Day 5: Wednesday

Breakfast at Las Brasas, the best fruit plate so far and the most extensive menu so far. Then we spend most of the morning searching for the post office. We do make it eventually and mail our postcards. Later we run into Leo on the fishing pier and finalize our plans for tomorrow. Dinner at "atoles y tamales any", excellent food and service. We watch the kids play basketball, and head home early -- fishing tomorrow.

Day 6: Thursday

We get up at 5:45 to go fishing with Leo on his panga (small fishing boat), "the Poseidon." Leo, who speaks perfect English, almost unaccented, tells us to buy drinks at the fishermen's grocery at the end of the pier and our sandwiches, or tortas, from his mom. 14 pesos bought three beers, 1 liter of soda and 1.5 liters of water. 24 pesos bought four tortas and two coffees from mom. She had at least 15-20 different fillings for her tortas, which are "bollilos", sliced, and some bread pulled out and stuffed with the filling of your choice. Some that I remember are: pork and beef cooked several different ways, tuna and egg salads, chicken, eggs, scrambled plain and with chorizo, these are served with and without beans and salsa. She also had coffee, hot chocolate, hot tea and atole. We bought our one-day fishing license on the pier for 45 pesos.

Leo is waiting for us and we're off! The pier is very busy at this time of morning as everyone is loading fishermen and trying to leave all at the same time. There are four sets of stairs for loading, and pangas and cabin cruisers circling everywhere looking for their passengers. We are among the first out. It's now 7 a.m. Black -- no sign of dawn yet. The bay here is a mile wide and it takes a while to clear it. Just as we are about to enter the Pacific Ocean, the sun comes up! It almost seems to jump out of the water! Gorgeous!

Leo sets the motor so it goes in a straight line while he sews 7-9 inch baitfish onto the hooks. When he's done he casts the lines out and attaches two lines to the outriggers. We get an almost immediate strike! The fish gets half of the baitfish and gets away.

We get a second strike also minus fish. The rest of the day nada! The Pacific Ocean is gorgeous, huge, gentle swells, super.

Dick gets a little attack of mal de mer and goes to lay down for a while. Porpoises swim all around and under the boat, really neat. Ziah is totally hidden behind its huge cliffs; we are fishing 5-10 miles out right off of Ixtapa, which is beautiful from here. We're using SPF 30 sunscreen and I still look like raw meat when we get back.

Day 7: Friday

Breakfast at Puntarenas and lunch at a little cafe just over the bridge called Naiomi's. We book a countryside excursion for tomorrow. It costs $70 US, but includes lunch, which will probably only cost them three to four pesos. Oh well, it should be interesting. After lunch we decide to walk to La Ropa beach, the second most expensive place in Ziah. We wander on the beach, watch the parasailers, banana riders and boom sail flyers on a huge catamaran in the bay.

Dinner is at CC Steaks where they advertise only Black Angus beef served. We order the norteno for two and get more than we can possibly eat. Superior bean soup to start and then it's rather like fajitas -- steak, mushrooms, nopales, peppers, guacamole, tortillas -- excellent.

Say 8: Saturday

We arrive at the tour office and are informed that our bus hasn't left Ixtapa yet. Come back in an hour, please! An hour later it still isn't there, but the young agent lets us into the air conditioned office to wait. It seems he is from California, but got into some trouble and his family sent him, his wife and new baby back to Ziah to start over. He seems like a nice young man although the tear tattoo by his eye made me a little nervous. The van finally arrives; most of the others are French Canadians, except one woman from Chicago. We have a very interesting guide, full of neat little tidbits, which he relates in both English and French. Our first stop is a fruit plantation, where they grow bananas, mangos, pineapple, grapefruit and coconuts. We sample the grapefruit, which is the sweetest, and juiciest, I've ever eaten.

We decide that if the worker gets 1 peso per tile, Dick will probably only get 25 centavos each, in which case he shouldn't leave his day job.

Next stop a ranchero where they make adobe blocks and roofing tiles. The French speakers go with the driver and those of us who speak English get the head guide (a couple of the French Canadians join us!) When the guide asks if anyone wants to make a roofing tile after seeing the demo -- of course Dick volunteers! He does a very good job although the Chicago lady seems disconcerted that he will actually dirty his hands!

From here we go to the Barrio de Potosi which is one of the most beautiful, pristine bays I've ever seen. The guide says that if they ever get around to paving the road, it will be as over-developed as the rest of the area. Already lots sell for 1 million pesos per acre. He points out the villa one of their most popular female singing stars is building. While our lunch is being prepared, we all take boat tours of the back bayous and mangrove swamps which are full of birds, fisherfolk casting nets and lines and looking for crabs. Lunch is fried fish, shrimp, a bean panucho, salad and a drink. We also have to fend off vendors.

We are asked if we minded if they dropped off the other passengers before returning us to Ziah. We say that we had nothing pressing to do. The driver takes us back to Ziah via the mountain road that is closed after dark. We see yet another beautiful, undeveloped bay!

As we are walking to our bridge I see some Americans looking over the bridge and the Three Marias. I stop to talk and meet an American writer from Arkansas named Layrane. She asks if I will show her friends our room as they are spending their first week in Ixtapa and wanted something more reasonable for the final week. We take them over the bridge (they are more scared than I was at first) show them our room and they decide to make reservations. We run into Layrane and her husband Jim later and Layrane suggests El Mango for dinner. They have lived down here for years and through them we eventually meet most of the resident Americans. We aren't that hungry, so we have pozole (hominy and corn soup) for dinner. Layrane and Jim also suggest a side trip by bus to a small town named Petantlan, which has a beautiful church and a large Sunday market. Layrane also mentions that the people are very protective of their church with regards to pictures. We've heard of this place from other travelers and decide to go.