Zihuatanejo
Not long before Andy escapes from prison in The Shawshank Redemption, he tells Red that if he ever gets out, he’ll go to Zihuatanejo. “You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?” he asks. “They say it has no memory. That’s where I’d like to finish out my life, Red. A warm place with no memory.”
The Spiritual Cowboy crew dropped anchor in Zihuatanejo late in the afternoon and, as one of the crew bailed for shore, yelled for him to send a water taxi back for the rest of them. A boat arrived to take the crew to the beach and they set off to find out what “Zihua” had to offer.
They found good food, cold drinks, and exceptional hospitality. The Paseo del Pescador danced with people – visitors popping in and out of beachside restaurants, fishermen carrying in their catch, families and friends celebrating into the night. It was warm and the locals were friendly.
The Spiritual Cowboy philosophy is to try a little of everything, and so they did. They stuffed themselves with fresh-caught fish and stiff drinks and danced to the sounds of street-corner bands. People pulled up chairs, new faces appeared and disappeared, and the laughter of strangers mixed with their own until they couldn’t tell it apart.
Eventually, the crew stumbled back to the beach in search of a water taxi to ferry them back to the boat. But there were no water taxis. It turns out that what they thought was a water taxi earlier that afternoon was just a local fisherman doing them a favor. The only way to get back to the boat at this point was to jump in and swim.
