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For Okanagan, because you asked so nicely. ;-)

If only I could turn back the clock, clear the hillsides of invaders (rich & poor), remove the timeshares and condo commandos, tar & feather the politicians that have betrayed us, and return Zihuatanejo to the place that I fell in love with, a place that put itself on the tourist map for its distinct natural beauty, warm people and serene tranquility, I would do so in a heartbeat.

Local VIPs including my wife entertained "judges" from the federal tourism program "Pueblos Mágicos" yesterday, showing them around and explaining local life and history to them. I understand some Ixtapa folks actually suggested using the name Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo instead of Zihuatanejo. That gave the locals a good laugh.

Our dear departed friend Gene "Cri-Cri" Lysaker (qepd) took this photo of the Palacio Federal (now the Museo Arqueológico de la Costa Grande) and the Escuela Primaria Vicente Guerrero back in the mid-60's back when we still had our beautiful estuary full of mangroves.
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This is a view of Playa Las Gatas back in the mid-60's before it was invaded by a gazillion restaurants.
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This is a postcard from the mid 70's showing the old Hotel Calpulli on Playa La Ropa back when my father-in-law managed it. It was one of my favorite places to hang out.
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:megusta:

--
Humberto Romero
www.casaarcoiriszihuatanejo.com

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Beautiful. Wish we had been there then.

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I was there then, well at least I started coming in 1972 when I was a teenager. There were about 2000 folks living there at that time. Somehow, even though Zihuatanejo has grown to about 70,000, it still has the same feel for me. I still come every year or two and it always feels like coming home to me.

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You must have not been around for quite some time Lalo as the last time Zihua was around 70 000 is in the mid to late 90's. It is sitting at a good 130 000+ nowadays..

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Mexican government statistics suggest 65,000+ in Zihuatanejo and 130,000+ in the entire Municipio (county).

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Thanks for the clarification Lorenzo!

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:dude:

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WOW! Thank you!

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Gracias Rob!!! Makes me cry theses pics!! Wish we could turn back time. So wish we were here year round ! Six months is wearing thin. Got to look @ residence next! :vivamexico: :-)

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We may wish back on the Good Old Days, but how many people would want the way of life then. For me, the Good Old Days would mean no running water in the house(no bath room or water in kitchen) and no electric. There was no electric till I was around 4. That was when we got a fridge and a washing machine. The Good Old Days has different meanings to all of us.

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Not reading any comments yet, just enjoying your pics & stories! Bring tears to my eyes, the beauty of old Zihua! Gracias Rob!!!! Wish you had a heart imogi for "love it" :-)

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I found this on "Another Day in Paradise" via Rob's NEWS link. Wish we'd been around to experience these Good Old Days:

Excerpt from, Mexico on $5 a Day
An Arthur Frommer Publication
1964-65 Edition, By John Wilcock

Side trip to Zihuatanejo

It’s likely that for many years to come, one tiny fishing village after another along the Pacific coast will be “discovered” by advance guards of tourists, each gradually becoming more popular, eventually to adopt all the trappings of the typical up-to-date resort. At present, Zihuatanejo (pop: 1,380), a town where the electricity shuts off before midnight, seems quite content with its fishing, coconut harvesting and the handful of tourists who fly in or make the lengthy, exhausting bus ride from Acapulco, about 140 miles to the south.Work has been proceeding on the road to Zihuatanejo for some time now, and it is paved for all but the last 30 miles of its length. This part gets very muddy after especially heavy rains, but the buses almost always get through. The trip itself is an interesting one through semi-tropical scenery, with occasional glimpses of the coast and three or four small villages, the largest of which—Petatlan— has an interesting modernistic church and an excellent view from the bridge, where you can stand and watch the women of the town do their daily washing under makeshift “huts” erected in the river.Zihuatanejo itself is absolutely beautiful. The beach curves around a small, natural bay in which fishing boats and an occasional sailboat bob at anchor, and in the small town behind, you’ll still see more people riding about on burros than in automobiles. The town is utterly uncommercialized, with nothing to do but walk, lie in the sun and read, or go to the town’s outdoor movie theatre (films projected on a bare wall inside what appears to be an abandoned church), where a film is presented about two or three times a week. The town’s electric system shuts off at 11p.m. each night.There are boats to rent and it’s also possible to go hunting but predators of this sort don’t need any help from me.WHERE TO STAY: There’s an expensive hotel, the Zafari, just as you reach town—ten minutes’ walk from the center—and two others the Irma and the Catalina, on a rocky headland around the bay to the south. The latter two can be reached only by car along a rugged road, and have only American-plan rates (Catalina: 180 pesos double, 100 pesos single; Irma, 10 and 20 pesos cheaper), so both can pretty well be discounted, except for visits. The 18-room Catalina, much the prettier of the two, charges 20 pesos for lunch or dinner; the Irma charges 15 pesos. The Catalina is closed from April to November.

