TEQUILA SHOTS -- A Parting Few

The Semana Santa crowd of Mexican vacationers is pouring into Zihuatanejo by the busload, just as the U.S. and Canadian contingents are thinning out. Now different stretches of Playa La Ropa are busy, teeming with happy families here to enjoy the sun and surf. (Most Mexicans seem to really know how to have fun.)

Sally and I are in our "scrap of bread" mode: determined to soak up the very last of the savory salsa of these flavors, smells, colors and sounds before dipping back into the bland, colorless porridge of this especially long Minnesota winter.

For, as much as we like to think we'll remember, the memories, the souvenir music and fine tequila, our attempts to stay close via email and Zihua Rob's Message Board—even the photos—are never enough to conjure up the way we feel when we're actually here.

Each year, we try to convince ourselves we're ready to go home once again to our "real" lives, knowing that yet another part of that notion—another small part of our hearts—has been claimed by Zihuatanejo.

We're grateful to all the people—Zihuatanejenses, expats and fellow visitors—who've helped make us feel at home here. You've been kind, generous and fun
to a fault.

And, though we realize we can never be real Mexicans, we take some comfort
in knowing we can keep trying…and that at least a few of you will enjoy seeing
us do so.

I leave you with the last of my Tequila Shots, my modest, once-a-day efforts to capture some of the joy and wonder I find in this lovely place.