November 18, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 16, 2009: Acapulco, Mexico
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Arriving in Zihuatanejo, Mexico

The trip to Zihuatanejo from Acapulco was accomplished in an overnight cruise. The distance was relatively short, and I'm told the Captain kept our speed down so we wouldn't arrive in Zihuatanejo too early. But by 6AM we were within sight of the coast at Zihuatanejo.

For hundreds of miles along the coast, Mexico is a series of picturesque bays and sleepy fishing villages. Our at least it was, until tourists, overflowing from Acapulco discovered the area. Zihuatanejo ("land of women" in the ancient native language) was one of those places that suffered/benefited from this discovery. Fortunately, it has retained its old village charm while managing the development that came to the area. About five miles north of Zihuatanejo, the area around Palmar Bay was selected by the Mexican government for a new, planned from scratch resort community. It was named Ixtapa. There was no village there at the time- just coconut palms, mangrove swamp, rocky cliffs and almost inaccessible beaches. The Ixtapa resort was carefully planned, with pre-investment studies, ecological balance assessments to logistics and the availability of local labor. All the modern infrastructure was installed, including a modern airport. The area is now a major tourist destination, but still retains a "sleepy" atmosphere, especially compared to Acapulco and other large Mexican resorts.

There were a number of excursions to Ixtapa, but they were mostly beach days with water sports and drinks and food- not what we came all this way to see or do.

I was up on deck about six-thirty to take some pictures as we neared the entrance to the harbor. If you'll click on the thumbnail images below, you can see the best of these pictures, taken in sequence from first light and our arrival off the coast to our approach into the harbor:

There are no dock facilities at Zihuatanejo large enough to handle a cruise ship like ours, so this was one of the ports where we anchored in the harbor and were tendered in to shore. That's not our ship in the aerial view, of course, but it shows you where we were relative to the city itself.

Fred had gotten up on deck a little later than I, and by the time he started taking his own pictures, the sun was up and we were very close to our anchoring position in the Zihuatanejo harbor. He was able to get some excellent pictures of the mountainous area around the harbor and around Zihuatanejo. If you'll click on the thumbnails below, you can see the best of the many pictures that Fred took:

Fred also used his panoramic capability to take a number of good panoramas of the Zihuatanejo harbor and its environs, and I want to include two of the best ones here. Use the scrollable windows below to have a look at them:

We have booked a shore excursion for Zihuatanejo- a visit to Parque Aventura (Adventure Park). This park is one of three such parks that are located in Mexico, oriented towards tourism and providing ziplines, animals, botanical exhibits and the like. They are popular destinations for Mexican weekenders and foreign tourists. We were going to visit one of the newest of the parks- Parque Aventura Ixtapa- and take part in its signature offering- the ziplines.

Ziplining in Parque Aventura (Adventure Park - Ixtapa)

We met Greg and Paul in the Vista Lounge for our excursion just before 8AM, and our tour was announced just after that time. By eight-thirty we had tendered into the dock at Zihuatanejo, and we were on our bus, ready to depart, right about nine.

Getting to Parque Aventura

There were a couple or three different tours leaving from the same parking area. We followed one of them through the streets of Zihuatanejo towards the main highway. The tour guide didn't point out much as we drove through the city, so I don't know the stories behind the two monuments we passed that you can see here and here.

I know that American culture has permeated most of the world, but still, I was surprised that after we got onto the main highway towards Ixtapa and the Adventure Park, that I would see what I guess was a museum devoted to Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Ma; have a look at it here. We took the main highway northwest, and eventually got out of town and climbed into the hills. The trip to the Adventure Park (you can see where it is on the aerial view above) was only about ten miles, and just before we turned off the highway onto the dirt road that led to the park we were at the crest of a hill where we could get a good view of the new resort town of Ixtapa.

The Adventure Park

The Ixtapa Adventure Park is one of three or four such parks in Mexico. Designed for the "outdoor experience," they cater not only to foreign tourists, but actually more to Mexican tourists. Two of them are located near cruise ship ports, but the others are inland. This one is only a few miles from Zihuatanejo, so that's why there was an excursion to it.

The park itself consisted of a parking area, a building housing facilities, some supply rooms and rooms used by the staff, and a verandah with a hammock and some chairs. On the hill outside, there was an area used for familiarization and also for relaxing between activities. There were also five or six stations where the staff had us do short ziplines to familiarize ourselves with how ziplines work, as well as to experience rope bridges, swinging bridges, and other suspended, tree-to-tree highways.

