88
September 2010
Alaska Airlines Magazine
courtesy: ixtapa-zihuatanejo CVB (2)
the tiny fishing village was surrounded by tropical vegetation so green and lush, our journey there was punctuated by a chorus of blissful oohs and aahs. Struck by the area’s natural beauty, my friend and I found a flat place to camp encircled by coconut palms a few feet above the village’s azure bay, in which Spanish galleons had once anchored on their arrival from the Philippines. A young boy approached gingerly, handing me a ripe papaya as a welcome offering, as though we had disembarked from just such a galleon. There were only about 2,000 residents back then, Zihuatanejo local Hector Olea, a veteran snorkeling guide, tells me on a recent visit. The town had only a few rustic hotels, some houses with rooms for rent and a handful of no-frills restaurants, he says. Today, the area’s population is estimated at well above 100,000, demonstrating the growth that began in 1972. That year, the Mexican government’s tourist-development trust, FONATUR, chose a beautiful, two-mile crescent beach, set between towering headlands three miles northwest of Zihuatanejo, for Mexico’s second integrally planned tourist center (after Cancún), and named it “Ixtapa.” Today, this twin-cities urban area is officially called “Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.” Yet, sitting with my feet in the sand under a palm-frond palapa on Left: Ixtapa’s Hotel Zone is located along scenic Playa del Palmar. Above: The par-72 Club de Golf La Marina, designed by Robert von Hagge, features 12 bridges that cross meandering canals. Alaska Airlines Magazine
september 2010
89
courtesy: Villa de la Selva
Above: Villa de la Selva in Ixtapa offers spectacular oceanside dining. Below: Zihuatanejo’s palm-fringed municipal beach is one of the area’s many lovely beaches.
Zihuatanejo’s municipal beach, watching the sun set while I sip a Negra Modelo, I consider how little seems to have changed in the village. Locals promenade along a bayside path in the cool evening air; children laugh and play ball; and the sea laps at the sand a few feet away, as the sky turns a beautiful shade of tangerine. A flotilla of fishing boats called pangas—long, narrow and open to the elements—has been pulled up onto the sand just off the Paseo del Pescador walkway. Otherwise known as the malecón, the walkway separates the beach of the bay
Las Brisas Ixtapa: Playa Vistahermosa, Ixtapa; 866-221-2961; www.brisashotelonline.com Dorado Pacifico: Paseo de Lote 3-A, Ixtapa; 877-936-7236; www.doradopacifico.com The Tides: Playa la Ropa S/N, Zihuatanejo; 866-905-9560; www.tideszihuatanejo.com
Coconuts (open October–May):
from a 16-square-block downtown with restaurants and shops, which sell a remarkable variety of Mexican crafts. Most of the fishermen do their fishing—for species including huachinango, dorado, bonito and cocinero—20 to 30 miles out to sea, at night, when the fish are most plentiful. For the daytime sportfisher, Zihuatanejo’s waters are considered among the best in the world for sailfish and marlin. I awake early the next morning to visit the fish market, which starts on this beach when the pangas return at dawn. There are no stalls—just fresh fish lying on canvas sheets or a few wooden counters. Fishermen back from working the longlines sleep on the sand, repair nets or eat hot tacos. Some play checkers using bottle caps for pieces. The scene is an intimate snapshot of daily life on this Mexican beach. The juxtaposition of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo is alluring. In Zihuatanejo—where the traditional ways and distinct culture persevere—locals greet old friends as they pass by their stores, and life moves at a leisurely pace. Ixtapa is a comfortable destination for visitors who want to relax in the tropical sun, and has its own, decidedly different, charms. Most of Ixtapa’s modern infrastructure and high-rise hotels lie along beautiful
Augustin Ramirez 1, Zihuatanejo; 52-755-554-2518; www.restaurantcoconuts.com La Perla: Playa la Ropa S/N, Zihuatanejo; 52-755-554-2700; www.laperlarestaurant.net Villa de la Selva: Paseo de la Roca S/N, Ixtapa; 52-755-553-0362; www.villadelaselva.com.mx
www.ixtapa-adventours.com Parque Ecológico Aztlán: Camino a Playa Linda, Ixtapa (no phone or Website) El Refugio de Potosí: Lote 74, Colonia Playa Blanca, Zihuatanejo; 52-755-1000743; www.elrefugiodepotosi.org Alaska Airlines Magazine
september 2010
noel hendrickson / getty images
Ixtapa Adventours: 52-755-553-3584;
91
herb houghton
Visitors can view macaws and other indigenous animals at El Refugio de Potosí wildlife sanctuary.
