Zihuatanejo

The name may come from the Purépecha for "water of the yellow mountain" or from the Nahuatl Cihuatlan, "place of women", the western paradise of the goddess women who led the setting sun to the land of the dead. By the 15th century the area was home to the Chumbia, Panteca and Coixcas, who mined salt where Ixtapa now stands, and Purépecha kings are said to have used the bay for recreation. The Aztecs under Ahuizotl conquered the region in 1497 and made it a tributary province, and most of its people abandoned it.

The Spanish arrived in the 1520s, and on 31 October 1527 three ships ordered built by Cortés left the bay under Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón for Asia; only the Florida reached the islands, and no one returned. Colonial Zihuatanejo remained a fishing village among haciendas producing cacao, cotton, vanilla and tropical timber, and the Manila galleons brought the coconut palms that later carried the coastal economy. The bay drew pirates, and there are indications that between 1680 and 1740 it was used for smuggling Asian goods between New Spain and Peru. Morelos used it as a supply port in 1811.

The town became a municipality in 1953. In the 1970s the federal government chose to build a resort at Ixtapa, and the population grew from 6,887 to 37,328 by the early 1990s. The 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption made the name known worldwide as its hero's refuge. In 2008 bull sharks killed two surfers along the coast, and in 2009 the town's security headquarters was attacked with explosives. In 2023 Zihuatanejo was named a Pueblo Mágico.

Zihuatanejo has kept the feel of a traditional Mexican fishing town while its neighbour Ixtapa caters to the resort trade. Its centre has no conventional plaza: instead a basketball court in front of the beach, surrounded by benches and shade trees, serves as the meeting point, and beside it the gazebo and the Casa de la Cultura host concerts, cultural shows and art exhibitions. A long-standing community of Swiss and Italian immigrants has added to the town's character.

The calendar reflects both the sea and a sizeable foreign community. The Zihua Sail Fest in February brings more than 100 boats, some from as far as Alaska, for races, concerts and street fairs that raise money for local children's education, and the International Guitar Festival, begun in 2004, fills venues for a week each March. Sport fishing is part of the town's identity; Sport Fishing Magazine once rated the area second in the world for sailfish, and the International Sailfish Tournament is held each May.

Religious devotion has its own local form. Near Playa La Ropa, in a parking space, a plum tree where an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was reported to have appeared in November 2006 has become a shrine, with steps, candles and flowers, and a Mass and candlelit vigil are held there each 12 December.

The 2020 census counted about 71,000 people in Zihuatanejo itself and about 126,000 in the municipality of Zihuatanejo de Azueta, which includes Ixtapa; it is the fourth-largest city in Guerrero. Tourism has been the economic base since the resort was developed, and the area is among Mexico's most popular for sport fishing.

The day starts at the pier, where fishermen come in every morning with their catch and open boats prepare to ferry visitors to Las Gatas and other beaches. Most sport fishing happens well offshore, where charter boats go for sailfish and marlin, caught and released year-round. The town centre's narrow streets, pedestrian lanes and waterfront are lined with restaurants and craft shops, and Juan Álvarez street, a block back from the water, carries the traffic.

In the evening the Paseo del Pescador fills with people socialising. Winter brings yachts that moor in the bay for months and cruise ship passengers; the summer is quieter, hotter and wetter. Residents live in neighbourhoods spreading inland from the bay into the foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur, and buses tie the town to Ixtapa and the bus station, while the Autopista Siglo XXI has brought Mexico City within about six hours by road.

Zihuatanejo eats from its bay. The fishermen's morning catch supplies the restaurants along the Paseo del Pescador, which serve seafood among many other dishes, and the bay-view restaurants above Playa Madera and the beach restaurants of La Ropa do the same with the water in front. Sailfish, marlin, dorado, tuna, snook and grouper are all caught off this coast.

Like the rest of Guerrero, the town keeps Thursday as pozole day, when restaurants serve the hominy stew white, red or green, with its traditional accompaniments. Coconut palms, brought by the Manila galleons and grown for centuries on the plantations around the bay, are part of the local landscape and economy, and the town's oldest building began as a storehouse for a coconut plantation.

The small restaurants on the streets of El Centro serve everyday Mexican food to residents as well as visitors. Ixtapa next door has the larger hotel restaurants and more international menus, while farmers on the coast to the south grow fruit trees, vegetables and coconuts for copra.