Zihuatenejo was both a pleasure and a disappointment. We had heard so much about this small, Mexican city and were anxious to spend some time here. From the water the town is very pretty with palm treed beaches and a large, calm anchorage. Ashore the beach restaurants and bars are pleasant, the clubs and restaurants in town were lively, and the entire city is geared towards tourists from all over the world. It is a walking city with small streets and alleys, a large mercado centro, and many small stores selling t-shirts and souvenirs. We had one memorable dinner when we found an old restaurant that specialized in “pozole” the spicy Mexican soup that is the specialty of the state of Guererro. We dined in upper 80s temperatures (10 PM) eating soup that definitely had some kick. Crazy, but the complimentary Mezcal served with every dinner was a help. Late beers at the Sunset Bar on the beach also helped. We sat on the beach under a thatched roof watching our boat float calmly just 200 yards away. We could have swum home.
The disappointment in Zihua was the quality of the water in the bay. This was the worst water we had seen in our travels and, despite the constant temperatures in the 90s, we were unable to swim in the area. The bottom of our boat grew foul with marine life (or death), and although we enjoyed our time ashore we were uncomfortably warm with little hope of cooling off even on the boat. We elected to cut a few days off of our stay in Zuhua for the next leg of our sea passage where the ocean breezes would be a welcome change from the sweltering heat in the bay.
We had almost decided to bypass Acapulco (24 hours from Zihua) in favor of sailing all the way to Puerto Angel (another 40 hours south). Normally we like to limit overnights to one at a time, but we had heard many bad things about Acapulco from crime to dirty water to lack of anchorage or mooring space, but we had two good reasons for stopping and we thought we would make the decision when we approached Acapulco.
Our two reasons for stopping were (1) I had seen the cliff divers of Acapulco years ago on Wide World of Sports, and I really did want to see them live and (2) way back in 1945 Andrea’s parents had taken a delayed honeymoon trip (delayed by WWII) driving from Minneapolis to Acapulco. Driving from Minneapolis to Acapulco would be enough of an adventure now with highways, regular gas stations, etc., but we think it must have been a true odyssey in 1945 with limited roads, hard to find fuel, and a population that had not been exposed to the English language via TV and music. We had talked about this trip before and of course we had talked about Acapulco.
We approached Acapulco at 9 AM after a day of sailing and a long, dark night of motoring with just the stars. There are no other boats out here, no moon and, alas, no wind. We decided to pass on Acapulco and continue on to Puerto Angel thinking “we are young, we are fresh, why not?” when a quick check of our fuel tanks showed that without better wind we would either run out of gas or it would take us several days to sail the entire distance. Great decision. We loved the Acapulco stop as you will see.
We managed to get a mooring at the famous Acapulco Yacht Club and after a swim in the club pool, pina coladas at the club bar, and showers at the club spa (our first hot showers in over 3 weeks) we felt human again, This is a first class yacht club and they took good care of some second class boaters. Then it was off to walk the malecon and find the cliff divers. Acapulco is a huge city and it shows in the streets, the traffic, the air pollution, and the crowds so the long walk in the city heat was not a highlight. But we did find the cliff divers and for $3 each we got a place on the observation deck some 70 feet above the water and some 60 feet below the divers. The jagged cliffs are separated form the observation deck by a 20 foot wide arm of the ocean that surges with each incoming wave. The divers, 5 of them, entered the water on our side of the cove swam across to the cliffs, and then started climbing the rocks straight up. Just the climbing of the rocks was breathtaking. Barefooted, wet, wearing only bathing suits these guys climbed straight up the 140 foot cliffs Just watching them climb, knowing that the only fall would be onto the rocks, not into the water was scary. As cliff climbers they would have been worth the price of admission, no diving necessary.
But dive they did. Huge arcing swan dives out over the rocks and into the narrow slot of water at the bottom. They timed the dives from the top so that they hit the water when the waves surged into the cove. This seemed to require that they make their leap at exactly the wrong time, when the wave had surged out of the cove leaving little water behind. Fantastic. I don’t think I can adequately describe how high above the water the cliff divers were. We were on an observation platform halfway down the cliffs and I could feel the vertigo there. The divers perched on narrow rocks, wind blowing, looking at the ocean surge, and then leaping out and down were twice as high as we were. Muy loco Mexicans is the only way to describe these daredevils. Muy loco.
The Acapulco bus ride: We have traveled by bus frequently in Mexico. We take the buses everywhere and have seen La Paz,, Mazatlan, La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, and many other smaller towns via bus. We have had varying experiences. Some towns have small, crowded buses, some have modern air conditioned buses, most have buses with badly worn seats and shock absorbers, and the buses in Manzanillo were somehow built without any shock absorbers. We even had the memorable “suicide bus” in Manzanillo where we got a crazy guy at the wheel who apparently got to go home as soon as he could finish his route (he was fast, cut people off, drove up the sidewalks, and grazed at least one road divider). But Acapulco has our best bus memory.
We were walking back to the Club de Yates and looking for a bus for the two mile trip. We found a bus pulled up outside a small liquor store and asked the guy sitting in the driver’s seat in fractured Spanish if the Yacht Club was on his route. No luck. “Club de Yah-tays” apparently needs to be pronounced “Cloob de Yah-tays” for anyone to understand. Go figure. But from behind us a voice said “Si, this bus is for the Yah-tes”. So we get on . No one else is on the bus except the guy who couldn’t understand my question. We pay him our $.70 and sit down. A few minutes later the fellow who told us the bus went to the Yacht Club climbs on board with two quarts of beer in his hand. He proceeds to sit in the first passenger seat, gives the other guy a large cup of beer, and starts drinking. He is the driver. His friend he makes the designated driver and indicates he can take the bus. The regular driver is in the passenger seat, drinking from the bottle, the new driver having trouble shifting the bus is drinking beer from his own cup, and both of them offer us some of their beer. We are the only passengers. And awa-y-y-y we go. Apparently this is a non-stop. We pick up no one else. We wander down the road towards home. We wonder. Where are we going. The guy driving the bus does not know where the Yacht Club is, but his passenger directs him. At the Yacht Club the bus drops us off at its only stop, says goodnight, makes a u-turn, and heads back the way we came (maybe back to the liquor store). Whether we stole the bus or just had a private ride we don’t know. We do know that we were in stitches the whole way.
Finally the last Acapulco thought: This is a city and not the prettiest sight during the day, but back at the Club we could see all of Acapulco across the bay. The town sparkled. To say it was diamonds in the night is not enough. You couldn’t have decorated someplace as beautifully as this. Several hills had lights sparkling throughout. No clusters of lights like we have at home from the auto dealers were apparent. Everything looked like you’d want your Christmas tree to look. Incredibly beautiful and incredibly romantic, we sat on the boat for hours looking at the lights before bed. We had a great visit to Acapulco and now we are ready for the long sail to Puerto Angel.
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