All along the beach, in Zihuatanejo itself, are small, one-story “hotels” or guest houses which charge about 50 pesos double and will sometimes be reluctant to take singles because of the shortage of rooms. The Hotel Belmar, with its tiled balcony, is the best value for the money: 25 pesos per person without meals; 50 pesos per person with meals; and a big room, with three beds that can be bargained down to 70 or 80 pesos. I’d advise taking room without meals, because the meals are better next door at the Hotel Avila, where the rates are higher (about 75 pesos with meals).

Next best bet is the Casa Arcadia, boasting a sheltered, foliage-filled patio with hammocks, which charges 40 pesos per room without meals; the Casa Eugenia, 40 pesos; Casa Elvira (usually booked up with long-term residents), which charges 40 pesos daily but lowers the rates to as little as 25 daily, with meals, for a month’s stay; Casa Marina and La Palmas, both 50 pesos per double room. All of these places are within 200 yards of each other, along the edge of the beach.

Back in town, maybe 200 yards down the main drag, is the Bungalows Estrellita, a one-story, wooden structure divided into 10 simple rooms—not too clean, but about what you’d expect in a small fishing town, miles from anywhere. The rooms cost 25 pesos, single or double, and their main drawback is that they’re away from the cooling breezes of the beach. The same applies to the small Hotel San Pablo, a two-story concrete structure also on the main street where the one-room units rent for 16 pesos single, 20 pesos double; bathroom outside the room.

In the main plaza, right opposite the Municipal Building, there’s a simple, primitive-type Casa de Huespedes (boarding house) which offers rock-bottom-in-budget accommodations: 50 pesos double, daily, including meals. I spoke to a young, beat couple staying there, and they said it was okay if you can live without frills. No mattress, just plain canvas bed with sheets.

WHERE TO EAT: There are adequate eating facilities here, but some slight discomfort may result from the fact that all the hotels hold off serving dinner until 8 p.m. The Catalina and the Irma are good, of course, if you have a car; in town the best is Hotel Avila (not much choice but a good fried fish or steak dinner with soup and fruit for about 12 pesos) or the Casa Elvira. There are two little restaurants, the Nati and the Martinez Conchita, down the main drag, but neither is much to write home about.

GETTING TO ZIHUATANJEO: A second-class bus runs in daily from Acapulco—a fairly exhausting seven-hour ride. The line is “Estrella de Oro;” the buses leave at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., charge 21 pesos each way.

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I'm curious.
Anyone recall how many pesos to the US or Canadian dollar back in 1964/65?

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I'm curious.
Anyone recall how many pesos to the US or Canadian dollar back in 1964/65?

In those days a U.S. dollar was doce cincuenta pesos (12.50).

When my mother, brother and I lived here in '74 a refresco cost 2 pesos in town, 2.50 out at the tienda owned by the Alemán family at La Ropa where the road ended at the beach. La Ropa Beach had the Sotavento and Catalina hotels that were right next to each other but separate hotels, and the Hotel Calpulli about mid beach just south of where the Villa del Sol now sits.

Our first house was where the Hotel Rossy now is. It was one room with no plumbing, one bare bulb that only worked when there was electricity, no kitchen, no bathroom, with a little porch that faced north towards the coconut grove. I dug us a latrine and built a stove to cook on out of bricks I found laying around leftover from the construction of our new house. Water sometimes came out of the long black hard-plastic hose that was extended from the Hotel Calpulli and we carefully hoarded it in several large barrels. We slept on military-style folding canvas cots with no mattresses and had a couple of kerosene lanterns to see by at night. Surprisingly mosquito coils like we'd used in the Virgin Islands were available at the tienda as well as at the Surtidora in town. Of course, scorpions didn't pay them any attention, and after finding 5 the first night in our little house (2 while visiting Margot at her place a short walk away and 3 more at our place) I quickly learned to spot those suckers, except that one time I was walking in the huerta on a moonless night and one fell on my neck and stung me 3 times on my hand and wrist in the instant it took for me to swipe it off. Finger was numb for 3 months.

