Some things take a little convincing...

The camera is bigger than my usual birthday presents, but we had a scheduling hangup that forced Eliz to be a little creative with her gift giving. To kill two birds with one nice camera, she gave me my Christmas present and my birthday present all in one plastic enclosure, and just in time for a little trip to Mexico.
Here are a few pics from the trip:

This stairway leading away from a great Italian restaurante (Il Mare) in Zihuatanejo is flanked by jungle plants filled with lizards. They must be attracted to the 80s-esque turquoise color. Don't ask me why the nicest restaurants in town are all Italian... I think they might be family-owned.

Sunset over the Pacific. We went on a sunset cruise up the coast and I took this shot handheld from the head (that's bathroom to you landlubbers) after about an hour of sailing and 4 cervezas. The porthole in the head is only about 2 feet off the water... thus the dolphin-like perspective.

Votives in the prayer-room at La Iglesia "Cristo Jesus de Petatlan". The inside of this prayer-room was completely covered in soot.

Boats at the mercado de pescadores (fisherman's market). The local fishermen went out at dawn and would come in with their fresh fish by breakfast time. After we went to church on Sunday, we followed the crowd back toward the beach and were amazed at all the little senoras buying fish for their Sunday meals.

This is the view over Zihuatanejo Bay. The cloud at the top actually looked like that... it's not an optical effect. Right after I snapped this shot, Eliz and I saw a huge fireball that separated into two meteorites as it fell. Eliz has always said she never gets to see shooting stars, but that one was the biggest either of us had ever seen. This night was just full of strangeness in the sky.