Welcome to Fantasy Island!: December 9, 2002

Well, ok, Zihuatanejo isn't an island, but it felt like a total fantasy when we reached Mexico Monday morning.

On our descent I could see the equidistant trees planted at the coconut plantation, lush greenery for miles and miles, and, at the edge of all that greenery, the beautiful Pacific Ocean crashing and frothing on the golden sandy shore. I couldn't wait to land and see this paradise up close. As much as this girl is a city girl at heart, there is always occasion to escape to paradise. This was definitely paradise to me.

I was one of the fortunate guests to join Companion Holidays on their inaugural journey from Vancouver/Calgary to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. As a travel agent and having experienced what they have to offer, I would gladly sell them to clients over some of the other charters I have seen.

We disembarked from the plane celebrity-style. That is, descending from stairs directly onto the tarmac. The Mexican sun greeted us warmly. As we walked towards the airport we were welcomed by a Mariachi band. It was wonderful!

The airport is unbelievably quaint, one arrival terminal and hence one carousel for finding your luggage. Unbelievably efficient (probably due to their size. If you get lost in that tiny airport then something is seriously wrong with you.) You zip through the line to hand in your tourist card, pick up your luggage on the tiny carousel, turn in your customs form and boom, you're outside ready for your airport transfer to your hotel.

But not before being offered a glass of wine to welcome you to Zihuatanejo. And that, my friends, was the beginning of a very alcoholic 3 days. I've never had so much booze in my entire life, I'm sure. I was having a hard time keeping up with some of the more seasoned travel agents, and I'm younger than them! You learn very quickly that travel agents are just a big group of lushes. *s*

It's a 25-minute transfer from Zihua to the hotel zone of Ixtapa, but it seriously did not feel like it. I was too excited taking in all the local scenery. The Spanish billboards for Volkswagen repairs, Corona, the local shops. It was vaguely reminiscent of the local vibe in the Philippines, only this was in Spanish. Me gusto mucho.

My roommate turned out to be this girl about my age who works down a plus 15 from me. We've seen each other at industry dinners and stuff. We got to stay at the Posada Real which was wonderful. It looked as if they had put all the younger agents at this hotel. So we got our keys and the key to our safe and went to check out our room. I'll share and compare opinions about my hotel and all the hotels I inspected during our trip at a later time. Suffice it to say, however, that although this hotel was small and one of the more standard hotels in the area, it was perfect for me.

Freshened up and went exploring our hotel as well as to take advantage of our introductory margarita coupons. I didn't really see the need for those coupons since all our food and drinks were taken care of on this trip. My 2nd drink and I had not even been in Mexico less than two hours. Madness. Sipping my banana margarita under a thatch umbrella watching the ocean waves...it couldn't be more idyllic.

People were already going mad over the heat and took advantage of our beautiful pool as soon as they had settled in. The pool was gorgeous, if you looked at it from the lobby it appeared as if the ocean crashed up against the pool. Nice effect. And although I am a big baby when it comes to heat I really didn't mind this time around. Why? I WAS IN MEXICO, BABY! The weather that day was a high of 31C, low of 23C, and an average of 27C.

So we were then picked up and taken to the Riviera resort for introductions and a presentation on the destination followed by a seafood dinner. The moment you enter the lobby there's a pina colada/rum punch/margarita in your hand. How did that get there? *s* Drinking was becoming an hourly occurrence.

The presentation was basic business. Key selling features of the destination and blah blah blah. They didn't have to sell me any further for me to sell it to my clients. Half an hour later they escorted us along a candlelit walkway around the pool to the cocktail reception (didn't we already do this in the lobby?) for some champagne and then onto the verandah for dinner. The meal was exquisite. I, not thinking, ate my salad. I luckily didn't get sick. Lobster soup followed by an entree of red snapper. You know the seafood is cooked perfectly when it doesn't have that fishy taste. Dessert was lemon cream pie. The whole meal waiters eagerly offered you more pina colada/tequila/Corona. I even had a Corona despite hating beer, just to get into that Mexican spirit even further.

During the red snapper we had an EARTHQUAKE!!! Talk about getting the full Mexican experience! It was brief, and to be honest I hadn't even realized what had just happened until after the fact. The conversations ceased, the band stopped playing, and a huge crash of plates could be heard from within the kitchen. It was 5.7 in magnitude (is that huge?) and it's centre was 14km away from us in the ocean. If it had been more severe I don't know what we would have done 'cuz we just sat there stunned.

After dinner we were free to do our own thing and were getting set to walk the beach back to our hotel when we were chatted up by a few of Companion's staff. They were already drunk as sin (but I guess they had to get in all their drinking early in the trip since they'd hafta behave professionally again a couple days from then) and inviting us to meet back with them at the Riviera in half an hour to do some clubbing. Right.

The beach stroll back to our hotel was fantastic. The sand was so soft and the ocean lukewarm. Deoending on which resort/hotel you were walking past at the time the beach can be pretty dark. But there's just something about the place that makes you feel really safe, even if it's just 4 girls walking through a darkened beach late at nite. By the time we reached our hotel, the overwhelming intensity of the day had caught up to us and rather than club we retired to our rooms for the nite. The crashing waves lulled us to sleep. If I could get the city out of my system I could think of no better place for me to be than right there.