Zihuatanejo

After my Fulbright reunion in January, Allie and I hopped the overnight bus to Zihuatanejo. We arrived at 9am and metup with our Couch Surfing Host, Jai, a Portugese scuba diving instructor that would turn out to be one of the most generous people I have ever met. He let us stay in the spare bedroom of his perfectly central apartment for five entire days. Jai greeted us at the basketball court when we got out of our taxi and showed us around town. We first stopped at a Vegan farmers market on the white sand beach where we tried raw food wraps and bought a bottle of home-brewed kombucha. Allie has her master’s in biology and has since become very interested in fermented foods and is a major home-brewer of kombucha herself, so this was a pretty magic moment to say the least.

Zihuatanejo is a cute, super-laid back beach town next to the resort-filled Ixtapa and just a bit north of Acapulco. There are a number of U.S. Americans and Canadians from my parents’ generation hanging out for a few months at a time. The woman who brews the kombucha is an American who has been living in Zihua for about 12 years. She invited us to her house to get some bulgaros (water kefir cultures). Used to brew a probiotic drink) and check out her kombucha setup. While there, she taught us how to hang upside down in her yoga hammocks and stretch it out. We walked home a bit in awe of this ex-pat yogi.

Jai also brought us to a beach a bit off the beaten path, Playa Larga, where we ordered fresh fish, swam in the ocean, and played with his greyhound mutt pup, Ellie. We snorkeled at Las Gatas and stayed in the water until our faces hurt from our snorkel masks and then went in later to find the stone Jesus statue hidden in the water. On our fourth day, Jai offered to take us out on the boat with him and his scuba class so we could snorkel off shore by some giant rocks. It was like the day before but magnified. Gentle waves pushing the groups of vibrant blue fish back and forth, the hint of fear that you’re way far out in the ocean, and endless little corners to peek into. 

           After snorkeling, Jai took us to our fourth and final beach, Playa del Ropa. A group of mariachis approached us and I told them I go through the Mexican side of customs in the airport and would they give us a deal on two songs por favor? Allie didn’t think it was worth it at first, but once they started to play she got up and didn’t stop dancing until the very last note was played. She learned the important life lesson that mariachis on the beach are always a good idea. After some chips and guacamole, Jai went back to work and Allie and I continued swimming in the ocean and sipping on our coconuts. We finally had to leave to get some dinner (sushi for a second time that trip) before we took our separate overnight buses to our separate cities of Querétaro and Pachuca. Hugging and promising to see each other soon, she left first. I took some Dramamine and waited for my turn to head home.