On Sunday Marie and I felt like getting away by ourselves and doing some sight seeing. It was another hot day and we wandered up the busy main street, Av Costera Miguel Aleman, looking for a tour guide that could lead us around. There were no end to the yellow and green taxis and colourful noisy buses and every few minutes the police drove by in pickups with four or five darkly dressed men with machine gun in the bed. I read that security has improved recently but gunmen from local criminal groups continue to battle in the city's poorer mountainside neighbourhoods. Where we were staying seemed safe enough and at no time when we were there did we feel at all threatened or in any danger. We eventually settled on a taxi and driver who agreed to take us anywhere we wanted to go for three hours for 800 pesos. I had always wanted to see the famous cliff divers of La Quebrada, after seeing them for the first time many years ago in the old Elvis Presley movie 'Fun in Acapulco'. It is a tradition of the Acapulco area that has been around since the forties, involving jumpers diving off a 150 foot high cliff into a very narrow pocket of ocean water. We made it for the 1 pm dive and watched as a half dozen or so young men climb up the rock, pray to the virgin of Guadalupe in two small shrines, then start their spectacular dives. To be able to land safely in the water they have to be aware of the wind and the incoming tide to be able to have enough water (15 feet) to clear the rocks at the bottom. After the dives the men who performed signed a tee shirt for us and we headed out again with our very friendly driver.
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| Marie's escort at La Quebrada! |
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| going down to the already crowded public viewing platform |
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| Sightseers in boats awaiting the dives |
It all happened fairly fast but it was quite the experience and one that I had never thought I would ever see in my lifetime. Other than the cliff divers I had been told that the other thing to see was the fort of San Diego that overlooked the city. This fort is probably the most important Spanish fortress along the Pacific coast and we were really disappointed to find it had closed early that day. All we could see from the road were a few workmen and very little of the building itself, designed in the shape of a five point star.
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| Marie tipping our still dripping divers |
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| parking lot with statue of diver and my new Tee |
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| Plazoleta de La Quebrada |
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| La Quebrada in the distance |
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| La Sirena et Marie |
After leaving La Quebrada the driver stopped at the famous Hotel Los Flamingos so we could see the ocean view and take a few photos. This place was built back in the thirties and is located on top of the highest cliffs of Acapulco, 450 feet high, with great views of the Pacific ocean and La Roqueta Island. This pink-coloured hotel was a favourite hangout of co-owners John Wayne and Johnny 'Tarzan' Weissmuller. Others of the so-called Hollywood gang who spent time here, included Red Skelton, Fred McMurray, Errol Flynn and Cary Grant. It looked a little run down to me and only the memories remained of these great actors....We were dropped off at the El Zorrito restaurant for a late lunch and we enjoyed typical Mexican fare - tasty and spicy - with an Indio beer, before taking a bus back to our hotel. We had a last stroll on the beach as the sun went down and went back to pack. We were heading back north to Cuernavaca where we would bring in the New Year!
gws
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| Marie and our taxi driver, terrace of Los Flamingos hotel |
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| Salud! |
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| El Zorrito restaurant |
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| Adios Acapulco! |
