The journey from San Francisco down the California coast was a whole lot more comfortable than our last sortie in the Pacific Ocean - much calmer seas and temperatures increasing up to 22c. Again the dolphins - dozens of them have been entertaining us, usually mid morning and early evening - leaping high out of the ocean. But without a rinky dink camera and fancy lens they are almost impossible to photograph, so you will just have to take our word for it! Same goes for the grey whales which can be seen at a greater distance from the ship heading north in a much more leisurely fashion than the dolphins, the odd tail fin and water spout visible a couple of hundred metres away.
We were unable to 'go loco in Acapulco' because,apparently, several nutters had taken to shooting bathers in the sea off the beaches there. Good call P & O. Instead we visited Zihuatenejo (pronounced Zeewateneko), a small town of 40000 people 150 miles north west of Acapulco close to Ixtapa, a modern, planned all inclusive tourist resort. It grew up as a small Mexican fishing village and very little has changed really; colourful tiny fishing boats are drawn up on the beach, no separate port area, and the catch is spread out on tables on the beach for the locals to buy. The coastline is made up of lots of tiny coves, each with a small sandy beach. Most of them are private beaches except for the one in 'Zihua'.
A pleasant paseo stretched along the beach where the somewhat tacky souvenir stalls had the usual sombreros, rugs, T shirts etc. etc. Behind the beach area could well have been Spain 30 or more years ago although the buildings were much more colourful than the typical Mediterranean white. The Mexican craft centre consists of small stalls displaying hand made items of clothing, rugs, pottery, tiles produced in the small villages inland. The municipal market catered very much for the locals and probably reflected life in Mexico more authentically - bustling and noisy but not a prosperous area by any means. Tourism is obviously an important source of income here.
It was useful to have a smattering of Spanish as we tried to locate the Post Office. We almost made it but had to ask for directions and a pleasant young man actually walked with us and showed us where it was. We chatted (?), well sort of, about our travels 'cerca el mundo en barco' and he probably thought we had our own canoe or something, but somewhere in his rapid conversation we picked up the word crucero so I think he got the gist of what we were trying to say.
Having ordered our stamps we had to leave empty handed because the Post Office accepts Pesos and we only had dollars! This must have been one of the few ports where we didn't sample the local fare, much to the disappointment of our dining friends, but we had got off the ship later than usual (yes, raffle tickets for the tender) and it was an early departure at 3.30, and besides we are trying to cut down on food!!