Preparation and Suiting Up

The first thing we did once everyone had gotten off the bus and had an opportunity to relax for a few minutes was to go down the hill beside the building to the equipment hut. Here, we were given a harness assembly and then waited our turn to have one of the staff help us into it and get it secured. Once we were in the harnesses, we got fitted with a helmet and given a pair of very heavy gloves.

Fred, Greg Paul and I in Harness

If you can imagine it, the harness consists of a belt and then two loops of mesh belt attached to it. Your legs go through these loops. The result is something you can hang in. The pulleys and caribiners attach to the front of the belt, which means that when you are hanging, your natural position is a semi-recumbent position, the pivot center of the harness being right at your stomach.

After we were harnessed, we had to wait until everyone was ready. During that time, we took some pictures of each other, and if you want to click on the thumbnails below, you can see some of these pictures:

Now it was time for our instruction.

The only printed material was the sign in front of us. The first item told us which of the two hooks dangling from our harnesses went where. Our yellow pulley was to be placed on top of the guide cable, and the blue carabiner was latched to the secondary cable. Also attached to the harness alongside the yellow pulley was another carabiner; this was attached to the guide cable as well. As long as your weight is on the cable, the pulley will stay on top of it, but it is possible that a severe jolt could dislodge it. If that were to happen, you would end up still secured to the guide cable with the carabiner right behind the pulley. Even if that carabiner didn't hold, the one attached to the secondary cable should and, although you wouldn't necessarily still move, you wouldn't fall. Someone could come out to get you and pull you in. Only a triple failure (a dislodging of the pulley and the failure of two independent carabiners) would allow you to fall.

The second caution was to always be secured to a cable. At the treetop stations, you have to unhook from one cable and hook to another. To make the transfer, you always first hooked your second blue carabiner to the next secondary cable, then unhooked the first blue carabiner from the previous secondary cable, stepped over to the new zipline and put your pulley on top of the guide cable. Then you are ready to go.

The third guideline is pretty obvious: you don't start out on the zipline until the person in front of you has unhooked from it. (There are times when someone comes to a stop before the station and has to be pulled in or, in my case once, has to pull himself in hand-over-hand. And you certainly don't want to run into someone who is having to do that.

So, you slide on the pulley down the guide cable (whose destination station is always a bit lower than the starting station. How do you get going? Basically you just sit down, lift your feet up and away you go- faster and faster. How do you stop? Well, that's what the gloves are for. As you slide, you have one gloved hand on top of the guide cable just behind the pulley. The glove has a reinforced palm, and when you want to slow down, you just close your hand and put pressure on the guide wire with the reinforced part of the glove. You have to be a bit careful- squeeze too hard and you might stop short of the next tree station; squeeze too gently and you'll be going too fast when you get there.

After a time or two it becomes as easy to control as it is to judge how hard to press your car brake to come to a stop where you want to. Our instructor demonstrated all this with one of the group at a practice tree station.

Our Instruction I made a movie while our instructor (who had lived in France for a time, hence the accent) went over the procedures and answered questions.

Instruction and Practice Area I also made a movie of the area around the main building where our outfitting was done, we received our guidelines, and we did some practice runs.

Practice Runs and Variety Bridges

Once we were all comfortable with the equipment and had some knowledge of what to do with it, we set off on a practice course that introduced us to a series of tree-to-tree trips on a variety of surfaces. One time, we were walking on a tightrope. A second time on a flat rope ladder with wooden slats. A third crossing was made by stepping in metal rings. A four crossing was walking on boards that were dangling in a broken sequence from cables. The last practice run was on a short zip line. In all the crossings, we were attached to two cables with our carabiners, and on the practice zipline we were attached with two carabiners and the pulley.

I think the purpose of these varying transfers was two-fold. First, it was a lot of fun to cross the unsteady bridges knowing that should you lose your balance, you wouldn't fall. I've never walked a tightrope before; being hooked to two other cables made it relatively easy. Second, these practice runs helped everyone find their balance and get comfortable with being up off the ground. The platforms were all fairly low- from six to ten feet up. The platforms in the actual ziplining that we did later were between twenty and forty feet up off the ground. Better someone find out they can't deal with the height now than when they are out on the zipline course and it's a long walk back. I think there was indeed one person who stopped after these practice runs.

