Just South of Bismark

Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico
February 10, 2010

OK, so maybe we not JUST south of Bismark, North Dakota, but we are on the same line of longitude and that's pretty far east.  All of Central America and the entire continent of South America still lie even farther east than we are here.  Zihuatanejo also marks our furthest point south in Mexico.  In the next couple of days, we will turn north and work our way back up to Banderas Bay where we will take the month of March to prepare for our departure to the South Pacific.

 
We came straight down the coast from Manzanillo doing an overnight trip and arrived in the harbor here just in time to catch the last event of Sailfest, a benefit race that wrapped up several days of other fundraising events that the cruising community organizes.  All the money raised is poured back into the local community.  During this race, locals and tourists can make a donation to get a ride on either a race boat or cruising for the afternoon "race".  I believe I heard that this year the event raised about $40,000. 
Since we had been going overnight, Brad and I were mostly out of it for the first day we were anchored here.  However, Totem organized a dinner and we caught the tail end of the Super Bowl on Sunday.  The dinner was prepared by a local friend of the cruising community, Noemi and I have never tasted mole so good as hers.  We have done some exploring, including the local archeological museum, and some provisioning using Noemi's advice of tiendas!  On a second night at Noemi’s, we had fantastic pazole and re-established the tradition of painting boat names on the wall of the restaurant.

   
Ixtapa is "truly" just north of here and we went up to Isla Grande, just off of Ixtapa, with our friends on Blackdragon in hopes of some good snorkeling.  We had great company, a nice swim and pleasant weather but last week’s weird weather has left the water cloudy and so the visibility was not good for snorkeling.  Blackdragon continued northward and Totem joined us thie next morning in hopes that the conditions were improving because there is a coral reef that we all really wanted to check out.  The visibility had not improved by the  afternoon, but with a lower tide the reef was dry and the few feet of water between it and the abrupt beach were teeming with fish (probably due to the Ixtapa touristas who were feeding them).  The kids had a great time snorkeling in about a foot of water.

Back to Zihuatanejo, to wait out some unsettled weather.  Carnival is in full swing here and there is a “show” at the main plaza on the beach pretty much every night.  Lots of music and the coronation of some part of the Carnival royalty every night.  There is also a different cruise ship in the harbor every morning (they don’t come on the weekends).