Acapulco

Loading a shipful of passengers into their appropriate tour buses could be a major challenge but I must say Princess is a master at this and everything went just tickety-boo. As we got into our bus though, there was a little bit of jockeying for seats until everyone was happily settled.

“There have been two revolutions in Mexico,” our tour guide informed us, “and they were due to seats on a bus.”

And then we were off on a city tour. Along the way we had to make the obligatory stop at a jewelry store where the prices were no bargains. I may have inadvertently reacted to the sticker shock because I noticed, shortly thereafter, that one of the attendants seemed to be following me with a wheelchair. Honest. I have no idea what that was all about.

Driving along the beach Li, our guide, pointed out the umbrellas under which fishermen were displaying their fresh catches of the day. It gets pretty hot though, even under the umbrellas, and Teddy and I wondered what happens to the fish lying all day in the heat. “Anything unsold by 4:00 p.m. is delivered to Princess Cruises,” said Li.

Along with a history lesson and he pointed out the various sites, Li told us a little about himself. As a young man, like many others, he hung around the beach a lot and consequently some of his friends nicknamed him Beach Boy. Others called him Son of a Beach.

“The fort on the left was built to protect the city from tourists,” he announced while pointing out the famous landmark. “Or maybe it was pirates.” We were also driven to a lagoon where years ago they filmed the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. The area is very recognizable if you’ve seen the movie. The water is as muddy today as it was 50 years ago due to the many mangrove trees that line its banks and whose roots disturb the bottom, creating the murk. Elsewhere, wild red bougainvillea give a punch of colour to the otherwise solid walls of green bush.

We drove through some of the older, established parts of Acapulco and saw the well-known Las Brisas Hotel, where each room has its own swimming pool. Further up the road is a multi-level 11 bedroom house with huge glass vistas overlooking the bay, a winter home for Sylvester Stallone. Where once Acapulco was a bright jewel for holiday destinations of the rich and famous like like Hedy Lamar, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra to name a few, nowadays its time has passed and the areas that attracted the old timers looks a little faded. There is, however, much new development going on further down the coastline and Acapulco now stretches many miles further south.

There’s a superhighway linking Acapulco to Mexico City, and it takes only 4 hours to drive between the two cities. Along this highway you can find the Green Angels. These are mobile garages each equipped with a qualified mechanic who will fix your car, free of charge, should you be so unlucky as to have it break down along the road. Li didn’t explain how they get paid, but he repeated that the service is free. Hence the name, Angels. I don’t know where the green comes in.