Below and to the right are thumbnail images for a selection of the pictures that Fred and I took of our group and other folks as we were negotiating these practice runs. Click on as many of those thumbnails as you wish to have a look at a selection of views from our practice sessions:

Fred Coming in for a Landing on the Last Practice Zip Line

 

The Zip Lines

When all the practice was done, it was time to attack the zip line course. From the practice area, we all hiked up the tallest hill in the park to the beginning station. Partway up the hill, I stopped to take a picture of Fred, Paul and Greg. When we got to the base of the tree in which the first platform was located, we all gathered around the base of the tree while one of the staff talked to us about the mechanics of ziplining. He explained how and when to brake, and what to do should we come up short of a platform. He answered some questions first, and then most of the staff went ahead of us to take up their stations on the various platforms.

A Staff Member Ziplines

As the staff members were heading off to take up their stations, Fred made an excellent movie of one of them going from the first to the second platform along the second-longest of the six zip lines (player at left).

Then we began to file up the ladder to the first station, get hooked up, and begin our individual trips along the zip line course. Now I need to say something about the pictures and movies that we did or didn't take.

After our last cruise, Greg had given me a "helmet-cam." it was a small video camera attached to a series of bands designed to be worn over a helmet to film activities like bike-riding, skateboarding and ziplining- activities where it would be difficult to perform the activity while holding a camera in one's hand. When we left for the cruise, I got out the helmet cam and read the instructions. Of course, the instructions said that the camera had to be attached to a helmet- just a baseball cap or other hat wouldn't do. Not bringing a helmet with me, I thought, like an idiot, that I wouldn't bring the camera with me either. After all, if I didn't attach it to a helmet, I couldn't use it. The idiot part became apparent when we got to Adventure Park and were issued, of all things, a helmet. Then I realized that the helmet cam didn't have to be attached to a helmet beforehand; it could be put on anywhere a helmet became available. So if I had brought it, I could have used it with the helmets we were given. That was just dumb of me, and I'll be sure to take it if we ever do this kind of activity again.

I was really irritated with myself for making such a dumb error. So I thought I would do the next best thing: try to take movies while I was ziplining. I thought I could hold the camera with one hand and use my other for the braking action. (Usually, one uses one's dominant hand for braking and just rests the other on top of it, so I thought that instead of just resting my left hand on my right, I'd use my left hand to hold the camera.) Well, that worked, but only for the first few minutes of each zip line segment. I didn't realize that holding both one's hands around the main cable served to keep one steady and pointed forward. I found out quickly that with just one hand on the cable, I tended to turn sideways, and so I couldn't keep the camera pointed ahead; the camera tended to wander all over the place. I also found that with just one hand, I couldn't keep the "feel" of the cable and my speed and judge my braking accurately. Twice I slowed too much and stopped short of the platform, and on one of those occasions the staff member on the destination platform had to come out a ten or twenty feet, hook his legs around me, and pull me in hand-over-hand. The second time, I did that myself.

The upshot of all this was that I failed to get the movies I really wanted, and have no good "zipliner's eye" movie to show you. Another unfortunate thing is that because I was concentrating so hard on trying to get a good movie that I failed to take hardly any good pictures or movies of the other guys, notably Fred, who was right in front of me. I should have given up on trying to take my own movies and taken a few of Fred as he ziplined to the next platforms. Fred didn't take all that many pictures either, although, to my embarassment, he snapped one as I was being hauled in by the staff member after an abortive movie attempt.

Below are the thumbnail images for the best of the pictures that Fred took while we were on the zip lines. Click on them to view the full-size pictures:

My Last Zip Line Segment I thank Fred for getting the two good movies of ziplining. He got this one of me coming in to the last station, after he had climbed down from the last platform. His zoom was able to also get my preparations at the starting station.

The Animals at Adventure Park

The Adventure Park was home to a number of interesting creatures. The first ones we noticed were the cats. There were three or four of them lying around on chairs sleeping or interacting with guests. We love cats, and took some pictures of them. Click on the thumbnail images below to see the best of these:

Another of the animals around was a friendly parrot- a large one. He stayed on the railing around the verandah, and most folks just walked by and looked at him. Fred took a couple of pictures of the parrot, and if you click on the thumbnails at left, you can have a look at them.

Birds and Cats Fred began this movie with a tourist playing with the large parrot, and he ended it with some of the cats that were sleeping or wandering around.

