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Will & Joanne
Zihua (as the boomers call it) is located on a round bay that is protected from the harsh seas of the Pacific Ocean. This has made it ideal for fisherman and hence why Zihua was originally a small fishing village. In about 1980, when we were last here, it was just a small fishing village and it is now a city of 60,000 people. There are 4 beaches in the bay:
Playa Principal or on some maps La Playa del Puerto is the beach in the main part of town. There is a water front promenade with many restaurants, the fishing pier, and fisherman statue,
the fisherman’s market, 
and many tourist and craft shops.
Playa la Madera is where we are staying. It is a smaller beach with black rocky ends that separate it from the other beaches. In the hills surrounding this bay are many small restaurants, hotels and apartments that are filled with well tanned boomers. It is impossible not to meet people here; everyone says hello, people at the next table in a restaurant talk to you, and you seem to keep bumping into people that you have met.
Playa La Ropa is a beautiful, mile long, wide, palm tree lined beach with restaurants and hotels. Zihua does not have the large hotels and condominium towers as there is a height restriction of 5 floors for hotels, apartments and condos and 3 floors for houses. It’s an active white sand beach that is not crowded, has gentle waves and is good for swimming. It is really beautiful.
You can walk along a scenic foot path that joins Playa Principal, Playa la Madera and Playa La Ropa but not at high tide or you’ll get wet for sure.
Playa las Gatas is near the mouth of the bay and can only be reached by a small footpath or by boat. It is a palm lined beach that has great snorkeling. We have not been there yet but it looks wonderful from a distance.
Years ago a ship containing silk fabrics tried to seek refuge from a storm in the bay and crashed into the rocks. The silk was washed ashore on one bay, Playa La Ropa (which means clothes), and the wood from the vessel came ashore on another bay, Playa la Madera (which means wood). For years visitors to the area could not understand why all the families of fisherman were dressed in fine silk.
Zihuatanejo is surrounded by rolling mountains, the Sierra Madre Del Sur.
Zihuatanejo is preparing for its carnival which take place in early February. The streets are being decorated.
There are a couple of American style supermarkets as well as a large, and many small, meat, fruit and vegetable markets.
I like it here and hope that we are able to find a property.
This morning brings the sad news of Marita Thomas’s death. We knew that she was having health problems but this news is shocking. We have great memories of Marita, and our kids will never forget camping in her back yard in Manhattan. Our cottage friend’s might remember Marita as she was at our cottage the weekend that Lady Dianna died. Marita was a kind and thoughtful person who had a gift for writing. She is greatly missed.
I have so many precious memories of time traveling with her,laughing with her, crying with her,and learning from her.
Wonderful Marita, a great writer, a great teacher, a great gardener, a great friend to so many people...one incredible woman!!!!
This is the property of interest.
We collect our thoughts and go over the budget and decide to go for the first property. The property of interest is overpriced and the vendors are going to have to come down in price. yyyyy thinks that this is possible. We go in low, they come back high, we are miles apart. Each party chipping away at the price is going to be a long process and end with a price somewhere in the middle. This is not going to work. We ask yyyyy to obtain their best price and get back to us. They come down quite a bit but not enough. We give them our final offer and we go back to the apartment for a swim. yyyyy'S text message informs us that they have come down more but not enough. We text YYYYY and tell him to thank them for their time and ask to meet in the morning to discuss our next property. We have shown them our backs and we will see what happens.
Nothing happens. Joanne, Pete and Bev agree to let me have my fix of coconut shrimp if I promise to not to say “Why, why, why” every time I see a chicken cross the road.
They are from New Jersey and have been coming here for 28 years. They introduce us to their niece Beverly and her husband Peter.
Bev and Peter invite us to have dinner with them at a restaurant near by. The view is incredible!
Bev was a former executive at Minolta and Peter a NY architect. They now live in the Outer Banks in NC. Our kids will remember spending time there years ago ...remember "Awful Arther's Oyster Bar"?Who can we trust?
How can we get a complete and accurate quote to finish the house?
Will this quote change when we purchase the property?
When will the house be completed?
When we complete the house, what is a realistic selling price?
Is the Mexican neighbourhood safe and could we sell to a foreigner or Mexican?
We are going to be here for a while answering these questions.
We meet to discuss the costs of finishing (cabinets, doors, floors, painting etc.) and fixtures. They are not prepared and give us a few preliminary figures. Scary! We agree to meet again tomorrow.
We have had to switch rooms for 2 days as our wonderful apartment was previously booked. We do not have a kitchen now so we have been eating at small place nearby. The coconut shrimp with mango sauce are fresh, crisp and the best I have ever had. I am addicted. The seating is outside and by a pedestrian road that has a parade of people, dogs and even chickens. Joanne says that she will not eat there any more if I say “Why, why, why?” one more time when a chicken crosses the road. When we return to our old room two days later the owners had placed a plate of fruit in the room apologizing for any inconvenience to us. How nice is that!
