Oh, Mexico

We've returned from a wonderful, relaxing beach vacation near Zihuatanejo, Mexico. The casa we stayed in was several miles from town on the long, soft sand beach of Playa Blanca. There was day after day of hot sunshine and it was glorious. It was quiet and remote and just felt great. Why do we live in the cold, boggy Pacific Northwest again?

There was a whole lot of swimming every single day.

And a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

The casa had a nice private inner courtyard. We were amazed to see a hummingbird nest right out in the open, about waist high, in the yard with a newly hatched hummingbird inside. It grew noticeably in the week we were there. So cool!

The caretaker, Gabriel, told me all about the many iguanas that live on the roof and in the surrounding trees. He said there were five in this tree alone. I spent a lot of time looking for those iguanas but never spotted one. "Huh," he said, "maybe someone took them." Oh, Mexico.

The house had a part-time cat who showed up daily to be fed and attack our ankles. She definitely ruled the roost and had me out buying cat food and cooking special cat meals. The owner named her Jessica, but we all agreed it didn't suit her, so we called her Gatito (little cat). She was absolutely lovely when she wasn't biting and scratching us.

Every night was a beautiful sunset. One of our last evenings, Gabriel and his family came for a visit and Gabriel fished for sardines (to feed his own cat, Panchito) in the setting sun.

Gabriel, Lenora, and Gabrielito

I'll admit that I've checked out a few Mexican real estate sites "just to see" if there's a perfect beach house for cheap on Playa Blanca (no luck, drat!). So if we should disappear, look for us on the beach just south of Zihuatanejo. [That's a Shawshank Redemption mention there--we even watched a bootleg DVD of it while we were there!]