The most unusual animal wandering around (actually, this animal wasn't wandering around- he/she was chained) was an ocelot (at least that's what the staff said). You could get fairly close to the ocelot, although you wouldn't want to get too close just in case it decided to swat at you with its paw (which I assume was not declawed).

The ocelot was sitting up on a rafter over the verandah, out of the way where the casual tourist would be unlikely to walk under it. It didn't seem too concerned about everyone wandering about, and at one point Fred got a nice picture of the ocelot and I. When I saw him up close, the pupils in his eyes were very narrow; usually in cats, their pupils get very large when they are excited, scared or otherwise agitated. I wanted very much to touch the big cat but restrained myself.

The Big Cat I made a movie of the ocelot here at Adventure Park, and perhaps it will be better than just looking at still pictures.

The last animal of interest was the ostritch. We didn't actually see the big bird until we'd finished with our ziplining and had gathered around the refreshment hut for some cold sodas. That's where the bird was wandering around. In one picture, the bird seemed about to ask Fred if he could have some soda; you can see that picture here. As usual, Fred took a number of excellent candid shots of the ostritch interacting with me and some of the other folks on our tour, and you can see some of these pictures if you click on the thumbnails below:

Returning From Adventure Park

When the ziplining was done, we turned in our harnesses and equipment and then took advantage of the cold drinks offered to us by the staff. It was only noontime; we had gotten an early start this morning to beat the heat of the day. Even so, the cold drinks were quite welcome. We all had a chance to relax and wander around while everyone finished their zip line adventures. It was while we were having drinks that most of the pictures of the animals in the section above were taken. Fred and I took some candid shots while we were relaxing, and you can have a look at them by clicking on the thumbnail images at left. The morning was certainly a lot of fun, and we were very pleased at how the excursion turned out.

We piled into the bus a little after noon, and by twelve-thirty were back at the parking area near the pier. On the way, I took a few more pictures of typical scenery, and I've put thumbnails for some of these pictures below. You can click on the thumbnail images to have a look:

Walking Around Zihuatanejo

When we got off the bus in the parking area and had thanked our tour guide, the four of us decided to walk around the town of Zihuatanejo for a while. We did that together for a while, then Paul and Greg took off back to the ship and Fred and I continued on our own.

The Tourist Market

Together we walked over to the market street that the guide had pointed out as we were coming into town. Paul still needed to get some souvenirs for some nieces, and so the four of us walked along through the stalls looking at everything.

Everything in the market was certainly interesting, although all of it was oriented to tourists. I can't imagine that a lot of native Mexicans adorn their houses with "Mi Casa Es Su Casa" medallions. So we found just lots of odds and ends. And we just took pictures of whatever caught our eye. Fred, of course, was the first to spot a bunch of Christmas poinsettias for sale (those probably to locals, of course). At one point we passed a small restaurant. (If you are curious about the prices, there are about twelve pesos to the dollar, so something that's listed at $48 is really about $4US. We thought about getting a bite, but we'd probably be back on the ship in an hour or two, and we thought we'd get lunch then.)

This seemed to be a nice area, as the houses and buildings along the street seemed upscale and nicely-decorated. At one point, we passed a small church across the street, and while Paul was looking at stuff I crossed over to go inside the chapel.

But mostly we just walked slowly along looking at all the goods for sale and trying to fend off the vendors who were more persistent. The market was a long row of buildings and stalls on one side of the street, and we walked all the way to the end and back. Just before we returned to our starting point and parted ways, Fred got a good representative view of me at the market.

If you would like to click on the thumbnail images below, you can see more of the pictures we took as were wandering along the market street here in Zihuatanejo:

You can see where the market was relative to the rest of the walking that Fred and I did in Zihuatanejo by looking at the aerial view below.

Walking Along the Beach

Paul had made some purchases, and he wanted to get that stuff back to the ship, so when we were done at the market, he and Greg went back to the dock to catch a tender back. Fred and I left them near the dock and began walking along the beachfront towards the east.

We began our walk at a shady park area at the south end of the market street. We had a nice view of the harbor and of the Oosterdam:

As you can see on the aerial view, there are restaurants and little hotels lining the beach until you get to the canal. Then, there is rocky beach for a while until you get around a couple of points of land and back to a sandy beach. The larger hotels and residences are situated at that horseshoe beach and beyond to the east.