We meet again , to get the final figures for completing the house. We receive a written contract and the figures for building and the pool are right but the finishing and fixture are much higher than previous. The builder will rework the figures again and get back to us on Monday. We take the contract back to the room as it requires a great deal of clarification and rewriting as the translation program that they are using is not so understandable. This is Mexico and things are definitely slower.
The place of interest is in a Mexican neighborhood high on the hill that surrounds Zihautanejo. To get to the property requires driving up a maze of steep narrow streets. We have only been driven there and really have only a vague idea of how to get there. To satisfy our fears and concerns about the area, we decide to find the property and walk the neighbourhood. On the contract is the legal description of the community, street, number and lot, we also have a photo of a finger pointing to the house on a map.
It is Sunday and yet another beautiful day. It is obvious that the cab driver, who assured us that he knew the property before we got in, has no clue. After asking many people, he manages to get us in the right general area as we have found a recognizable house. We decide to continue on foot. The problem is that no one knows or uses street names; directions are given using landmarks or well known houses. Our quest soon becomes a community project and we have been joined by small band of kids. As we walk up and down the hill, people come out of their houses. Children are sent to bring anyone that speaks a word of English. Groups of adults point in different directions and have loud and animated discussions. We are finally successful. The house is just up from the school, it would have been easier if we had remembered that, however we have now met many of our neighbours. Joanne clicks flower shots along our quest.
Up early and I am working on plans, just ideas as I have no measurements. I am pleased with our ideas and I complete drawings of;
the front yard with pool, driveway and gardens
1st floor with entrance hallway that opens to back terrace and 3 bedrooms
2nd floor with great room (living, dining and kitchen areas) opens toward the views, and master suite
Extend spiral staircase to roof top terrace covered with peaked Mexican tiled roof, food preparation area and bar, laundry area.
We take photos of the type of architectural details that we like and we feel sort of prepared for our afternoon meeting with the builder/architect.
We meet at the house and things go well. I like the builder and he seems to understand what we are trying to do.
We discuss details and get a preliminary budget – the final budget will be presented tomorrow afternoon. The initial figures are so good it makes me afraid!
At the apartment, our dinner conversation is all about this project.
We do some exploring of the Zihautanejo and the market, but Joanne is still weak and we take it easy.
We get some bad news from Guanajuato, 2 of the properties of interest have been sold. I am upset. The building lot with the sensational view, and the small house on the laneway that we have been waiting for a renovation quote, have both sold. See blog “Our Hunt for Real Estate in Guanajuato”. Real estate in Guanajuato is selling and it seems that you have to be there when a property becomes available and act quickly. This leaves only the El Ejido property in Sayulita on our “A” list. See Blog “Today Real Estate – Wednesday January 14, 2010.”
The news of these sales really upsets me.
Clichés
When the going……………………
Every cloud………………………
If at first……………..
…………………………..get back on the horse
Joanne insists that she is feeling well enough (she probably doesn’t want to listen to me rant anymore) and we decided that the best thing to do is to get busy looking for a new project in the sun. We start exploring the town for the first time since arriving. We walk the downtown area which wraps around a horse shoe shaped bay and is dotted with restaurants and shops on the beach. One of the main streets is a continuous string of flea market vendors selling Mexican made pottery, jewelery, clothing, leather, …you name it! Very colorful!! We pass real estate offices and manage to get appointments to view properties with 2 agents. Real Estate agents here do not get asked for unique fixer upper opportunities – both are intrigued by the request.
In the afternoon, we are shown a couple of typical Mexican homes – boxes with lots of bedrooms, tiny kitchen with no cabinets, small windows and if there is a view you can’t see it in the house.
In Mexico, as in many other parts of the world, people build houses over many years. As they acquire funds they build a little more.
The next home is an unfinished home; the owner had grand ideas but ran out of money - open layout, good size, small yard but good potential, a bit of a view from the roof – near a night club – too bad. This is vacant of course except for the fruit bats that have called this home! They were swooping around the upstairs very upset that we had invaded their sleeping quarters.
The next unfinished house has potential!
Nice yard, good curb appeal, good view of town and the hills, but the inside is a mess. The owner, a smiling and welcoming Mexican, has been building 2 homes and this one has become too much. He passes Joanne a star fruit from a tree growing in the yard so is in her favour right away.
The potential is there but it is such a jumbled mess inside that I can not see how we can develop it.
It has a good mountain view and with a rooftop terrace. There is even a small sliver of the bay visible from the second floor. The front wall with gates for the driveway and walkway would give it great road appeal.
We agree to meet with a builder tomorrow and we go back to the apartment to do drawings and try to come up with ideas.
