From the Editors

The Road Bike Path Less Traveled

2007-07-13T04:19:49Z

During the time I've lived in Zihua, I've gone stretches of up to 4 months without venturing beyond city limits to Ixtapa. Everything I need - las playas, el mercado, sufficient quantities of vino - are all here so why bother? I don't drive (and try to only take taxis when transporting dairy products home from the grocery) so my forays to Ixtapa are usually limited to tagging along with friends and the occasional paraffin pedicure at Lavender & Roses. In these last few weeks, I've found myself over in Ixtapa on an almost daily basis between a slew of doctor's appointments and 7 trips to Telcel on a quest to switch my prepaid cellphone to a contract with data access (success was had!). I suppose because my trips to Ixtapa have always been at the mercy of friends or bus drivers, I've always thought that going to Ixtapa was a long haul. But really, it's not such a big trek. How do I know for sure? Because I've literally "trekked it" 9 times now. Nine times.

The first time I walked between Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, it was quite by accident. Those readers who know me personally don't need any further explanation. Things like that happen to me on a regular basis - I met my partner through a misdialed phone number, I came to Zihua for 2 weeks and am still here over three years later, I once even accidentally gave a man the Heimlich Maneuver by rushing into a restaurant and colliding with him as he stood up to try to get help. So yes, walking well over 8 kilometers by accident is something I would do. I had dillydallied one afternoon on the way to Ixtapa to first apply for my new Telcel account. I wasn't watching the clock - and the late summer sunsets were throwing me off - so I arrived 30 minutes after the office closed. I didn't feel like hopping right back on a bus so I went to Lilian's Coffee Shop on the main drag and bought a triple espresso. I started walking while I sipped my coffee drink and figured I would hop on a bus once I finished. By the time my cup was drained, I had a good pace going on as I walked the paved sidewalks and so I decided to continue on "just a little further". Walking through downtown Zihua is often a lesson in patience, balance, and quick moving as I navigate around meandering tourists, sidestep potholes and broken up cobblestone, and try to avoid oncoming traffic when forced into the street by a mass of people (or a lack of sidewalk). It was such a treat to amble along the smooth sidewalk in solitude, only interrupted by the occasional bus slowing to see if I wanted a ride.

When I reached the stretch of green grass (such a rarity in ZIhuatanejo) that sits at the convergence of Paseo de Pelicanos and Ixtapa Boulevard, I couldn't resist but sit down for a few minutes... and then I couldn't resist taking off my shoes to enjoy the feeling of soft grass tickling my feet.

]]> From the grass, I came upon the bike path and I decided to follow it up to the top of the hill so I could look down on Ixtapa. Recent rains have transformed the area into a green-carpeted jewel and I wanted to take advantage of the vista.

And then I realized I was on the wrong side of the road to get a bus back to Zihua and there were several barricades (and a bunch of traffic) between me and the correct side. And so, I pressed on. Occasionally a biker passed me but I pretty much had the path to myself. I stopped along the way to enjoy the view...

the scampering of lizards and iguanas...

and the interesting perspective walking provided me...

Zihuatanejo came into view much sooner than I expected it would and I happily continued on home. I was pretty tired and, at times, I wished I had brought my iPod with me, but the walk was a nice diversion and a refreshing change in my usual walking routine that takes me on several laps of Playa la Ropa.

When I returned to Ixtapa the next day (making sure to go earlier so I could actually accomplish my errand), I brought along the iPod, money for an espresso, and my sturdy walking sandals. Two weeks later, I had my new cell phone (and the doctor's visits complete) but I kept finding reasons to head back to Ixtapa, even if it was just to have an espresso and sit in the grass and write for a while. I highly recommend making your own trek - or using the bike path for its original purpose and biking it. It'll give you a fresh take on just how close Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo are - and yet, just how different they are as well. In a brisk 60 minute walk (from downtown Ixtapa to Zihua centro), you'll go from high rises to bungalows, smooth sidewalks to clunky cobblestone, time share salesmen to chiclet saleschildren, stunning vista to spectacular view, one version of a tropical paradise to another.