Playa del Palmar, the main beach. There, an array of activities awaits. Those looking for a restful experience can soak up the sun on the beach while sipping a cool drink served by attentive staff members. Luxurious hotel swimming pools offer swim-up bars and waterslides to plummet down. Choices for active travelers include renting a Hobie Cat sailboat, taking a paragliding ride behind a speedboat and playing tennis at one of the area’s many
courts. Golfers can tee off at two scenic courses, Club de Golf Palma Real Ixtapa and Club de Golf La Marina. Ixtapa is also known for its vibrant nightlife. The lively mix of bars, clubs and restaurants offers dancing, live music and other entertainment. The thriving resort town is a great place to de-stress—and when the mood hits for a taste of moretraditional Mexico, “Zihua” is only a $5 cab ride away.
On my recent visit, I check into the Dorado Pacifico, a handsome hotel built in the 1980s, located midway along Ixtapa’s bustling beach. Once settled, I decide to spend the day viewing some of the area’s diverse wildlife. IxtapaZihuatanejo is a haven for bird-watchers, in particular, with more than 320 native and migratory species of birds. My destination is El Refugio de Potosí, a wildlife sanctuary southeast of Zihuatanejo. Hungry, I have lunch first in Barra de Potosí, a village near the refuge. I choose one of the simple restaurant palapas on the beach, where I enjoy tasty quesadillas, a raw-fish ceviche doused in lime, a barbecued huachinango (red snapper) pulled from the sea that morning and a cold cerveza. At the refuge, I meet up with founders Pablo Mendizábal and Laurel Patrick. Mendizábal is a local biologist who also owns the town’s leading eco-adventure guide service, Adventours. The outfitter leads excursions such as a nine-mile round-
WARM
trip bike ride to Playa Linda in Ixtapa, followed by a kayaking trip around Isla Ixtapa just off Playa Linda, and snorkeling on the reefs off the island. Patrick is an American who sold her ornamental tree farm in Oregon three years ago to live full-time in Zihuatanejo, after wintering there for many years. “This is how I can really help Mexico,” she says of Refugio de Potosí. “The environmental education of young Mexicans is at the core of what we are doing.” Students from about 60 area schools have visited the refuge in the nearly year and a half since it opened, for a close look at some of the area’s indigenous animals, including parrots, hummingbirds, a great horned owl and two raptors—a crested caracara and a gray hawk. Also on display are scorpions, tarantulas, boa constrictors and neotropical rattlesnakes. There is an enclosure full of lumbering green-and-black iguanas and a butterfly house with at least a dozen species, according to Ana Luisa Figueroa, a biology student at a Mexico City
HOSPITALITY
university, who’s doing butterfly research at the refuge for her thesis. The next day, I rent a bike and pedal the recently completed Ixtapa Cyclopista, a paved cycle path that runs through a corner of Ixtapa’s Parque Ecológico Aztlán, a preserve of endemic flora and fauna. Near where the path ends at Playa Linda, I stop at a pond within coastal mangroves where 15 crocodiles, viewable from a fenced boardwalk, coexist with a few iguanas and some majestic white herons. The ambiance of downtown Zihuatanejo is also appealing. Ambling over a bridge at the end of the malecón one evening, I discover a walkway that follows the contours of the sinuous, rocky bayside between the town center and nearby Playa la Madera. The beach—popular among vacationers, many of whom return yearly and rent rooms in small hotels or locals’ homes—has a unique, funky flavor. Just a short walk from downtown, the location
offers easy access to numerous eating-anddrinking options. At Coconuts, a romantic, much-loved restaurant in the courtyard of an old hacienda—set among walls and trees sparkling with small white lights—I meet co-owner and manager Debbie Mione, a Brooklyn, New York, native who first arrived in Zihuatanejo in 1982. She began working at Coconuts a few years later, and eventually bought into it. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Immigrant of the Year award from the National Institute of Migration, as well as an official “Recognition by the City of Zihuatanejo” plaque for her leadership role in civic activities. Mione gives me her perspective on the Zihuatanejo area’s growth. “From the tourist point of view, very little has changed [in Zihuatanejo],” she says, “[although] the town is better-looking now. Downtown buildings have been standardized to a common earth-toned color, and new red-tiled roofs provide sidewalks with shade and rain protection.
