Yes, I would love to keep ZIH in a capsule protected and rare, I love it so much. Eva is one of the last that represents old Zihuatanejo
I dreamed about buying her place and keeping it pretty much the same but I don’t think that’s in the cards
I’ve traveled enough to realize just how special that place is.
I pray for it to continue and that someone can help

Admittedly I'm a major newbie and only been to Z a few times and only in the last 2-3 years.
But I know just a little bit of the history of the time when the Catalina housed the major "psychonauts" on the planet in that experiment in the early 60's.
I also know that the few times I have walked by the beach part of the Catalina I have seen very few people, very little activity to the point that I wondered if it was still functioning?
Are the steps down to the beach such an impediment to people actually getting down there?

Im case you are not familiar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zihuatanejo_Project

Just reading this update on the Catalina I am not surprised as I can imagine the operating costs to keep this up year-round as well the staff from what I was told (they keep the staff on year-round, which means in months when the place is next to being empty.) I love the Catalina for many reasons, charm, Eva, the staff, the grounds, and the great vibe. I have been a regular since the next door shut down in 2009/10 and yes its been up for sale for many years, they had a buyer a few yrs back but it didn’t work out. The property is overpriced based on what I saw and did some basic math, the added in how building gets done/permits, etc. in ZIH based on feedback from a few local restaurant owners and you upside down really fast.
I was asked in the past as to suggestions by them as to what they could do to help drive more revenue (was in the restaurant business for many yrs.) so I offered up some low-cost items. My suggestions involved marketing, improving the beach bar and restaurant process and ops (outsourcing that space or lease it to a new restaurant thus would drive more clients to the hotel) suggestions around filling up the hotel in off market periods. The food/bar there unfortunately is not very good compared to nearby establishments, in fact we rarely eat there and the bar is under leveraged (the don’t even ask their guests on the beach if they want a drink, etc. which they could 5x revenues with an active waiter), they could be pulling much more $$ in daily revenue from a multitude of sources all of which would not create a capital infrastructure cost.
We always stay up near Eva so the rooms are nice and clean, never had an issue there. I personally love the atmosphere there, it’s very old school, 50’s style and the lush green plants/forest are amazing (as it was next door prior to the new owners). The stairs are great, the pool is fine and the views are breathtaking as well the beach. The staff of course are all wonderful people, but things change and revenue is key. My hope is Eva’s son can stabilize this business as if not then you will see it get shut down, then everyone will be out of job and us regulars will have to find a new place when this one is irreplaceable. My biggest concern is this, there is a Global financial tsunami coming our way in the next 24 months, so I hope/pray they can get this together prior to when this hits..

I’m mostly in agreement with you, but I see the Catalina’s biggest threat from overbuilding and the too high-density goddam timeshares that have been allowed to operate at La Ropa. The overbuilding of condos is bad enough. I’ve seen this movie in other tourist destinations where I’ve lived and it never ends well for the local community, its culture or its flora and fauna.

"Florida can never really come to grips with saving the environment because a very large percentage of the population at any given time just got there. So why should they fight to turn the clock back? It looks great to them the way it is. Two years later, as they are beginning to feel uneasy, a few thousand more people are just discovering it all for the first time and wouldn't change a thing. And meanwhile the people who knew what it was like twenty years ago are an ever-dwindling minority, a voice too faint to be heard."
John D. MacDonald, "The Empty Copper Sea" (1978)

[sensitive personal information regarding Eva and Javier has been removed by ForumAdmin per request]

Her son is supposedly running the hotel from Berlin Germany.

As far as the hotel, maintenance is not up to par, we do see people doing maintenance, but in general it's not the Catalina that I've known.

1 thing specifically the stairs are not as well-lit as they used to be, most of the lights that used to be along the wall are missing.

The food is still very, very good and the pool of course it's wonderful. The restrooms in the restaurant area have been out of order since we arrived. there is a very large ant hill at the top of the stairs as you enter into the restaurant.

Our room as we arrived wasn't very clean, we had a couple of cockroaches visiting, and there's a massive number of ants behind a picture below the air conditioning and they've been very busy.

The area around the pool is sketchy, there are very sharp edges where concrete has broken away. ( this is at the surface outside of the pool.)

I don't know about last night, but Thursday night there was no sunset bar. If you made your way to the restaurant the waiter did make some drinks. The table next to us, wasn't happy with their drinks and one, quest returned her Tequila Sunrise, saying it was undrinkable.

I am fairly certain I will go back to Villa Mexicana next year.