Trouble in Paradise

Joanne is sick. Joanne is really sick! The quaint roadside eatery last night was not a good idea. Joanne has food poisoning like I have never seen before and we are in the middle of nowhere.

The toilet in the hotel room will not flush and there is no hot water. The nice room overlooking the pool and the beach is now noisy. I keep hoping that Joanne’s constant trips to the bathroom will stop so that she can be moved to someplace quiet. She says she thinks that she threw up her pancreas!

There are only a few hotels here but after about 7 hours Joanne’s spewing seems to be lessening and I manage to get her moved. This is the best hotel in town , and because it is Sunday, they are almost empty and it’s very quiet.

Joanne manages to sleep and when she awakes her system feels like it is in a knot and her whole body aches. You know the animated commercial of the guy in a bathing suit and flippers running across the beach to find a lineup at the toilet. We both took Dukeral…..this product is very expensive and does not work, obviously!

Joanne manages to get some sleep. In the morning some improvement, but she is very weak and her whole body still aches. She decides that we should move. We want to find a quiet place closer to civilization, with a kitchen where we can prepare our own food and relax while she recovers.

Playa Azul is the next major town and it is less than 200 kilometers away. The Sierra de Coalcoman Mountains are not the place to do 200 k. quickly. Highway 200, which runs along the coast, has the most twists and turns than any highway I have ever been on ..EVER!. You go up, up, up the side of a row of mountains and then down, down, down the other side to a river valley. This happens over and over. Some of the valleys are narrow and some are wide with agricultural land. Some of the valleys even have farms or ranches but most are unspoiled. Where the rivers empty into the ocean we found the most beautiful and deserted beaches. This whole area is almost entirely uninhabited and contains spectacular scenery. It also contains one of the most treacherous highways. Susan Smith could not do this drive. “Really Will” and “Don’t look, don’t look” would be heard at every curve. Joanne’s stomach holds up in spite of this!

There is one amazing vista after another!!!!

We arrive at Playa Azul and are not impressed. The streets are empty of people and the place feels like a ghost town. It seems that the recession has hit the Mexican middle class hard and the towns we visit that cater to them are hurting. Joanne really wants a place to relax and recover so we decided to move on to Zihuatanejo. The drive is much easier as we are now in rolling mountains with large valleys. We pass Ixtapa,

which we visited over 25 years ago, didn't like it much then... still don't like it. We finally arrive at Zihuatanejo. We were also here 25 years ago, when it was a quaint fishing village. It is now a town of 60,000 and unrecognizable to us. We have trouble finding a place but eventually we have some luck. A fantastic place, that should be featured in Travel and Leisure, has a pool, an open upstairs kitchen and sitting area. It is georgeous!!!! We bargain hard (show them our backs) and knock 25% of the price. The pictures don't due it full justice.

We have a great place for Joanne to get her strength back.