ReflecZIHón Tropical

I realize that I am setting myself up here, but we have now lived here almost 4 years, full time. We have explored Ixtapa a bit, been to the movies, the vet, Fisher's, Isla Ixtapa area.

We found the beach access at what we think is the end of Ixtapa, by the parking lot by the falling down lighthouse structure by Fisher's.

We have looked, and not seen any other.

Locals get leftovers.

There are 3 remaining public access points for locals or non-hotel guests or non-condo commandos to access Playa El Palmar:

1) Playa La Cucaracha (inviting name, no?) at the southernmost end of Playa El Palmar whose entrance is located between the decrepit and abandoned VIP house once used by presidents and the lofty when there was a long pier out in front of it and on the other side by the tennis courts and time-share condos of what is currently the Barceló. The mangrove area that somehow manages to exist there keeps losing ground to machetes and machines, parking lots, helipads and tennis courts.

2) Carlos'n'Charlies' (that's what locals will always call it) whose entrance is about mid-beach at the alley between the horrific slave facility for dolphins and the noisy discoteca that makes their living hell even worse. It only exists because locals insisted the law guaranteeing public access not be totally ignored, even though it mostly was. Lots of bad things have happened in that parking lot. Glad I was never one of them.

3) Las Escolleras, the extreme northernmost end of Playa El Palmar where the rocks form a breakwater for the marina inlet. The quieter end of the beach. Its entrance is between the Ixtapa Iguana condos' tennis courts and the Peninsula skyscraper condo that broke all kinds of building codes but paid off all kinds of politicians and bureaucrats. This part of Playa El Palmar is popular for surfing and where competitions are sometimes held. I liked it better when there was a small restaurant there on the tall dune (now leveled) next to the inlet to a lagoon before the massacre of crocodiles and mangroves occurred to transform the lovely lagoon and estuary into a little-used poorly maintained marina. Maybe it's just me.

I believe they are all visible via the Google map on my ZIHUATANEJO-IXTAPA MAPS page