{"id":487,"date":"2015-01-14T09:43:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T15:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/?p=487"},"modified":"2022-06-16T12:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T17:00:57","slug":"el-neptuno-de-zihuatanejo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/2015\/01\/14\/el-neptuno-de-zihuatanejo\/","title":{"rendered":"El Neptuno de Zihuatanejo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oliverio<\/a>
Oliverio Maciel D\u00edaz, el Rey Neptuno de Zihuatanejo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A real-life legend of Zihuatanejo, Oliverio Maciel D\u00edaz was born Nov. 12, 1924 here in Zihuatanejo. By the age of 10 he was fishing and free diving,  spending most of his time on and in the water. Friends from that era say he was a true sireno<\/em> (merman): half man and half fish. By the time the decade of the 50’s rolled around, thanks to the introduction of the “aqualung” to the area by don Carlos Barnard in 1949, Oliverio had become the most proficient local diver, earning the nickname “El Rey Neptuno”, and for the next 4 decades he was sought by the rich, the powerful and the famous to take them diving. He also collaborated with Jacques Yves Cousteau.<\/p>\n

\"Oliverio<\/a>
Oliverio Maciel D\u00edaz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oliverio eventually became the most sought-after expert who best knew the waters of the entire Costa Grande. He had roles in numerous movies including “La Tintorera”, “Cicl\u00f3n”, “El Tri\u00e1ngulo de las Bermudas”, “El Ni\u00f1o y el Tibur\u00f3n”, “Beyond the Reef”, “Las Pira\u00f1as Aman en Cuaresma”, “Historias del Rey Neptuno”, and “El D\u00eda de los Asesinos”. There was even a character dedicated to him in the popular comic “Chanoc”.<\/p>\n

During 1955 and 1956 after a lengthy investigation Oliverio searched for and found several cannons and anchors in Zihuatanejo Bay in the area known as El Eslab\u00f3n, located between Playa La Ropa and Playa La Madera. One of the anchors was attributed to the 60-cannon ship “Centurion” that had been captained by the British corsair George Anson from when he spent time in Zihuatanejo Bay during 1741 and 1742 hunting Spanish ships including the “Nao de China” or the “Gale\u00f3n de Manila”.<\/p>\n

\"Oliverio<\/a>
Oliverio Maciel D\u00edaz with Anson’s  anchor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cannons he recovered were attributed to the Spanish vessel “Nuestra Se\u00f1ora del Monte Carmelo”, known to have been intentionally sunk there by Anson on February 27, 1742. The name of Playa La Madera is allegedly attributed to the wood that washed up on the beach for several years later from this incident, and the name El Eslab\u00f3n (the chain link) also derives from this incident.  Some of the cannons and artifacts he found can still be seen at the Museo Arqueol\u00f3gico de la Costa Grande on the waterfront of downtown Zihuatanejo, and one of the anchors can still be seen at Playa Las Gatas.<\/p>\n

Oliverio founded a diving school and diving tours business as well as a restaurant at Playa Las Gatas, Oliverio’s. The restaurant is run today by his children and grandchildren. During the middle of the 1970’s when Oliverio’s diving business was thriving, my wife Lupita Bravo became not only his apprentice but was considered almost a part of the family.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/a>
Los Morros de Potos\u00ed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of Lupita’s most cherished memories of that time that I find remarkable is her description of diving near the islets known as Los Morros de Potos\u00ed in Bah\u00eda de Potos\u00ed, just south of Bah\u00eda de Zihuatanejo. She says she was diving in crystalline water near the guano-covered islets with Oliverio when all of a sudden she found herself literally eye to eye with one of the greatest hunters of the oceans: a sailfish. She recalls that she grabbed onto and hid behind Oliverio who never moved but who instead floated calmly in front of the great fish, and he urged her to come out from behind him in order to better appreciate the rare experience, an experience she recalls with the same awe now as the day it occurred.<\/p>\n

Oliverio lived out his final years in a modest home at Playa Quieta where he died on July 10, 2002. QEPD<\/p>\n

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\"D\u00eda<\/a>
D\u00eda de Muertos altar for Oliverio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\"D\u00eda<\/a>
D\u00eda de Muertos altar for Oliverio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A real-life legend of Zihuatanejo, Oliverio Maciel D\u00edaz was born Nov. 12, 1924 here in Zihuatanejo. By the age of 10 he was fishing and free diving,  spending most of his time on and in the water. Friends from that era say he was a true sireno (merman): half man and half fish. By the time the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “El Neptuno de Zihuatanejo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,30,48,83],"tags":[94,86,92,95,93,87,88,89,85,62,84,28,91,90,9,56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zihuatanejo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}