Traveling to Acapulco – Zihuatanejo

Pool at Los Flamingos where "Tarzan swam — Pool at Los Flamingos where “Tarzan swam

Our last day in Acapulco at Los Flamingos I started the day with a few laps in the pool and a breakfast of fruit and yogurt, gosh I almost feel like a heath nut. I can’t say enough about this hotel, with its interesting Hollywood past, hammocks on every terrace,

the beautiful grounds, good terrace restaurant right on the cliff, sunsets to die for, rooms with a terrace and a hammock and are naturally air-conditioned by the ocean breeze. So we packed,

watched the news, read lazed in the hammock, ate a lite lunch, but mostly interested in getting home to Zuatanejo.

We wished we had scheduled an earlier than 3 o’clock bus ride. We left the hotel at 1:30, caught a cab and didn’t arrive at the station until 2:40. This should have been a 20 min trip at best, but…… Traffic during the day is horrendous, half the streets are torn up, but Acapulco drivers are the rudest, most aggressive, inconsiderate drivers I have ever seen.

Beautiful sunset fromnour room terrace — Beautiful sunset from our room terrace

absolutely no rules of the road. I’ve been in heavy traffic in Rome and Naples, this was far worst. And to make matters worst there are 2 bus stations in Acapulco, Ejidio & Central. We of course had no idea which we arrived in and our ticket s said Centro, but when we got to Centro we were told take a taxi to other station. The trip home was uneventful, but long. Even though it was a first class bus that didn’t mean non stop. More and better research next trip. The only reason I would return to Acapulco would be to stay at the hotel, it is a little slice of paradise on the highest cliff in Acapulco and possible to go to a bull-fight. I know the current trend is that they are barbaric, but I have been to bull fights in Spain, and that bull is as mean as a junk yard dog, and the “torerros ” are as graceful as ballerinas, and the pageantry is beautiful. Enough said!

We were welcomed home by a trail of ants from the balcony along one wall to the front door. Not welcome visitors, fortunately we had bug spray and solved the problem quickly. So glad to be back in our little home away from home. Signing off KO

ACAPULCO CLIFF DIVERS AND THE ZOCOLO

Our trip to Acapulco is all about seeing the cliff divers again, and getting some good photos and of course relaxing in the beautiful Hotel Los Flamingos.

Our day started with breakfast at the hotels terrace dining area, then we walked around the grounds, a veritable jungle of plants and trees and path ways, we located the pool with plans to swim later. Next we flagged a taxi outside our hotel grounds, most taxi’s are VW bugs. This makes getting in and out of a bit difficult as some have the front seat moved all the way up to make it easier to get in the back and others have it pushed back so you can sit in the front. Either way it’s a bit difficult and when you ask “cuanto cuesta “ to your destination they say “very cheap”, or “what you want to pay.” Mostly it’s about 5 bucks to everywhere.

It is truly amazing as they start from the water and scale the cliff they are going to dive from. No safety harness, no repelling gear, no pick axe or pegs, their only equipment is the “Speedo” they wear. There are several different natural platforms in the cliff they dive from, that is if you can call a flat spot on the cliff that really isn’t more than a few inches wide a platform. Their dives are graceful, and obviously well times with the tide and current.

The tiny inlet they dive into is only about 13 ft deep at the highest tide deepest current, with beautiful blue water, but the divers do a sweep to clean the water it of any floating debris that could cause them injuries

We choose to watch them from the lowest vantage point, a small pavilion a couple of hundred steps down the hillside. It costs 40 pesos to watch from there and that money goes to the divers along with any tip money they can get from the tourists.

Going down was easy, going up hot and tiring but well worth the show, one of the divers we visited afterwards said he’d been diving for 18 years, which would have made him about 10 or 12 when he started. Some of the other divers we saw were young, but not children. They were very gracious and signed shirts for our grandsons.We were amazed not only the height of their dives but at what beautiful dives they did.