(Of course, the one drawback from my new walking route is that I'm going to need to make yet another trip to Ixtapa - and this time in a vehicle - because the dusty path has completely wrecked my feet and I'm in desperate need of another paraffin pedicure!)

Confessions of a Geek... who is sometimes more of a nimwit

2007-06-25T05:39:29Z

So for the past few months, I've been wanting to roll out some great new features on the website. I've had all these fascinating ideas and plans to really make WeHeartZihua work for the community and become a relevant, exciting (cyber)place to be. But alas, I was hung up by one huge major problem: I couldn't get any of the images in the site to show up in Firefox, my preferred browser. I was convinced that there was some bug, either in the forum install or in my programming for the directory that was causing this glitch. And I was certain that it was perpetuating itself in everyone else's browser (even though Bev kept insisting it was fine in her Firefox). So I've been researching the problem, reinstalling different parts of the site, rewriting every stylesheet, and nothing has worked. Imagine my excitement - and complete embarrassment - when I realized (by sheer accident) that I had set my own personal Firefox preferences to "block all images from www.weheartzihua.com"... How did I do this? Who knows.

]]> Now that I've finally solved this problem (that literally haunted my dreams!), I have to decide what to do next! For a while, my first plan was to change the way our directory entries were archived so that they each were housed on an individual page rather than on their respective primary category page. This will empower us to include photographers, further information, link within different entries, and (down the road) add commenting capabilities. However, now that I can actually see our website in its entirety, there are a few other things I want to change stylistically. And I am completely psyched and geeked up for upgrading the entire website to the latest version of Movable Type (now in Beta). I've long planned on training Bev (who is extremely smart but not as tech-geeky as me) to use the interface we have to upload new content but have never gotten around to it. With Movable Type completely overhauling its system and interface, I've decided to wait so I don't have to teach her twice. As soon as all of the plugins that we use to make MT work for our website are upgraded to the new version, we'll be upgrading... So much geek fun, I think my head might explode! Of course, considering just how ~~stupid~~ silly I feel right now after my blocked image debacle, perhaps I should stick to just cutting and pasting for a few days....

The Making of We Heart Zihua: A Geek's Version

2007-01-12T08:30:07Z

Once Bev and I decided to create we heart zihua, it was time to make the difficult decisions concerning exactly what the website would become. We wanted to develop a site that compliments the current Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa resource websites, but that also provided fresh insight with new perspectives. We knew that we'd rather publish indepth information about select venues than just "skim the surface" about every restaurant, hotel, and activity in town. Our decision to include subjective information in all aspects of the website - including the directory - might be considered a narcissistic one. Who are we to think our opinions would matter to others? That question is quickly answered every time we meet a visitor or new transplant and we're asked the same questions:
Which beach should I go to with my kids?
What's the most romantic restaurant?
How can I find wifi for my laptop?
Can I eat raw vegetables at restaurants?
Do I tip the taxi drivers?
Who makes the best margaritas?
Where can I ~~meet hot surfers~~ rent a surf board?
Our opinions are sought out every time someone learns that we live here. In fact, whenever we fly into Zihua after a trip, we've often found ourselves serving as guides to our aisle-mates, writing out directions, offering our own list of "must sees and dos" and reassuring first-time timid tourists that they'll be able to order a cervesa and guacamole just fine even though they don't know any Spanish. As residents of Zihuatanejo, we have become ipso facto experts.

]]> Our area directory not only provides the facts - locations, hours, contact information, etc - but also includes personal observations. This means that we have personal experience with each business, venue, or service listed in the directory. Of course, this also means that our directory is not a comprehensive, all-inclusive listing but will be an evolving look at "our" Zihua as we continue to explore the community and discover new reasons to "heart Zihua". Right now, it's just the two of us editors writing our directory entries so the evolution will be at a leisurely, sun-soaked pace. Bev and I are a good "match" as co-editors not only because we are great friends but also because we offer very different perspectives as a culinarily-inclined, on-the-go Mama and a night-owl artistic geek. Of course, we welcome suggestions (please!) of places for us to check out via our submission page. Ad interim, we'll continue writing about the restaurants, hotels, and other businesses we stumble upon.

