Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Mexico

Huatalco, Mexico – 2nd May

Huatalaco is a holiday resort being developed by the Mexican Government to compete with the success of Cancun and Acapulco. Although a new resort it was in a beautiful location and has great potential for the future. Today we took a coach tour to see the sights, which involved visit to a local loom factory, a wine store where we had a tasting of a local drink called mezcal (very strong for 10.00am in the morning). After a visit to a very pretty local church we drove along the coast to view the existing five star hotels and the ones being developed. All in all a very pleasant trip to see the potential of the resort.

Before we returned to the ship we strolled through the harbour area and sampled the local coffee before wandering round the market, after which we walked down to the beach and found a nice bar to drink a corona and people watch.

Acapulco – 3rd May

We arrived early in Acapulco, again very hot reported to be 39 degrees and this was early in the morning, for a coach trip along the Acapulco’s main boulevard lined with hotel, bars and restaurants, where all the rich and famous play. We went up the hill surrounding Acapulco and viewed the houses owned by Sylvester Stalone, Kissinger, Oprah Winfrey, Placido Domingo and many others including the Beckhams.

After a return journey back through town we drove up to La Quebrada, where the famous death defying cliff divers perform, which we viewed from the terraces of a local hotel. This really was quite spectacular. The ten or twelve divers started their performance by jumping into the water and then climbing some 35 metres up the rocky cliff face to a shrine to say a short prayer before they, in turn, commenced their individual dives (some somersaulting). The finale was a young lad, (the right hand diver on the picture) who dived off the very highest rock into the water below.

Before we returned to the ship we walked along the beach, avoiding the many traders selling their wares, and found a very nice beach café, where we had a beer, and chocolate and banana shake, along with a typical Mexican lunch.

To cap off a very nice couple of days we were treated to a display of twenty or thirty dolphins jumping out of the sea right next to our window whilst we were eating our dinner (unfortunately camera was not to hand).

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