Manzanillo, Zihuatanejo, and Acapulco

 Yay! I figured out how to add photos from the ship.

Friday, January 20 Manzanillo

Here’s a photo of Charlie in Manzanillo. The blue sculpture on the shore behind him is a marlin—the symbol of Manzanillo

We should have explored on our own, but instead took the ship's bus tour to the cities of Colima and Colama, both in the mountains east of Manzanillo. Visualize paying big bucks to ride through nice countryside with an unintelligible drone in the background (the bus had a horrible sound system—couldn’t understand much of what the guide was saying) and you get the picture.  On the way to Colima we stopped at a fruit stand that had these giant Jackfruit, and big squashes (on the bottom shelf).

Colima has a pretty town square and a nice museum. Here’s a photo of a man from California getting his mariachi boots polished in the town square, and a picture of Charlie & Jill in the museum!

We traveled on to Colama and had lunch at a restaurant on the town square. Excellent Mexican food and a mariachi band entertaining the lunch crowd.

After lunch, we visited an archeological ruin (pre-Aztec/pre-Mayan pyramids--nearly 3,000 years old). It was a relief to get outside and hike up the excavated site after mostly sitting on a bus. We could see the nearby volcano in the background.

The volcano letting off steam

Saturday, January 21 Zihuatanejo

We took a small boat (called a tender) to get to shore at Zihauatanejo. Here’s a photo of our very serious tender driver! 

Our tender driver

We walked up the beach after disembarking the tender and found a small organic market that’s open on Saturdays, and bought some lunch (and mezcal) to eat later. Live music added to the festivity and there were plenty of opportunities to practice our Spanish. 

Eco-Mercado - lucky we were there on a Saturday!

Next, we found the 4-square-block weekend market where the locals shop. Close by we found a department store where Charlie bought a swimsuit. There is a lot of English spoken in Zihua, but get a few blocks away from the beach and not so much.

All dressed up for Saturday shopping in her sparkly dress.

Another museum, this one right on the beach! We ate our lunch in their shady courtyard and toured the exhibits. Then crossed the bridge over the small river which has lots of crocodile sculptures nearby. We discovered why when we heard someone exclaim about “crocodiles” and saw a small crocodile in the river! It had me reconsidering swimming in the ocean for a nanosecond!

Back to the beach we found a small bar with lounge chairs and umbrellas, ordered a Tecate Light and took turns swimming in the ocean. The sand was like silk and the water was bathtub warm. It was a really great day.

Me under an umbrella drinking a cold beer and watching our possessions

Charlie heading out for a swim (my feet in the shot). Then we swapped places.

Sunday, January 22 Acapulco

We met up with Bent & Susie Olson from Solvang, CA and 2 other couples who were planning to hire a local guide to see the sights in Acapulco. After negotiating a price, we drove past the Las Brisas residential area to the Peace chapel at the top that has a spectacular view of the harbor. There were a group of bikers in full leathers also on a tour! Charlie got a photo—I’ll edit it in later.

You can see the cross from from anywhere in the harbor below.

On our way down the hill we drove by this fabulous Diego Rivera mosaic mural (partial photo).

We stopped at a flea market that had silver from Taxco (sp?). Charlie bargained hard for this silver and Mexican opal ring (Charlie’s holding the ring).

We also saw the cliff divers. Wish I had decent photos of the event, but we talked to them afterward—I was happy to see a couple of young girls giving it a try—beginners diving from a lower part of the rock cliff, but diving nonetheless. I will try to edit in some photos from Charlie’s phone when I get better wi-fi. It’s been challenging getting photos from one device to another. 

Loved these girl divers—I had a good time talking to them with my limited Spanish.

A group of pelicans were also watching the cliff divers.

Charlie got some great shots of Acapulco I’ll try to edit in tomorrow. They give us one logon for free, so we have to juggle between 4 devices. It’s $25/day to add another, so we’re making do. Makes you realize how much we take instant access for granted. I’m having major withdrawal from YouTube! Streaming is another $10/day so out of the question for us.

Tomorrow we arrive at Puerto Chiapas, Mexico—a little over 8 miles from the Guatemalan border. We just heard all our ports in Peru have been cancelled due to demonstrations and political unrest.

I’ll do a blog entry on ship life soon. It’s a different culture and we’re still evolving on that front.

✌️❤️ 

Jill