Although it had gotten quite warm, almost hot, it was a nice walk. The city has built a continuous sidewalk all along the beachfront, crossing over the canal right where it empties into the harbor. As we walked, we got good views of the nice beach and some of the hotels and condos that line it.

Of course, we could always see the Oosterdam, riding at anchor out in the harbor, and the entire scene was quite nice. I can see why tourists, both Mexican and foreign, like to come here. It is certainly a change from the bustle of Acapulco or, as we would see in a day or so, Cabo San Lucas. There seems to be a lot to do here, just as in the more populated resorts. At one point, Fred snapped a picture of a parasailer. If you will look closely at the picture, you'll see a little dot in the sky to the right of the parasailer. If you want to see it up close, look at the picture Fred took next with his powerful zoom by clicking here.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

You might be interested in an artistic shot that Fred got that turned out well. First, take a look at his picture here. Where was the picture taken? It was taken through one of the circular openings in the decorative top of the bridge over the canal.

The walk along the beach was really nice, and we took lots of very nice pictures during our time walking along. I have put the best of them into a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

The Harbor at Zihuatanejo When we got to the bridge over the canal, I stopped to make a movie of the harbor area here at Zihuatanejo.

Zihuatanejo Horseshoe Beach When we got to the end of our walk along the shore, I made a movie of the second beach here at Zihuatanejo, and of the condos and residences that go around that side of the bay.

Walking Back to the Tender Dock

From the end of our walk along the beach, we went inland a block and walked along the streets of Zihuatanejo back towards the dock where the tender had let us off. On the way, I stopped into a shop and found a nice gift for someone for Christmas next year. We also passed an interesting church on one of the back streets. Fred took a few interesting pictures as we walked along back to the dock, and if you will click on the thumbnails below you can have a look at some of them:

Back to the Oosterdam

We made our way back to the dock, and boarded the tender to get back to the Oosterdam. On the way, Fred took a couple more good pictures of the homes and hills around the harbor at Zihuatanejo, and you can have a look at those pictures here and here.

Fred also made a nice panorama of the Zihuatanejo harbor:

Zihuatanejo Harbor

Evening Activities

Back on board the Oosterdam, our evening was pretty routine. We went to the Fitness Center, of course, and met the guys for dinner, of course, although I've forgotten whether we ate in the main dining room, the Italian Restaurant or up in the Lido Restaurant. I also can't remember whether the other guys went to the show with us, but we went to two of them.

The first show, in the Vista Lounge, was Michael Ziegfeld- a ventriloquist. He was pretty funny. The other show was put on in the Queen's Lounge, a small showroom, by the four lead members of the Oosterdam singing/dancing troupe. They just did a medley of songs, which, as you might suppose, were hit and miss as far as we were concerned.

Tonight's headline performer is Michael Ziegfeld, and here is the little blurb the Daily Program had for him:

"Enjoy the quick-witted bantering and off-the-cuff improv that trademarks tonight's performer!"

Not an extended description, so we assumed that he was a comic of some sort. As it turned out, the show was pretty good, and Ziegfeld was certainly funny enough. As it turned out, he was a ventriloquist, and a pretty funny one at that.

Michael Ziegfeld and Friend In this movie, Michael is using an alter ego to interact with a woman in the audience.

Michael Ziegfeld and The World's Oldest Gymnast In this movie, Michael is interviewing the world's oldest gymnast (a puppet that looks something like Madame) and it turns out she has a mouth on her.

Michael Ziegfeld and Some Audience Volunteers In this funny movie, Ziegfeld uses three audience members up on stage to act as his puppets, and he literally puts words in their mouths.

Later on in the evening, there was a late show entitled "Broadway Moves to Queen's" that featured the Oosterdam singers. I guess the title of the late show was a play on Broadway moving from Manhattan to Queens, and I guess that was clever enough. We dropped by this show in the Queen's Lounge after dinner and watched the Oosterdam singers (at least the four leads) do a medley of Broadway show tunes. The performances were OK, I suppose, but lounge singing isn't really my cup of tea. Click on the thumbnail images below to see some pictures Fred took of the performers:

The Oosterdam Singers Mangle "Do Re Mi" One of the reasons I dislike lounge singers is that they tend to take good songs and ruin them by putting "their own musical spin" on them. They never should have taken this song out of Salzburg.

We have a sea day tomorrow, so we get to sleep in.

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	November 18, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 16, 2009: Acapulco, Mexico
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