One of my favorite Zihuatanejo restaurants has always been Casa Bahia. There’s something about the place – the way it’s situated relative to the bay and town – that gives you a whole different vista and change of scenery compared to what the Zihuatanejo visitor usually sees, which most commonly is from the downtown, La Madera, La Ropa vantage point, looking toward the mouth of the bay and the open ocean.
At Casa Bahia you’re overlooking out over the water and the boats toward the other side, and there are some wonderful and subtle changes in the light when sunset comes about. The sun is behind you and so you don’t end up staring, almost to the exclusion of everything else, at the big, orange globe sinking beneath the waves or disappearing behind the hills, but instead find yourself watching the play of pink and golden rays hitting the white and yellow and orange and adobe colored walls that march up the hillside across the bay, colors and hues that change with every passing second.
There have been three occasions recently when our timing in deciding to go to Casa Bahia for a sunset drink and appetizers or a meal have been what we’ve considered splendid, and these occasions were totally random and coincidental, no prior thought or planning involved, but after the fact, we’ve gratefully realized our timing could not have been better. These moments have left us somehow with the feeling that there’s something definitely magical about Casa Bahia…
The first occasion was last fall or winter, I can’t remember the exact date, but as we sat thoroughly enjoying the view of the lights in town directly after dark, a strange glow began to show up straight across the bay along the northern ridge of the mountain above the “Parthenon”. It looked like a fire starting almost on the top of the hill, growing by the second. It took several of those seconds to pass, with the intensity of the light growing steadily, before we realized that we were watching a gigantic, full moon lifting itself imperiously above the hillside right across from us. We were awed. It was so unexpected and so beautiful. None of us had realized what phase the moon was in and certainly did not have any idea a full moon rise of any kind was in store for us, let alone such a spectacular one. We stayed and watched, fascinated, throughout the whole production, until the moon was well into the sky.
The second occasion was similar, when in February we had another moon phenomenon with a full eclipse of the moon happening shortly after moon rise, again coming up over the same hill but slightly more to the south this time. Once more, we’d fortuitously decided to go to Casa Bahia for dinner, without thinking that the eclipse, which we’d heard about but didn’t focus terribly on, was due to happen and be visible to us here in Zihua. Casa Bahia turned out to be the A-1 spot to watch that eclipse, I can tell you. The big, brilliant globe came over the hill and was hanging perfectly in the sky in front of our eyes when the eclipse began. We watched the moon turn from a big ball into a sliver, then a shimmering aura of almost nothing, and grow back again, right in front of our eyes, and in what seemed to be no time at all for such a huge thing to happen. All we could think was, what luck!!
Rainbow from Casa Bahia
The third occasion was this past Friday, there we were sitting at Casa Bahia at sunset, sipping our rum and fresh grapefuit juice (yes! they always have *fresh squeezed* grapefruit juice!) when lo and behold, against the backdrop of that same hill across the bay, with some fierce-looking summer-storm-type clouds forming behind and above it, there appeared a fabulous rainbow that stretched all the way from Agua de Correa to Cerro del Vigia in a perfect arc. This was doubly amazing because earlier that day I had been experimenting, totally unsuccessfully using a Photoshop tutorial, to place a realistic-looking rainbow over a photo of THAT SAME HILL. I didn’t get it to work to my liking, and I got frustrated, only to be presented a few hours later with this wonderful display at a time when, also wonder of wonders, I had my camera with me. So what came of it is that I today replaced the prior title photograph of this blog (which was of the hill across from Casa Bahia but without a rainbow) with a photo I took on Friday of the hill, WITH a rainbow, straight out of nature’s own treasure chest. Since the title photo has text overlying much of the rainbow itself, though, I’ve included another photo in this post, also taken on Friday, that’s been darkened a bit so that the rainbow is a bit more visible. Needless to say, to see it in real life was so much more incredible.
Well, up to now I’ve just touched on the astounding views at Casa Bahia, but their food is also Very good – because of both food and views, it’s one of our pet spots to graze on appetizers like spicy seared sashimi, corn and spinach crepes, stuffed zucchini, breaded calamari… or have a Cesar Salad with shrimp, Spinach Salad with Peanut Sauce, a tasty seafood kabob, fresh tuna steak or Walt’s famous Salisbury Steak with mashed potatoes and gravy… Casa Bahia has an open-to-the-stars upstairs deck for your enjoyment as well as their standard bar and restaurant seating downstairs.
Location: Colonia Almacen (on the road to Puerto Mio), Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Telephone: (755) 554-8666
Open: Daily from noon to 12 midnight during the winter season; Daily except Mondays, 2 till 10 p.m. during the summer season.
Ixtapa Zihuatanajo, Guerrero, is located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, north of Acapulco.
