Chinese food in Mexico. Who'd have thought? We went downtown tonight, the four of us, to a restaurant recommended by our hosts. They served Mexican and Chinese food - and there was also Pad Thai on the menu (chicken or shrimp) - so I ordered that, with shrimp. We had Szechuan beef, almond chicken, and curried chicken. There was a lot of food - and it was delicious.

This was our 'Last Night in Zihuatanejo' celebration. Tomorrow morning we have to make a stop at the tire shop because, would you believe? One of the brand new tires is flat. We figure it's probably a valve stem problem, and Robin says we can drive that far with it, because it's the outside rear, and the inside will carry the weight. I hope so. After that, we'll head for Acapulco.

Robin and I went for a walk on the beach this morning, all the way to the end. There was a redheaded woman running on the beach. She ran past us to the end, turned around and ran back, then ran out and back again, all while we were walking out and back just once. I complimented her and asked whether she was a marathon runner. She said she used to be, but no more. I'm not sure how old she was - but she was old enough to make me feel like a pudgy old wimp.

I spent part of the afternoon lying around, happily reading my favourite blogs. I discovered that Kathryn Magendie had a story up on Sotto Voce, and I read that. I loved it. Do check it out. It's called Woman Inside Out, and it's at http://tinyurl.com/dev9o9

After my lazy afternoon, and after dinner, we walked around downtown for a while, window shopping, trying to walk off our calorie binge. I don't think it worked.

My moonlight swim was a little melancholy, as it's my last here. I had been in the pool about a minute when I saw the oddest phenomenon - three stars in the southern sky, connected by streams of light so that they formed a brilliant isosceles triangle. Now, I'm not given to flights of fancy, at least not with respect to visions in the sky, so I figured (and still do) that what I was seeing was due to a combination of stars, palm fronds, and the fact that my glasses were sitting on the kitchen table, rather than on my nose. I moved around, trying to make sense of things, but I couldn't get rid of the vision - so I decided to recite a poem, instead. Who wouldn't?

My favourite poem, the poem of my life, was written by Adrienne Rich. I found it when I was rummaging around in somebody's office one day - back in the 1980s - and I have always kept a copy. I was going to reproduce it here, so I went looking in my other blogs, where I could have sworn I posted it years ago. I can't find it, and Google is failing me. Now, what? I can only hope that when I get back to Canada, I'll find my worn hard copy waiting in my desk drawer.

Or - if anybody who reads this can help me find the poem, I would be most grateful. There in the pool, I quoted it as best I could -


"As for me, I distrust the commonplace -
Ask and am receiving marvels, signs,
Miracles wrought in air, acted in space
After imagination's own design.

The lion and the tiger pace this way
As often as I call,
And out of empty air,
The golden-gourded vine, unwatered, springs.

I have inhaled impossibility,
And walk at such an angle, all the stars
Have hung their carnival chains of light for me.

There is a streetcar runs from here to Mars.
I shall be seeing you, my darling, there -
Or at the burning bush in Harvard Square."

Half a moon tonight, so fewer stars visible. Still, I loved my moonlight swim.

I also swam first thing this morning. Have I mentioned that none of the showers in this park have hot water? If I swim during the heat of the day, my pre-swim shower is warm, at least for a few seconds - but early in the morning, before the sun has heated the pipes, the shower is cold, and so is the pool. A week ago, I would have shuddered at the very thought of taking a cold shower, but now I accept it as part - several parts, actually - of my daily routine.

I could take a shower in the RV, of course - except for one little problem. When our tire blew a few days ago, it destroyed the compartment under the rig that holds the sewer hose in place - so although we could use the hose, getting it in and out of its precarious perch is a most unpleasant proposition. I have been asked, therefore, to put as little waste water as possible into our tank, thus postponing the inevitable task. Not that any of this makes sense to me, but I am trying to co-operate. Someday, I trust, we will be able to get that compartment replaced, and I will have my shower back. Meanwhile, I am a traveling ascetic.

So after my morning swim, we took the RV to the tire shop from which Robin had ordered two tires. They installed those two, plus the two that we bought in Manzanillo. We now have four brand new rear tires (the front tires were replaced just before we left Canada). With another four thousand miles or so to travel on this journey, we really needed to do that.

I was unwise yesterday, spent too much time in the sun, so when we got back from the tire shop, I was wary about going for my afternoon swim. Instead, I spent the day inside the RV, with the air conditioner blasting. It was 33C outside, far too hot for me. I wanted to go downtown to buy groceries, but there was no way I was going out in that heat. I waited until 4:30 this afternoon, then took two buses to get to a supermarket, rather than going to the public market, mostly because I figured the supermarket would be air conditioned.

The first bus was parked down by the beach. When I boarded it, I saw that there were four men on board with guitars. One of them was strumming a bit, but nobody was actually playing, to my disappointment. A big man with grey hair and a lovely voice boarded after I did. He started singing, then chatted with one of the guitarists, then sang some more. The bus might hold twenty people in a pinch, but there were only eleven of us on board today, including the driver, and the atmosphere was convivial. A few blocks into the trip, the driver turned on the radio - to something like a Mexican version of soft rock - and the man across from me sang along. It occurred to me that I was doing something I've always loved - sitting in the middle of a group of strangers who didn't speak my language. I used to love walking around in Chinatown in Toronto, for the same reason. Nobody knew me, and nobody understood a word I said (or vice versa), and I found it oddly liberating - as long as I didn't really need to communicate.

I came home by cab and shut myself indoors again, cooked and ate supper, and finally went for a walk on the beach with Robin, well after sundown. This time, the beach was empty - except for what we thought were a couple of swimmers way down the beach, standing hip deep in the surf. They turned out to be not swimmers at all, but fishers. One of them walked out of the water, grinning, carrying a big fish on the end of a short line. A restaurant halfway down the beach was surrounded by lighted tiki torches. All I could think was omigod it must be hot in there!

The Super Bowl is over. I had a great time watching it. I've become such a football expert, I even remembered who was playing. I cheered (officially) for Arizona, because they were the underdogs, but I saw Keith Olbermann interview Pittsburgh's head coach last night, and he's a bit of a cutie, and he's also the youngest head coach in Super Bowl history, if I heard correctly, so I couldn't help pulling for him, too. I was torn.

We've all fallen rather in love with Zihuatanejo, so we're going to stay a bit longer - a week longer, if Robin and I have our way. There's just so much to love. Our park is clean and neat and quiet; the downtown area is great fun, the beach is lovely; the sea is warm. Still, we seem to spend most of our time in the pool, coming out to eat and sleep. Seriously. I swam this morning, right after our beach walk, then again after lunch. The Super Bowl got in the way of my swimming this evening, but when I got home, I put on my suit and went over for my moonlight dip. I suggested to Kristin that we should figure out a way to dehydrate the pool, fold it, and carry it with us. In the photo above, Robin is doing one of his signature belly flops.

Today is the first time on this trip that I've gotten a sunburn. I think the beach walk was the culprit. It was early in the day, so I didn't even think about sunscreen - but by the time I got home, I was toasty. Then, of course, I jumped into the pool and forgot to get out. I should save my beach walking for sunset and later - not only for the sake of my skin, but because it's so lovely out there. Early in the day, there were a few people on the beach, but when I walked down to the restaurant for the Super Bowl, it was standing room only - both on the beach and out in the water. I think the whole population of Zihuatanejo was out there, relaxed and happy, swimming, playing ball, half-burying each other in mud at the edge of the water.

Good night!

Photos courtesy of Kristin Ames