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NAVIGATION
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Acapulco, Mexico, December 2006
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Photos are here (same order as the trip report):
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/556446236qwgJhA
We left LATE on Saturday night. Our flight departed right on time at midnight from Seattle to Dallas. We were worried that we were going to be those parents with the screaming baby on the plane, but Maddy slept through everything!  I, on the other hand, can't sleep on the plane, so I was exhausted by the time we reached Dallas for our nearly 5 hour layover  We finally arrived in Acapulco around 2 or 3 in the afternoon to be greeted by 50 of our new Mexican best friends offering us a ride... A short taxi ride to the hotel/resort with me gawking out the window and it was time to check in.
Sunday:
Check in. Dug, Pixie, Maddy and I hung out in the lobby while Dug's mom checked us in. Next to the lobby is a lagoon area that has live fish and white egrets fishing for them. BEAUTIFUL! Coconut palms (and the resulting coconuts, lol) are all over the property. The whole place has marble everywhere b/c the family of the owners also own a marble quarry. Even the bathtubs were marble. Makes for some slippery crawling for Maddy, and pretty darn dangerous when wet for the rest of us! They brought a crib for Maddy that hinged in the middle (can you say pinched baby fingers??) so we rigged it with towels so it would be safer. After checking out the rooms and getting settled in a little, we changed clothes and headed off to lunch. Ahhh... lunch outdoors in the sunshine. Not to mention icy-cold margaritas.  Dug and I did a little exploring and checked out the property, me speaking Spanish to the locals and him looking confused at me. (He didn't know how much Spanish I can speak) Then it was time to do nothing, but sit by the pool and read until it was time to go change for dinner. I was surprise to discover that they salted the pool water in addition to putting chlorine in it. After quick showers and a change of clothes we headed back down right at sunset. After dinner we headed back to the rooms and I noticed the geckos on the ceiling. COOL!!! They came out every night. We all crashed out pretty hard (especially me, since I missed an entire night's sleep).
Monday:
We started the day with breakfast with a buffet breakfast with a time share saleman Dug's mom is already a member, but she wanted to see the new parts, and apparently this was the only way to see them (???) He lied and said that Dug, Pixie, the baby and I could leave after breakfast. I've never had fresh squeezed watermelon juice before. YUM! When we got back to the office area he wouldn't let Pixie go to the bathroom and actually grabbed her arm, making her stay! Poor little Maddy was passed out in her stroller and they wouldn't let us leave. We finally basically walked out. But not before being forced to fill out a survey by a VERY rude girl. "Don't you know this is how we make a living..." In the meantime, one of the managers was actually yelling at Dug's mom. Uh, yeah, that's how you sell me something. (???) The upside (for me anyway) was that we got a nice view of the whole resort and got a little history of the place and a look at the owner's future plans. By the time we were done, it was almost time for lunch! He wasted 1/2 our day!!!  Then it was off to the pool (and muchos Pacificos con limon) for the rest of the afternoon, back to the room to shower and change for dinner. We also bought tickets to the "Fiesta Mexicana" for Tuesday night.
Tuesday:
I finally took time to appreciate the view out our front door: Distant views of the city of Aculpuco and the South Sierra Madre Mountains. Today was more of the same, during the day, but for dinner, we had front row seats to some awesome live entertainment! "Fiesta Mexicana" celebrating Souther Mexico's Mayan heritage. As we walked in the door we were each handed a margarita. YUM! The night started with five dancers dressed in traditionally Mayan regallia climbing (one while playing a pan flute) and then spinning 52 times down a pole, representing the weeks of the Mayan calendar. Nope, no nets or safety equipment either. Other acts included machettes, women dancing with lit candles on their heads, lariats. VERY cool. There was a 12 piece band behind the dancers, so we got to watch the musicians too. Maddy absolutely LOVED all the bright costumes, swirling skirts and live music. We had all kinds of waiters and waitresses stopping by our table just to say hi to her. Our little princess. Dinner was AMAZING! It was a buffet of traditionall foods... Chicken mole, seafood, cevechi, pulled pork and beef... I think we all ate ourselves into a food coma. LOL. Throughout the night, the beers and margaritas kept coming (part of the tickets?) Near the end of the night, I excused myself to the restroom to find that Dug had disappeared. When I asked where he went, Pixie and her mom pointed to the stage. LOL! He got pulled on stage. He hates to dance. LOL! After the song was over he said "That was the longest song EVER!"
Wednesday:
We started the day again with a buffet breakfast, complete with grapefruit mimosas. Then it was pool time until around 2pm when we went to lunch. Lunch everyday was pretty much the same thing. They had a pretty limited menu, but what they had was so good that was okay! The Pescadillas (fish tacos)were my favorite. The cheese quesadillas and guacamole were really good too. All washed down with Pacificos and margaritas, of course! They had a table set up where you could buy and paint your own Mexican-style ceramics. Dug's mom did a little piggy for Maddy (with her name on its tush LOL) and I did a pretty elaborate plate. I think it took me a total of 4 or 5 hours to paint.
As Pixie and I were sitting by the pool, with a view of the beach, we saw some commotion going on at the beach. A lady told us that they were releasing the baby sea turtles. I had read about this, so we rushed down to see it. Even the police were there! (for crowd control?) We caught the very end of it, where the turtles were swimming away. There was one little turtle that didn't want to swim away and I got a photo of him. So cute!
