Shopping, activities, tours
excursions in Zihuatanejo
regalo a Ziuatanejo de Zihuatanejo
Connection
Beaches of Zihuatanejo
SWIMMER'S GUIDE
ORIENTATION OF PROPERTIES
BY BEACH LANDMARKS
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PLAYA LA MADERA
View of La Madera
Beach taken in 1996 from
a lot I have for sale.
Our bay is one big swimming pool. From here you can:
A. Swim over to
La Ropa in twenty minutes, (not seen, but left),
B. Las Gatas in
one hour (beach at top left,)
C. Make a tour around
the many boats that anchor here in high season in 15-30 minutes,
or even around a Cruise ship --45 minutes-- where looking up is
a surreal experience.
D. You can swim
around the right side and into Puerto Mio Hotel in 50 minutes.
E. Or just into town in 15 minutes. Estimates based on my times,
just sidestroking along.
This esplanade was buit in
1995. If you look on top of the tile seated area you will see
Club
Madera. My version of the story: I sometimes
hitchhike around town, and was given a ride by the subdirector
of FIBAZI at that time. He told me the federal government was
trying to improve the appearance of downtown and put in a paved
'boardwalk' but that the people didn't want this change, especially
they didn't want huge old trees cut down, trees where for years
the fisherman met daily to divide up their catch, etc...a tradition...(although
others said the trees were rotten). I told him my colonia, La
Madera, didn't have sidewalks or paved roads in places and wouldn't
it be nice to have an esplanade connecting the three subbays between
Madera and downtown, as it was then impossible to walk along the
beach to town, as it was not all beach--there were rocky areas
in between. He said if I could get a petition signed by the property
owners in my colonia FIBAZI would do these things. The petition
was delivered the next day. I took it round for signing and the
esplanade soon followed, as did paving and sidewalks on Calle
Eva de Semano Lopez Mateos.
The original esplanade fell
right down as the FIBAZI engineer ignored the people who told
him without rebar reinforcement the first big wave would knock
it down, and guess what?... The second time they did it right.
Playa Madera from
Quinto
Don Andres looking
north towards town. There are six public entrances to Madera.
La Ropa has many
entrances along its 3/4 mile length
The road right after
down past Casa Cuiltlateca and and
Villa Roca
The midpoint entrance:
passing Lance's at Cascada, landmarked by a dolphin statue, with
Villas
San Sebastian on the
mountainside, Villa
Luz on the oceanside,
passing Hotel Villas del Sol and Hotel Villas Mexicana and condos Villas de Las Palmas and entering
along a row of craft stalls.
Third entrance takes
you to entries of La Perla Restaurant. A Fourth entrance
takes you to Restaurants El Marlin, La Gaviota, Rossys. /FONT>Rossy's
Hotel ends in a small
parking lot, a taxi stand, La Gaviota and Rossy's Resturant. At
this point a dirt road leads to Villa del Mar
. To swim from
Rossy's Restaurant, the two story building visible on the sand,
back to Madera is 45 minutes. To swim over to Las Gatas is 25
minutes.
Above the promontory
that separates Madera (middle of photo) from La Ropa. This is
the north end of La Ropa, with fun snorkeling at the rocks. Villa
Roca and Casa Que Canta are visible and at top of hill the "Parthenon."
Again, gentle surf,
and a great sunset coming along at La Ropa Beach.
Now you see why
La Ropa is famous. Arrive from any Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa rental in
minutes by cab, or walk.
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3. PLAYA LAS GATAS
If you don't want
to swim over, swim once you are at Las Gatas, the bluest water
we have. Boats leave continually from the town pier. Restaurants
line the beach which is about a 20 minute walk end to end.
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4. ZIHUATANEJO CENTRO
BEACH, "PLAYA PRINCIPAL"
Town beach. Archeological
museum, at far end the pier.
The pier right at
bottom right of photo. Casa
Pajaritos and Wolfgangs are about 9 o'clock in this view.
Fishermen at Playa
Principal
The beach at Hotel
Puerto Mio. Casa
Rigolletti to it's
left. If you swim 45 or more minutes a day at your gym, you can
swim from the town beach where you see the pier, out around the
promonotory and into this cove. There is another beach a km.north
accessable only by boat with a tiny restaurant.
