¡Viva La Bahia!

Zihua is a small fishing village nestled in a bay off the Pacific Ocean. There are four beaches on the bay and a walking path connects two of them, Playa Principal and Playa Madera. One, Las Gatas, is only accessible by boat and our favorite, Playa La Ropa, is home of the fancy hotels.

Cruise ships stop in the bay several times per week during the high season (November through April) and there are always a number of smaller pleasure craft anchored, sometimes for weeks at a time. Since it's a fishing village, small fishing boats make up the majority of vessels in the water, but water taxis take a close second.

Why am I telling you all this? The city has proposed building a pier, un muelle, in the middle of the bay. Tourism keeps Zihua, and neighboring Ixtapa, afloat and they've decided a huge slab of concrete will bring in more money. Sure, a pier would enable more than one ship to dock at a time and speed up the process of getting all those rich tourists with itchy wallet fingers to shore, but it will destroy the natural beauty everyone who sets foot in Zihua loves.

There have been marches, parades and demonstrations protesting this muelle. I wanted to join the march but the Mexican government doesn't like it when tourists protest them (little thing about getting deported) so I've watched the commotion from the sidelines. Someone designed a t-shirt that says Viva La Bahia, Save the Bay, and I've finally decided to buy one. I'm worried that will fall into the government protest category so for now I'll only wear it at home. For all the t-shirts they sell here I've yet to buy one - I'm not big on dolphins and butterflies - but I think this is a good representation of our time here.

Here's the bay now:



This was taken on our anniversary and is the only picture I can find. I think they're all on Ibis' computer. The pier would go in right about where his head is.