DIVE IN TO AMAZING ACAPULCO

Monday, January 25, 2010

About noon today we arrived in Acapulco, Mexico’s premier beach resort from the
1960s, attracting the rich and famous. The temperature was a comfortable 80+ F. We are over 1600 miles from San Diego, California. As we approached the crescent shaped bay we could see the old fort San Diego (El Fuerte de San Diego built in 1783 to replace the original structure built in 1615 that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1776) and the modern city with a population of 2 million. The fort is actually very close to our cruise ship and we can see it from our balcony. Acapulco, very close to the Sierra Madres mountain range, is about 4 hours from Mexico City.

We needed to make some phone calls to TK’s family when we disembarked, so we stayed in the terminal for a short while. Phone calls were $1.25/minute. After the calls we found a taxi to go to a local market for $10 round trip. It turned out that the taxi driver (Alberto 45) would escort us to the market and accompany us around it. We determined that he was guiding us to vendors who were his family. This was really not a problem, but one tries to politely say, “I’m just looking,” over and over.

We bought tees for dear granddaughters B1 and B2, a Harley “muscle shirt” for TK, and a bottle of pure vanilla. One lady had attractive tees on which she had hand-sewn sequins into the tropical design. They were lovely and I bought one. After a particularly aggressive encounter in a small jewelry booth, I finally signaled the driver that this was enough. He drove us back to the ship through the “real deal” in old Acapulco, sturdy old buildings, and narrow cobblestone streets, places where the Mexicans shopped.

This evening, after sunset, we boarded a bus to see the cliff divers at La Quebrada. The short trip took us to a lookout area that was quite a few steps down. TK and I were able to have our picture taken with two of the divers before the performance. Below the precipice where we were standing the ocean swirled in a gorge with 11 to 15 ft. deep water. Soon, seven young men in their teens or early twenties ran down those steps carrying torches. As everyone cheered they then climbed down to the gorge belo, swam across the water, and then proceeded to climb up the face of the jagged granite cliff (the cliff looked perpendicular to the sea). The divers stood in pairs at 4 different levels, the highest at 136 ft. on top of the cliff. They were assessing the waves that came into the gorge. They time their dives to coincide with just the right wave so there is more depth to the water. They dove at intervals, the last two plunging simultaneously while carrying torches.

This is an unbelievably gripping sight, one I thought I would never see. I remember reading about the Acapulco cliff divers in a Weekly Reader while I was in 4th or 5th grade many years ago. It is truly a death-defying performance and we were told that the men spend years practicing. We were also told that they used to do only swan dives, but tonight we saw back flip dives and somersault dives as well (I don’t know the proper names for the dives). After the dives, the men climbed back up to our area while dripping wet to greet everyone.

The bus tour continued along the bay through this delightful city. We saw huge glamorous hotels, shops, open air dining, bingo, beaches open 24 hours (all beaches in Mexico are public! I think the guide said that there are 9,000 miles of coast in Mexico), Wal-Mart, grocery stores, markets, as we drove. We arrived at an open-air restaurant, “Linda Vista,” that overlooked the city. While listening to a very good Mexican band, we enjoyed a great, authentic Aztec meal: tortilla chips with salsa and “deep refried beans”-spicy but I could eat it; fabulous leek and potato soup; warm garlic bread; chicken quesadilla; red snapper; chicken breast; chicken taquito; guacamole; sour cream; rice; and banana flambé for dessert. The food was excellent. This very enjoyable tour, arranged by Carnival, was worth the price. We returned to the ship at about 10:30 p.m.

TK’s Takes: Gas is very expensive, $1/litre. Two different drivers mentioned that there are no refineries in Mexico, so their oil is sent to America for refining and then sold back to Mexico as gasoline. He liked the Walk/Don’t Walk signs on the street corners. The little man in the sign actually walks when it is time to walk.

Note: I have not been inserting photos because the Internet is slow and costs about $.40/minute. Downloading photos takes quite awhile. I hope to have time when we return to San Diego to add some photos!