spot to try some mezcal based cocktails. But I was more curious about their food as they were launching a new menu and it looked great on paper. Well, it was delicious. Everything our group of 10 was great aside one item, some local variation of fish sticks, that was too dry. But my smoked tuna in tacos was awesome and the plate setting was imaginative as well. I also had as an app a eart of palms salad and it was served very differently than what I'm used to and I enjoyed it. 2 friends had the open face burger and it smelled and tasted great. Another had some seared dorado cooked in it's juice and again interesting presentation and perfectly cooked. I highly recommend the kitchen and praise to this young talented chef. They also had a band playing outside and they were the best young band I have seen in Zihua so far. They played a mix of american songs covers and latin/mexican music. It's a more polished band than Expression Immune(sp). We all enjoyed the food, drinks and music and closed the place down.

Slept in today and was at Margaritas at noon for my breakfast. Another great meal served by the ever friendly and smiling staff. The place was full today and I was the only north american tourist. Not a bad sign considering this place is more expensive than your average breakfast/lunch spot. While I was there, 4 different guests wished me "enjoy your meal" as they walked by. I'm always impressed by how polite the average Mexican is compared to back home where such politness is gone from the day to day life. But now after all this stress I got to get ready to pay a visit to Playa Larga for my first time in several years so got to go off the laptop and get ready...