Zihuatanejo

Another overnight bus to Acapulco. Wow, we had no idea how big Acapulco is. We decided to catch another bus right away to Zihuatanejo, which you may remember is mentioned in the movie "Shawshank Redemption". We got to Zihua around noon thirty and spent some time figuring out what to do. We had considered taking another night bus but my neck was hurting and we figured out that we could still make it to the Texas border by the 12th. We bought tickets for Puerto Vallarta for the next night.

Zihuatanejo is much more touristy than Puerto Angel. It has been a different experience. At times I have been embarrassed by the other Americans here. On the other hand, I have found people in general to be more friendly, starting with our taxi driver from the bus station. Most of the taxi drivers have been rude or tried to take advantage of us, but he didn't ask for an exorbitant fare and he made an effort to find the place we were looking for and even told us a little about the town without being asked.

Alaine the morning after a a night of drinking

Alaine had called from the bus station and been given a price of $19 for a room at one of the hotels listed in our guidebook. The place was pretty nice and the people there very friendly. There was a restaurant attached to the hotel and we went there and split an order of fish tacos. We walked a little on the seaside and then found a store with little tables in front where we could drink beers for a dollar. We drank two during a game of Skip-Bo. There was a funny lady who kept walking by and thought we were playing Uno and was fascinated by it. After that we went and shopped in the mercado but didn't buy much. Then we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall bar with a talkative owner. We a had a beer and then he talked me into a margarita with some good tequila. We looked around for a place for dinner and finally settled on a little taco place that turned out to have some super-hot sauce. Then we stopped in for more beers at a little gringo-ey bar and finally headed back to the hotel.

Next morning we went to get cappuccino at a place that the guide book said had the best capuchino in town. It was about 99% milk; you could barely taste the coffee. Bad Rough Guide, bad! We had a nice breakfast after that and we decided not to go across the bay to snorkel because the water didn't look so clean.

Most of the rest of the day I spent in another gringo bar using the internet with Alaine coming and going. There was a guitar festival going on in town and a few bands played at the bar. We left there and picked up our luggage from the hotel and went to catch the bus to Puerto Vallarta.