Next we flagged VW cab and headed for the Zocolo. Acapulco has a beautiful square with huge trees, and a large gazebo facing the very busy street that runs along the water front, on the opposite side is a very beautiful church. Along both sides are shops and restaurants filled with people shopping and alley ways off the main square with shops and booths of just about everything. A small shop with very bright colors caught our eye and I purchased two pairs of capri’s and the Senor bought 2 pairs of shorts for 6.90 pesos each.

Although it was past lunch time we weren’t really hungry and decided Ice cream would be just right. We picked a side-walk café and ordered “malteados” which were listed in English as milk shakes. Well milk shakes they were, I don’t think there was any ice cream in them at all, but tasty none the less. Then back to our lovely hotel for siesta and dinner.

As we opened our door on to the veranda, the wind came up quite strong, but it was a warm wind and continued most of the night. We had a nice dinner of broiled chicken for the Senor and a tuna stuffed tomato for me as once again we watched the beautiful sunset. We retired to our room to read catch up on the news and sort through our pictures. A very pleasant day in Acapulco, a lovely place to visit, but too crowed and busy to ever want to stay here. For some reason the internet went out and ended the news for the Senor and brought our day to a close. signing off KO

EARLY MONING THOUGHTS

Being an early morning riser, before dawn, give me time for personal contemplation, sorting of pictures, and making new plans.

Yesterday as we went to the Comercial Mexican, the local super market, we stoped by the bus station to plan our side trip to Acapulco. We want to see the cliff divers. While my Spanish is quite limited I’m not so intimidated attempting to use it as I used to be. Our clerk spoke about as much English as I speak Spanish and when spoken words failed, the pen was sucessful. We sucessfully booked a round trip on a first class bus to Acapulco on the 28th of January, we will stay 2 nights. So this morning the task was to book our hotel. As we had been there once before we knew we wanted to stay at Hotel Los Flamingos. It’s the hotel that John Wayne, Johnny Weismuller and other Hollywood types used as their private club in their heyday. It isn’t fancy, but has lovely gardens, a great restaurant and you are right on the cliff overlooking the bay and speaks of old Hollywood elegance. I don’t know how else to describe it. Of course the website is in Spanish but I managed to make our reservation, with the help of my “dictionario.” For 2 nights it is $140 American which I thought was quite reasonable.

One early morning while walking to the Zocolo, I discovered that not every one books a hotel room as these travelers had set up camp right in the zocolo.

We have a shopping bag on wheels and have learned to shop more frequently so that everything we buy will fit in the one bag. As our apartment is on a pedestrian street and the taxi can only get us to a point a block away it’s a long haul with a dozen bags and then 2 flights of stairs. We have learned to buy all our fruit and veggies at the Mercado, it’s much fresher. I also like to buy my cheese and eggs there. Here again the rolling cart is a god send, especially if you buy a watermelon as the Mercado is about 4-6 blocks from us, to short a trip for a taxi.

We usually eat breakfast and lunch in our apartment, well breakfast is always on the balcony and luch is usually inside as sit is quite warm by then. Our little kitchen is quite adequate for the cooking we do and I do have a crock pot for cooking an evening meal. One oddity of our kitchen is the ceiling fan does so good a job that you have to turn it off while using the stove or it blows the flame out. Does make for a warm kitchen.

We have been eating dinner out more this year and try to go to a variety of restaurants. We did choose Galeana’s again as we wanted to see Jimmi Mamou again and the 2 of us soon became 6 as friends arrived and then it was 8 as Lori and Rick stopped by. Staff is always willing to move another table around to accommodate. Nothing like a great fish dinner, sitting at tables on the sand, hearing the waves lap at the beach and enjoying some great music with friends new and old.

Our next stop after ambling through town was at an odd little bar Pura Vida where Scotty and the harmonica man were playing the Blues. We listened to their last set had a night cap with Lori and Rick and called it a night. Signing off KO

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