ZIHUA

There is nothing like the feeling of salt on my skin, nothing life the view of the ocean ever expanding in front of me with the sun setting on it's horizon. It is here that I am at home, that I find peace and happiness, here that I find freedom..here that I truly belong.

  After a couple of weeks of dry land it was time to break away and see my best friend in the world- the ocean. Oh how I had missed her, her comforting waves, the soothing sounds of them lapping on the shore, the feel of sand between my toes, the freedom of an ocean breeze blowing through my hair and the crisp taste of salt in the air. A group of 25 foreigners came together hired a luxury bus for a ridiculously cheap price and set off on our way to a sleepy village about 8 hours away called Zihuatanejo.

Zihua is the sister-city of big time tourist town Ixtapa, which is complete with high-rises, golf courses and 5 star night life, but Zihua could not be more different. In a bid to find cheap accommodation we hired a house 3minutes from the beach, it could hold atleast 25 people and we each paid less than 15dollars a night. Complete with pool barbeque area and beautiful gardens  we had all the comforts of a nice hotel for a fraction of the price and in a place that still kept its traditional charm. We really couldn't have asked for more. The beaches were perfect. 

A COWBOY, GOLD MINES AND WARNING SIGNS

Playa La Ropa a nearby beach, seemed to have tiny speckles of actual gold infused in the dark sand, and each individual speck would catch the sun creating a spectacular light show for me as I walked along the beach. Maybe I should have bottled the sand and tried to sell it, I have never seen such unusual, and remarkably beautiful sand in my life.

 A line of palm trees bordered the beach and in the distance towering mountains served as the perfect backdrop. 

 Further ahead an old man could be seen riding his horse, complete with cowboy hat, moustache and checkered flannelette shirt. I wondered wear he was going, the beach stretched out before him as far as the eye could see and I continued to watch him until he became nothing more than a small dot in the distance, moulding into the background of sand, ocean and jungle. A little further along the beach I found some interesting signs. 

Apparently it was not too safe to swim here, nevertheless I enjoyed the afternoon playing volleyball with our friends, and going on a banana ride behind a boat for the hefty price of less than 5dollars. I will admit that the signs made me a little nervous once I fell of and waited to be picked up, a little shark-bait just waiting to be gobbled up.

A NEED FOR SPEED

A highlight for me was hiring a jet-ski to explore the coves and see more of the cliffs which bordered the coastal town. For 15dollars we were set to go wherever we pleased, no questions asked, no boundaries or  speed limits.

 

 I could never imagine being allowed to do the same thing in Australia, but I guess in Mexico almost anything is possible. There was such a huge sense of freedom racing through the water with so much raw power, the wind gushing past my ears and the saltwater spraying onto my skin. A group of us went and as we zigzagged and raced through the coves I stared in awe at the beauty of the landscape. Enormous cliffs cut into the water where they were met by crashing waves relentlessly beating onto their base. Small fishing boats were anchored in some of the bays and rocked almost too much as we flew past them. Far away we could see an island, completely white in colour, like a god of the sea. So majestic, so unusual. With the pure white in contrast of the surrounding dark blue of the ocean, it was astonishingly beautiful. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as we became more daring doing sharper turns, racing through the water at even higher speeds whooping and yelling for joy at the experience of it all. But slowing down and coming to a stand still, floating, moving with the rhythm of the ocean and taking it all in was just amazing, feeling nothing but awe and freedom, and the happiness that comes with realising just how lucky we are.

Taken by my friend Elizabeth Auclair these last two photos capture just another dazzling Zihuatanejo lightshow.