There’s a spot in Mexico where your family is part visitor—and part local. Where a resort-style getaway meets the everyday life of a fi sherman. Where you’ll savor the taste of traditional fare, then learn to prepare it. It’s where stories are shared by patrons of the market, then retold on the surf and the beaches. Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. The perfect combination. Visit alaskaair.com for low fares and complete vacation packages. WHERE COAST MEETS CULTURE.
THE PLACE YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW
Designed to delight the senses. ...and ready to welcome Alaska Airlines Magazine and Horizon Air Magazine Readers. Save on guest rooms by going to www.themaxwellhotel.com. Type in ALASKA in the promotion code box.
Our Guests enjoy Complimentary Overnight Parking and WiFi Indoor Swimming Pool and Fitness Room Complimentary Bicycles for City Touring 139 rooms, complete with microwave oven, mini refrigerator, personal electronic safe and an iPod docking station. Watch your favorite shows or DVDs on a 42”Flat Panel TV. We look forward to becoming your hotel of choice in Seattle!
877-298-9728
www.TheMaxwellHotel.com
300 Roy Street, Seattle, Washington 98109 AKair-MaxwellHotel-0610.indd 1
6/10/10 6:02:50 PM
Things happen slowly here, and that has helped keep this place simple and beautiful. The tendency to put things off to tomorrow really works.” Mione says relations between the locals and the international community of about 600 are good. “Each brings their best attributes to the table, and we learn a lot from each other,” she says. “Foreigners tend to bring enterprise and funding to projects, the locals, inventiveness and creativity. Whatever Mexicans take hold of, they add to it and make it something fresh and more interesting.” A recent successful collaboration took place during a project in which community members teamed with S.O.S. Bahia, a civic group dedicated to preserving the sustainability of the bay and its surroundings. The group helped put into action a plan that allows 70 cruise ships a year to anchor near the mouth of Zihuatanejo Bay and drop off, at the small wharf, passengers who want to explore the town or spend a few hours on the beach. “They came up with a workable [solution],” Mione tells me, explaining that the plan preserves the fragile balance between tourism and local culture. “Shops and restaurants will benefit from more traffic, while allowing the town to maintain its sense of itself and its unique personality.” “This is a unique place,” Hector Olea tells me when I run into him later at Coconuts. “I was born here, and it’s grown a lot over the years. But somehow it still feels the same, just more modern, and more interesting with more activity and a better economy. After all these years of change, it’s still a wonderful place. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” Roger Toll has written about Mexico for 30 years.
getting there Alaska Airlines offers daily flights to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. To book an Alaska Airlines Vacations package to
Ketchikan General Hospital
PeaceHealth
94
Mexico, visit the Web at alaskaair.com or call 800-468-2248.
September 2010
Alaska Airlines Magazine