Day 13: Acapulco, Mexico

Shirley is walking on the Promenade Deck 7 again this morning as our ship was coming into dock at Acapulco. Most mornings we would try to get in 14 laps... which is how many laps it takes to equal 5 miles. (2.8 laps is one mile.)

We have observed that the larger the city, the larger the pier... and this is the biggest we have come upon so far on this side of the Panama Canal. Acapulco has more than 700,000 people.

From the top deck of our ship we could get an excellent photo of this huge fort.

At the time we did not know that it was converted into the Historic Museum of Acapulco... but we did expect we would be stopping to see the old fort.

The displays inside the museum were exceptional... but I will not bore you with all my I-phone pictures taken inside each room. I was surprised how well my phone/camera worked with existing light in rooms with marginal light. This was an ancient canoe, paddle, spear and shield.

This pottery display was recessed into the floor, covered with glass and lit from beneath.

Looking down on the moat from the roof top, the draw bridge looked like a good idea for security.

We had a bigger taxi today... a full-size Mercury with A/C and sofa-like seats. Our driver's name was Reuben. As we were on the way to the church on the hill, this motorcycle was beside us... so I rolled down the window and captured their smile and wave. The next second the lady lost her helmet and it went bouncing along behind as we went on our way. Ooops! So that's why helmets have chin straps.

Acapulco is famous for these large resort hotels along one of the nicest beaches in the world. That large hotel with the angled side which you often see on travel posters of Acapulco is the Crowne Plaza.

We were here early in the day, but people were already starting to come to sit under the umbrellas and suntan.

Without a doubt my favourite site we visited today was this church. It is an interdenominational church, privately built and opened around 1974.

This cross towers 138 feet and can be seen from most places in Acapulco. It is totally awesome!

Next to the cross was this sculpture of two hands. The quality of everything here was a notch above most anything.

The inside of the church was contemporary, without paintings on the walls or ceiling... very beautiful, simple and clean.

The view from the church of the bay below with the hotels was spectacular... we could see forever in all directions.

This is a mosaic on the wall outside the home of the famous Spanish mural artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). His house was not available for a tour, but because of the mural mosaic on the wall outside, the taxi drivers keep taking us tourists past for a look.

This mosaic has some serious thickness... check out the dog.

You may remember the artist DeGrazia I did a couple of blog posts on when we were in Tucson. DeGrazia was a student of Rivera for a few years. If you like art, check out my blog posts "DeGrazia Adobe" in the February 2010 Archive. These guys do interesting stuff.

This is the view from the Los Flamingo Hotel, which was a hot spot for Hollywood movie stars in the 50's and 60's... but not so today.

It's kind of a tired hotel now, living in the memories of past glories. There are lists of names of all the stars who used to enjoy coming here... like Johnny Weismiller (Tarzan).

Acapulco has become famous for the La Quebrada Cliff Divers. The divers started in the 1930’s just to see who could dive from the highest point into the narrow, shallow inlet. We watched two guys climb up this rock face in bare feet to the top, where they later dove off into the water below. To see them climb up was almost as impressive as their jump.

We saw each of these guys jump... plus one more. It was hard to capture a good photo of them actually diving with our inadequate cameras and the angle we were viewing from. You can see the top of two shrines where they pray before they dive.

I must confess this is not a photo that we took... but it gives you a better idea of the dive these guys did. We saw several single dives and one double... but no triple!

This shot of the diver's splash gives you a better idea of how small a target they had to dive into. It was a pretty narrow channel of water. We paid $3.50 USD per person to see this from up close. Pretty cool!

Time for a Smile
Rueben, our taxi driver, had a pretty good sense of humour. As we were driving back to the ship he told us there were lots of good Catholic restaurants in Acapulco. I took the bait and asked how we could tell a Catholic restaurant from the others. He told us that you would know when you see the waiter bring a customer the bill. The customer does the sign of the cross and exclaims, “O my God!”

Q. What do you call two Mexicans playing soccer?
A. Juan on Juan

Q. Why doesn't Mexico have an Olympic team?
A. Because any Mexican who can run, jump or swim is already in the United States.

WORDS OF WISDOM

"I figure you have the same chance of winning lottery whether you play or not."
-Fran Lebowitz

"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it."-Sam Levenson