As we started writing entries for the directory another question came to mind: What if we want to get even more indepth than our "area directory" allows? That's where our Living la Vida articles comes in. Road trips, thoughts on specific aspects of Mexican living, and cultural observations can all be found in that section of the website. The articles listed here are thoroughly researched but will also often include personal photographs, tips and tricks, and a few ~~embarrassing~~ interesting anecdotes.

The Area Directory and Living la Vida travel essentials sections of our website, in addition to this "from the editors" notes/blog area, are all run on a tweaked and tricked-out version of Movable Type 4. I've used Movable Type extensively for previous design projects but never for such a large endeavor. Using community plugins - and a little bit of my own geek voodoo - I was able to create a simple interface for us to enter in all the information about each directory entry and all of our articles in one centralized, easy to use location. Now I just have to find the time to teach Bev to use it! Using Movable Type allowed me to implement some features of the site that we felt were really vital to having an efficent website including both section-specific and site-wide search engines, RSS feeds, and having an easy way to include our guidebook-esque* icon system.

While the rest of the website focuses on Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa as viewed through our eyes, we want "talkback zihua" to be an authentic interactive experience. It will certainly take a while for the community to come together but we're optimistic that it will become a vital part of not only the online dialogue about all things Zihua but will transcend cyberspace and lend itself to forum social events, cultural lectures, and community service involvement. In order for our forums to be unique and to fulfill our online community wishlist, I was faced with a real test of my web design skills in the customization and management of Invision's Power Board software. This was my first attempt at dismantling and rebuilding a message board and - as evidenced by my continued tweaking and the occasional error messages - it was a messy, sweaty, tequila-fueled, mistake-riddled journey. In other words, it was just like moving to Mexico! We hope that people - that would be you! - will start asking questions, making comments, and driving discussions in the community forums, thus making we heart zihua a panoptic experience.

Update October 2007: To make the website a bit more manageable, we've put the forums on hiatus but we also added commenting capabilities throughout the website. So keeping talking back!

*Guidebook-esque??? One of the best things about being the editor of my very own website? I get to make up words!

And we're live!

2006-12-09T12:17:22Z

Official Grupo de Las Poderosas Launch Announcement

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our exciting new business venture in Zihuatanejo. We love our lives here in Zihua, but want to become more integrated into the local community. With both of us working from home, it has been easy for us to become hermits and to forget the reasons we choose to live in Mexico: the beauty of the Mexican people, nature and traditions. For over a year we have been planning, researching and developing our business ideas. It is important to us to create a business that forges stronger connections between us and the local culture and also amongst the community at large. We are now ready to implement our plan to help promote a responsible, culturally aware, and peaceful way of life for tourists, local Mexicans and expatriates alike.]]> Our goals with our new corporation, Grupo de Las Poderosas, will be realized through two different endeavors. The first is a relocation assistance and consultation firm for people wanting to move here for long or short term stays. Obviously we don’t regret moving to Mexico, but we do regret the frustrations, complications and misunderstandings that we encountered along the way. We created Mexico Relocation Services to smooth and expedite the process for others moving here. Beyond the move, we will also be introducing them to the culture, connecting them with Spanish language instructors and hopefully helping them to integrate and be an active part of the local community. For more information about all of the services we will be offering, you can visit our website at www.mexicorelocationservices.com.

Quite possibly our more ambitious endeavor, weheartzihua.com is a community website for like-minded expatriates, tourists, vagabonds and wanderlusts. The website’s target audience is people who want to explore the Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa area without compromising adventure, relaxation, environmental and cultural awareness or budget. Our online community, www.weheartzihua.com, is built for maximum interaction with categorized forums, editorials, travel articles and an area directory featuring both resource information and subjective reviews.

Our corporate name, Grupo de Las Poderosas, loosely translates as “Group of the Super Girls.” We wanted a name that reflected both our power as modern women and our whimsical nature. Both of these qualities will be vital to the success of our work as we take on our big plans of launching a successful business in Mexico.

All three of our websites are now live, and we invite you to visit our sites and post questions, comments and/or wish us luck on the weheartzihua forum. We welcome your feedback and are grateful for your support. We’ll see you in the world of Zihua cyberspace!