Our beautiful blonde afghan hound, Clete, had a rough initiation to Zihuatanejo. He was a good runner, and while we were passing a lazy morning sipping coffee and watching the macaws fly past, all of a sudden he saw some cows standing in the distance on the other side of a shallow algae-covered pond from the rains that looked like solid ground, and in about four or five huge leaps he was off the porch across the road and halfway across that scum-covered pond when he lost his footing and wiped out and rolled several times. He stood up unrecognizable from an instant before, covered in pond scum and mud. As he stood there trying to shake the mess off we noticed some nearby logs were moving towards him. Crocodiles! We called him frantically and he came running back home, panting with his tongue lolling in a big smile like he couldn't be happier, putrid mess that he was. That was the day we cut all his beautiful hair off.

Here's a photo of Clete with my mother when we lived in St. Croix back in '71.

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Beautiful photo of your mom and Clete and the scorpion story. Those were interesting days on Playa la Ropa.

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You mentioned bite by a scorpion, I was 13 and we lived on a small farm outside of Tripoli, Libya. I was swinging under a tree when one bite my foot- did it ever hurt. My parents took me to the hospital- I was given the option of a shot for the pain or stay overnight and of course I stayed overnight in pain because I hated needles.

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When I lived in Syria, back in the eighties, I was told that, if you put a scorpion in a glass jar and left it in the sun, it would realize that it was screwed and would commit suicide by stinging itself. Never quite had the stomach to see if this was true.

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I have heard basically the same where if they were cornered would sting them selves to death- 1 scorpion experience is enough. When I was about 5 years old there was an old hermit lived in a log cabin through the woods- when he went to bed at night would have to check his bed and when he got up in the morning would have to shake his clothes out. He lived in an area full of copperheads and never got bit. When he passed, his old cabin was burnt down and it was unbelievable I was told how many copperheads was trying to get away from the fire. 65 years later the area is still infected with copperheads.

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When we bought our property in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, a neighbor who had a job trapping rattlesnakes, told me that there are many on the east side of the valley, but none on the west side, where we now live. In the 4 years we've been here, I've only seen one snake, and it wasn't a rattler.

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The old cabin was at the edge of the clearing next to a old logging road down to the river(a long the route of the North Fork of the Kentucky River, the River has high cliffs on both sides). My relatives bought the property because of timber rights. They tried to turn the clearing into pasture but after building a pond and a couple heads of cattle getting bit, decided just to mow a couple of times a year and keep the old road cleared going down to the river- haven't been there now for about 20 years.

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Thank you soon much for sharing. Sadly the '70's don't seem that long ago...

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I checked my notes from our first visit to Zihua in 1998 and at that time we were getting approximately 5.8 pesos to the Canadian dollar --- depending on where you were exchanging the Traveller's Cheques (remember those ;-) ).

I seem to recall the Mexican peso being devalued in 1994 so that would have an effect on your question as to what the rate was vs. the CAN$ in 1964/5.

Roberto!

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I checked my notes from our first visit to Zihua in 1998 and at that time we were getting approximately 5.8 pesos to the Canadian dollar --- depending on where you were exchanging the Traveller's Cheques (remember those ).

I seem to recall the Mexican peso being devalued in 1994 so that would have an effect on your question as to what the rate was vs. the CAN$ in 1964/5.

Roberto!

Yes, the government removed two zeros so we wouldn’t feel like our currency was worthless.

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My first visit to Mexico was a three or four week trip in December 1982. I can’t recall the exchange rate when I arrived, but it was something like 70 to the US dollar. While I was there it went to 90:1 “on the street”. Then 110:1. I paid for my five star hotel in Acapulco in street pesos that worked out to US$17/night.

I stayed in Taxco for US$14/night.

By the time I left Mexico City in late December 1982 I think it was M$140:US$1 on the street.

I have been in Mexico once or twice each year since then watching the peso go to 3400:1.

Then Mexicans had to experience the 1994 devaluation.

I hope Mexicans never again have to experience the crushing devaluation of their currency. While it might bring benefits to we gringos, it hurts the people we care about.

--
www.dreaminmexico.com

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What a marvelous thread - gracias a todos!
:megusta:
:vivamexico:

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