Zihuatanejo Day 1

When I woke up, we had arrived in Zihuatanejo. It was 5am, the streets were quiet, and 12 American students had no idea which way to go. We wanted to go to the beach, so we started walking in one direction that we thought was right. We asked the first Mexican we saw for directions and continued walking. In total, we walked about 2 miltes before arriving at the beach. When we finally saw it, we dropped our bags and ran into the water (but not all the way in). The last time I saw a beach was with Tanner in LA in November of 2002.

I laid down my towel and quickly feel asleep to the sounds of waves crashing on the shore. When I woke up an hour later, the sun was rising and Logan Campbell was playing his guitar. He's amazing and I loved waking up to his music. In fact, when he'd stop playing and take a pause, I'd ask him to keep playing because he's so awesome. He sang lots of songs I had never heard. The whole moment was perfect. Everything about it was perfect.

Everyone on the beach
After the sun rose, we took a ferry (from a freelance boat driver) to a beach that Carla (who had a guidebook) said was nice. The beach had many different resturants on it and is exteremly territorial. Each resturant has a part of the beach where their patrons stay. As we walked the beach, the owners (or employees) told you that their part of the beach was the best and should be patronized. We found a part of the beach we liked and stayed there until 3pm.

The boat ride
The beach
Me and Austin
The beach, we later found out, wasn't very nice at all. Since we got there around 7:30am, there weren't many people. As time passed, however, more and more people arrived. Also, there weren't many waves close to the shore, only ones out in the distance. Finally, the beach floor was covered in coral and those people that explored the ocean first came back with cuts and bruises.

But we still had fun. We rented some boogie boards and decided to ride some waves. Initially, I didn't want to do it because I was afriad of the coral cutting my legs up. I really didn't wants lots of cuts and bleed everywhere. After thinking about it, I decided to be brave and do it. People miss out on so many things when they say "no." Living life is all about saying "yes."

I'm glad I did say yes because I had a blast! I'd never boogie boarded in my life and discovered how fun it is. The only problem was the depth of the water in some places (2 feet). So when you'd ride a wave in, you'd end up getting hurt because the wave would slam you into coral that was only 2 feet below you. I came away with some cuts and bruises, but it was worth it.

Coral Cut

At 3pm, we took a ferry into the city and found a hostel to stay at for the night. I'd never stayed in a hostel and quickly found out why. I don't think I'll ever get used to hostels and in the future, will travel the world in nice hotels. The rooms were hot, the bathrooms were weird (from left to right: sink, toilet, shower-no curtains to seperate them from each other), and hard beds. I was uncomfortable at first, but then I got used to it. It would only be for one night.

The Hostel

I just came out of the bathroom. You can see lots of sweat on my face cause the bathroom was like a sauna.

After we dropped our stuff at the hostel, we went to the first beach we went to this morning. We made sandcastles, more particularly the city of New Orleans, and watched a "hurricane" wash our creation away. After 2 hours, we went back to the hostel, changed clothes, and met for dinner.

We chose a nice resturant that had great food! The resturant, believe it or not, actually had chips and salsa--a first in Mexico!! The salsa was really good but extremely spicy! I had to order 2 bottles of water because it was so hot. I ordered a steak and ate it with tortillas. The meal reminded me of when I was 10 years old and staying in a hotel room in Honduras with my parents. It was my birthday and they let me order a steak. I remember it being a great meal, just like tonight.

I'm ripping the tag of the back of my shirt because it was annoying me. Usually, I have an undershirt on, but it was so hot that I couldn't possibly wear one.

After dinner, everyone but Austin, Andrew, and I went back to the beach. We were going to meet up with the rest of the group later, but first Austin and Andrew watned to get some beers.

It was in a loud bar that I realized how much it wasn't my scene. I'd much rather be at home, making dinner, and expecting friends to come over and play games. Andrew commented on how different the three of us are and I responded by saying, "Yeah, I never would have been friends with you otherwise." Austin said, "Yeah, especially since I don't know where your house is", implying that I'm a homebody. I am and I love it!

After they drank their beers, we met the rest of the group on the beach. Logan played his guitar and we sat around and listened. One great part was when Logan played, "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash and everyone sang along. There was even a strange ring around the moon, a sight I'd never seen before.

We ended our day on the same beach we started our day. It was perfect.