Zihuatanejo: The Great Escape

There’s a scene in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbins’ character Andy Dufresne waxes poetic about what he’d do if he ever got out of prison. “Tell you where I’d go,” he says, “Zihuatanejo. It’s in Mexico, little place on the Pacific Ocean.” He dreams of opening a little hotel right on the beach, of buying an old boat and fixing it up to take his guests out charter fishing.

There are places that fit that description in Zihuatanejo today — except you won’t find very many “right on the beach.” As a hotel staff member leads my husband and me through meandering pathways bordered by perfectly manicured tropical gardens and swaying coconut palms to an adobe-inspired casita, it occurs to me that the 70-room Tides Zihuatanejo Hotel — with its beach butler service, cooking classes, and four swimming pools — is probably not quite what Andy Dufresne had in mind. But it suits us just fine.

Zihuatanejo, I’m told, is derived from a Nahuatl word meaning “the place of women.” Legend has it that centuries before conquistadors arrived on Mexican shores, a Tarascan leader built a rock wall in the harbor so his people’s women could swim safely in the sea. Whether myth or fact, the wall — now the basis of an active coral reef — is still standing. The town is not just a fishing village anymore, but it retains an authentic, small-town appeal. Despite the presence of the nearby tourist resort Ixtapa, Zihua, as locals call it, has not turned into another Cancun or Cabo, with loads of partying college kids and tourists sporting tacky T-shirts. Instead, this laid-back town offers a real taste of Mexico, with plenty of regional cuisine served at small restaurants and lots of quiet beaches perfect for swimming, snorkeling, or practicing the art of doing nothing.

The heart of Zihua is El Centro, where the narrow streets and tiled alleys are lined with eclectic shops and colorful cafes. The daily market, Mercado Municipal, features everything from fresh fruit and spices to handmade silver jewelry and traditional masks. I spot a woman in a beautiful white dress buying vegetables. Despite the heat, she looks fresh and cool. “Que lindo vestido,” I tell her admiringly. She smiles shyly and tells me it is a traditional dress from Oaxaca. “You can get one like it at Lupita’s,” she says, directing me to a little shop that stocks traditional embroidered cotton skirts, dresses, shawls, scarves, and purses from different states in Mexico including Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Jalisco.

La Ropa Beach

Now that I have a proper Mexican dress, I figure I need new accessories to complement the look. There are countless jewelry stores in town, but everyone I ask tells me to go to Alberto’s, a boutique owned by a family that has been crafting silver jewelry since the 1930s. At the shop, I spot a photo of Paul McCartney posing with a man I take to be Alberto himself. The saleswoman tells me the former Beatle designed a piece, with Alberto’s help, for his wife Linda during a visit in 1977. After watching the silversmith work on a particularly beautiful ring design, I walk out an hour later with my purchases: two rings, a necklace, and a pair of earrings inset with coral stones.

Close to Alberto’s is Casa Tequila, where visitors can choose from over 200 brands, including an impressive selection of top-shelf varieties like La Cofradia and Don Camilo. After a tasting, my husband purchases a 100% agave añejo that’s been aged for three years in white oak barrels and is bottled in a beautiful hand-painted decanter.

Our appetite whetted, we head out to find Tamales y Atoles Any, a restaurant highly recommended for serving the best version of the local dish, pozole. The dish, a hearty soup served in a deep bowl that blends grains, crunchy bits of pork, Serrano chiles, green mole, and tomatillos, doesn’t disappoint. (Recipes vary; you can find red, white, and green pozole, but in this part of Mexico it is most typically the latter.) Another local specialty is tiritas, raw whitefish marinated in green chiles and vinegar. “For that you should go to La Sirena Gorda,” the waiter tells us. In Zihuatanejo, the locals are infused with a kind of honesty that is charming and rarely self-serving. Everywhere we go, locals ask us how we like Zihua and recommend their favorite places. “Have you been to La Zapoteca?” a server asks. “They have very nice hammocks to take home. True Mexican gifts!”

Housed in one of the few remaining century-old plantation buildings that survived a devastating hurricane in the 1920s, La Zapoteca is located in Paseo del Pescador, or Fisherman’s Walk, a pedestrian-only walkway along the beach between the archaeological museum and the fishing pier. Inside La Zapoteca we find handmade rugs, woven baskets, and vibrantly colored hammocks. Next door is El Jumil, another boutique showcasing folk art and papier-mâché objects. Exhausted from shopping, eating, and drinking, we find ourselves a patch of sand on the beach under an umbrella and take a much-needed siesta.

That night for dinner, we visit Villa de la Selva, a contemporary Mediterranean restaurant perched atop a rocky cliff and surrounded by a lush tropical forest in Ixtapa, just 15 minutes from Zihua. Dishes like salmon in plantain leaves with couscous and poblana salsa compete for attention with panoramic views of the bay and the beaches in the distance. As the sun sets, we spot a coati, which looks like a cross between a raccoon and a monkey and likes to forage and nest in the nearby trees.

Hotel Tentaciones

For our last day in Zihua, we decide to simply kick back at the hotel. Whenever we’re feeling a bit parched or hungry, all we need to do is raise the flag attached to the trunk of our palapa and immediately a waiter dressed in white rushes to us with a drink, chips and guacamole, an extra towel, or sunscreen. I can’t help but think of the end of The Shawshank Redemption, when Andy Dufresne looks tanned and completely relaxed after finally reaching his paradise — much like my husband and me. If he were smart, though, his little dream hotel would offer beach butlers.

Celeste Moure writes about travel and culture for a variety of national publications. She lives in Vancouver.

Photos from top to bottom: courtesy Hotel Tentaciones, courtesy La Quinta Troppo, by Monica Rodriguez/Getty Images, courtesy Hotel Tentaciones