The Road Bike Path Less Traveled
by Isahrai on Thursday 12 July 2007
During the time I've lived in Zihua, I've gone stretches of up to 4 months without venturing beyond city limits to Ixtapa. Everything I need - las playas, el mercado, sufficient quantities of vino - are all here so why bother? I don't drive (and try to only take taxis when transporting dairy products home from the grocery) so my forays to Ixtapa are usually limited to tagging along with friends and the occasional paraffin pedicure at Lavender & Roses. In these last few weeks, I've found myself over in Ixtapa on an almost daily basis between a slew of doctor's appointments and 7 trips to Telcel on a quest to switch my prepaid cellphone to a contract with data access (success was had!). I suppose because my trips to Ixtapa have always been at the mercy of friends or bus drivers, I've always thought that going to Ixtapa was a long haul. But really, it's not such a big trek. How do I know for sure? Because I've literally "trekked it" 9 times now. Nine times.
The first time I walked between Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, it was quite by accident. Those readers who know me personally don't need any further explanation. Things like that happen to me on a regular basis - I met my partner through a misdialed phone number, I came to Zihua for 2 weeks and am still here over three years later, I once even accidentally gave a man the Heimlich Maneuver by rushing into a restaurant and colliding with him as he stood up to try to get help. So yes, walking well over 8 kilometers by accident is something I would do. I had dillydallied one afternoon on the way to Ixtapa to first apply for my new Telcel account. I wasn't watching the clock - and the late summer sunsets were throwing me off - so I arrived 30 minutes after the office closed. I didn't feel like hopping right back on a bus so I went to Lilian's Coffee Shop on the main drag and bought a triple espresso. I started walking while I sipped my coffee drink and figured I would hop on a bus once I finished. By the time my cup was drained, I had a good pace going on as I walked the paved sidewalks and so I decided to continue on "just a little further". Walking through downtown Zihua is often a lesson in patience, balance, and quick moving as I navigate around meandering tourists, sidestep potholes and broken up cobblestone, and try to avoid oncoming traffic when forced into the street by a mass of people (or a lack of sidewalk). It was such a treat to amble along the smooth sidewalk in solitude, only interrupted by the occasional bus slowing to see if I wanted a ride.
When I reached the stretch of green grass (such a rarity in ZIhuatanejo) that sits at the convergence of Paseo de Pelicanos and Ixtapa Boulevard, I couldn't resist but sit down for a few minutes... and then I couldn't resist taking off my shoes to enjoy the feeling of soft grass tickling my feet.
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Confessions of a Geek... who is sometimes more of a nimwit
by Isahrai on Monday 25 June 2007
So for the past few months, I've been wanting to roll out some great new features on the website. I've had all these fascinating ideas and plans to really make WeHeartZihua work for the community and become a relevant, exciting (cyber)place to be. But alas, I was hung up by one huge major problem: I couldn't get any of the images in the site to show up in Firefox, my preferred browser. I was convinced that there was some bug, either in the forum install or in my programming for the directory that was causing this glitch. And I was certain that it was perpetuating itself in everyone else's browser (even though Bev kept insisting it was fine in her Firefox). So I've been researching the problem, reinstalling different parts of the site, rewriting every stylesheet, and nothing has worked. Imagine my excitement - and complete embarrassment - when I realized (by sheer accident) that I had set my own personal Firefox preferences to "block all images from www.weheartzihua.com"... How did I do this? Who knows.
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The Making of We Heart Zihua: A Geek's Version
by Isahrai on Friday 12 January 2007
Once Bev and I decided to create we heart zihua, it was time to make the difficult decisions concerning exactly what the website would become. We wanted to develop a site that compliments the current Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa resource websites, but that also provided fresh insight with new perspectives. We knew that we'd rather publish indepth information about select venues than just "skim the surface" about every restaurant, hotel, and activity in town. Our decision to include subjective information in all aspects of the website - including the directory - might be considered a narcissistic one. Who are we to think our opinions would matter to others? That question is quickly answered every time we meet a visitor or new transplant and we're asked the same questions:
Which beach should I go to with my kids?
What's the most romantic restaurant?
How can I find wifi for my laptop?
Can I eat raw vegetables at restaurants?
Do I tip the taxi drivers?
Who makes the best margaritas?
Where can I meet hot surfers rent a surf board?
Our opinions are sought out every time someone learns that we live here. In fact, whenever we fly into Zihua after a trip, we've often found ourselves serving as guides to our aisle-mates, writing out directions, offering our own list of "must sees and dos" and reassuring first-time timid tourists that they'll be able to order a cervesa and guacamole just fine even though they don't know any Spanish. As residents of Zihuatanejo, we have become ipso facto experts.
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