Away for Thanksgiving

I have been enjoying my stay in Mexico. San Miguel de Allende is a town for the arts: dance, theater, visual art, music, etc. There is always something going on at the plaza, or Jardin, in front of the Parroquia, or parish church, in the center of town. I have been doing a lot of artwork, making contacts with galleries, writing, and networking. I have also been able to do some virtual consulting work. Have not had a lit of free time to just have fun, but what the heck, my work is fun.

I am currently in Zihuatanejo, Mexico for the week of Thanksgiving. A woman in San Miguel was driving over to Zihua for the holiday and put a note on the local chatline for anyone wanting to come along. I responded, and it turns out that I was the only one that could travel on her dates. Kathie and I drove here on the 19th. Seven hours on the road, sharing the driving and talking alot, it seemed to pass rather quickly. It was a beautiful drive through the Mexican countryside and mountains to the Pacific coast. We stopped in Patzuaro for a quick sandwich and chips. Outside of Morelia was a great birding wetland associated with a large lake. I think that I will try to organize a birding trip there out of San Miguel in a few weeks.

So what about Zihua? Well, it is an old fishing village on the Pacific Coast southwest of Mexico City. About 30 years ago, the Mexican government built a resort area about five miles up the coast and called it Ixtapa. Today Ixtapa is large resort area with lots of big hotels, restaurants, and golf courses. I was over there today and found the general atmosphere rather not to my great liking. I much prefer the atmosphere of Zihua (except for when the cruise ships port for the day and all the people come ashore to shop and look at the sights.) So today I went into the cneter of town (Zihua), across the little slough that is the main harbor for most of the panga fleet (little 26' open fiberglass craft that are seen all over the world.). I went there to gather sketches for possible paintings. Wow, was there a lot of stuff to work with. It would sure be a lot easier to capture all this with a camera, but where is the challenge. When I was in architecture we were not allowed to use a camera for the city centers project and that's what I am doing now en pleine aire work.

Trying to drum up a fishing trip. Can't seem to find anyone to split the cost. Darn-it. Also don't know about a dive trip. The visibility isn'r but about 5 meters. might just do some snorkrling and free diving around some of the nearshore rocks. There is some coral and a lot of small fish, but nothing like then Red Sea or Belize.