My First Time in Troncones

By Robert Stenehjem

In February 1985, several friends and I were renting a house in Zihuatanejo on La Ropa. I had been talking to Dewey and Rein, a buddy of mine from Canada, about maybe buying a house somewhere in the area. Rein met a Spanish writer who was renting a house across from our place—”The Animal House”, as it was known—a place we had rented for two or three years. Anyway, this Spanish author, his name long forgotten, said he had just moved out of a really nice house right on a beautiful beach in Troncones, and that it was for sale or rent.

I had been coming to Zihua since 1975 and that year was the first time I ever drove a car down–an old beater Chevy wagon. The three of us decided to drive out to Troncones to take a look at the house. We were driving north out of the village, almost there, and right before where the bridge is now—what had been a bridge before had been broken for several years—there was a short bypass road. We hit a hole and the car slammed down on a big rock. It smashed-in the transmission cover and the Chevy started making a loud noise. We stopped to fix it.

When we finally got the wagon going, we made it to the house—Casa de la Tortuga. We went in and we loved it. There was no electricity and no water. We decided right then to rent it for two years with an option to buy, on an agreed price. Dewey, Rein and I drove back to Zihua and packed up some stuff, and the next day we drove back and moved in. We let Rein take the master bedroom, and Dewey and I flipped a coin for the next choice. It was already furnished and even had some sheets and pillows. We brought a big jug of water and food for the propane fridge. Early the next morning, there's a knock at the door. It was our old friend Vladimir, who spoke perfect English, with his good friend Santos and a truck full of water. We had a couple of battery-powered lights. Wow, now we had water and some lights. And those were our first days in Troncones.

To be continued...