Casa Vista Grande - JackandBob.net

Still settling in so I will start with a view of our lofty perch! Our condo is named “Casa Vista Grande” owing
to the panoramic view of the Zihuatanejo bay. I am favoring you today with one of my infamous dioramas
(below) that I meticulously pieced together out of about 8 pictures taken from our living room balcony (right
arrow above)! The view below is rather deceptive though, because as I sit here typing and looking out the
windows, the bay looms so close that it looks like you could dive right off of our balcony into it.
Yesterday, Sunday, we hit Commercial Mexicana! I’m going to backtrack here a bit and tell you about a wonderful
thing that happened yesterday morning. On our last trip to Zihua in 2007 we found a great cab driver
named Andrés who spoke fluent English and was also extremely tolerant of my constant mangling of the
beautiful Spanish language! (I omit Bob here from the “mangling” as his Español is good enough that he can
make himself understood in most situations.) On the first Monday of our last trip Andrés took us on a wonderful
half-day tour (See Zmails—Our Grand Tour 7/24/07). Anyway, he took us to the airport for our flight
home in 2007 and gave us his business card and said to contact him if we ever came back.
So, several weeks ago we called the numbers from his business card hoping to set up some more tours with

him. No luck. All we got was a recording that the numbers
we dialed were no longer in service. We decided
that when we got to Zihua, we’d ask the cab drivers if
they knew him and how we might be able to get in touch.
Enter Eliezer the new concierge that our host, Jack Bittner,
has engaged since our last trip. Eli (pronounced like
“Ellie”) met our taxi and showed us up to the condo. He
is a marvelous young man who’s sole mission is to make
sure that all of our needs are met! Bob asked Eli about
how we might go about contacting Andrés and he tried
the numbers on the business card that we’ve kept for
three years. He was able to leave a message asking that
Andrés pick us up on Sunday morning at 10:00 for our
trip to the Commercial. Eli was not sure, though, that he would actually get the message. So, we went outside
on Sunday morning to see if Andrés would show up.
At about 10:10 Bob said that Andrés would never be late
and that we should go down to the guard hut and ask for
a cab. After the friendly guard, Danny, made the call,
Andrés drove up! We were ecstatic! He leaped out of
his car saying “Bob and Yack, welcome back!!” (Spanish
people have great difficulty with the “j” sound in English!!)
It was like we had never left! On the way to the Commercial
we talked about all of the different day trips we
could take and made arrangements for the first one on
Tuesday. So watch out, it promises to be a doozy!!
Turning to another subject, there is a major difference on
this trip compared to the last one. We are here about a
month later than last time and there is no one else here!!
We have seen only about two or three other people here in our condo complex and have the place almost
completely to ourselves! We swam in the pool Sunday afternoon and it was HEAVEN!!! Not that Bob and I
mind sharing our surroundings with others, but the fact is that we love each other’s company so much that
we just sort of get lost together talking and laughing. Just like newlyweds still, and we’ve known each other
for eight years now!! Also, the same holds true
for Elvira’s, our favorite restaurant. Except for
possibly one or two other tables, we were the
only people there both Saturday night and Sunday
morning. In fact, we were definitely the
only people there Sunday morning!
Tonight we venture to a gourmet restaurant
that Jack Bittner told us about, Tentaciones.
Jack says it is the best eatery in all of Zihua and
has the best view. We have reservations for
7:00 and Andrés will be picking us up at 6:50.
More tomorrow from Jack & Bob!
http://www.jackandbob.net