Dinner was Lobster night! YUMM-O
Thursday:
Buffet breakfast again. More pool time until Dug's mom came down and met us for lunch. After lunch, every day she would take Maddy back to the room for a bath, nap and let her tear the room apart (LOL) and let us have some quiet (and alone!) time by the pool. NICE NICE!
I had arranged (through the resort) for a historical tour for Pixie, Doug and I, so Dug's mom had Maddy for the entire afternoon today. Raul was our tour guide. He was fabulous!! He knew the history quite well and was FUNNY! We started the tour by going from the resort to a sort of indian reservation... No running water and sketchy electricity here. People lived in plywood shacks. We also saw the Black Lagoon where Tarzan was filmed. Then we headed up the hill... It was quite a contrast to see the resort vs people living on basically nothing. Not much of a middle class here.
First we went to Fort San Diego, which has a cool history of pirates and trade routes. It also had some really nice views of Acapulco. I thought it was cool how each room had a different theme... Trading, the Chinese, Pirates, Kitchen, Mayan history... Fascinating stuff!
Then it was off to Old Town (not on the scheduled tour) with all its interesting smells and Raul explained to us that on the first 12 days of December, each neighborhood has a little parade with their virgin to the church to honor a saint. Thursday's saint was Guadelupe and we got to see one of the little parades. It was about 30 people and had a 3 piece band marching with them.
From there, we went to an area called La Quebrada, "The Broken Cliffs", where Diego Rivera used to live and saw two murals that he did. Pretty amazing stuff! Dummy me, didn't ask to be let out of the van, so I don't have photos of that. This area is also where Sinatra had a casino.
Then it was off to La Perla and the cliff divers, but not before a little shopping in the uber-expensive silver shop (no, I didn't buy anything). Dinner was YUMMY!! And we had live music again. We got to see two of the cliff diver shows... 130 feet into the water. My photos didn't turn out because the lighting was all weird.
The van was back to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. When we got back to the room we found out that Maddy's crib had collapsed WITH HER IN IT!!!! Grandma was so she had the manager in our room. She got us another crib, made them replace the screws in THAT one and all was good. They sent up a nice note (an appology of sorts?) and a dress for Maddy. Poor kid!!
Friday:
Pretty much the same as the other days... buffet breakfast, pool, lunch, more pool... Dinner was Mediterranean night at the *other* restuarant at the resort.
Saturday:
Another buffet breakfast, more time in the pool. Maddy LOVED all the waterfalls throughout the place and would get mad if you steered her away from them. lol We went to town for shopping and dinner. How many kids can say they lost one of their teeting rings in a Mexican flea market? LOL. I didn't buy much, a couple of small gifts and a bunch of stuff at the Senior Frogs gift store (but we didn't go to Senior Frogs lol). Dinner was a hole-in-the-wall place that I thought was gross, but I wasn't the one choosing. We had a nice view of the water and decent service, but the bathrooms had standing toilet water on the floor and there was no highchair for Maddy. The food tasted okay, but (for me only) it came back up in the middle of the night. ICK!!! I did NOT feed Maddy anything from the restuarant eventhough she'd been eating off our plates at the resort.
Sunday:
I still wasn't feeling well, but Dug and I went to the buffet brunch anyway, while Pixie and Dug's mom hung out by the pool awhile longer. This was the best breakfast yet... but I didn't feel well enough to enjoy it.  Peel-and-eat shrip, make your own bloody marys or screwdrivers... There was a bottle of Smirnoffs sitting out! LOL. Fresh fruit, pancakes, french toast, shredded pork, fish, fried plantains, potatoes... SOOOO much food. And fresh-squeezed juice. That was really yummy! Papaya, orange, watermelon and banana. And live music!
Dug and I went back up to the room and finished packing, then came back down and dropped Maddy off with Pixie and their mom so we could go for a walk on the beach... We hadn't done that yet!! So nice! The water in the ocean was warmer than the pool!
Dug's mom was confused about what time our flight left (by an hour!) so we almost missed our flight out! Good thing the flight was late. Going through Mexican customs was interesting. Dug had Maddy's diaper bag, which had babyfood (green beans and peas) that apparently that thought was contraband? Dug doesn't speak Spanish and the customs agent didn't speak English so the manager was called over. LOL!
Maddy did so well on all the flights! Slept on every take off and landing. Dug was nice enough to give me the window seats and I was trying to identify mountains and rivers. Oye! My geography needs some serious work. LOL! We made it to Dallas okay, but since our first flight was late and we only had an hour to catch our connection we missed it. The airline put us up in a very nice hotel and gave us food vouchers. I have to note that the crib here was not only brand new, it came with an area rug, soft blanket and very nice welcome note. Funny the difference between cultures, huh? We caught a 7:30am (Central time) flight and made it back to the Seattle airport, and the cold and rain, around 12:30 (Pacific time)... I made it to work by 3pm (UG!!!)
Other stuff:
Flowers/plants? Jasmine, Hibiscus, Bougivillia. I saw poinsettas when we were in Old Town. Coconut palms, other palms I can't identify, pothos...
Birds? White Egrets, Black Vultures, something that looked like a crow (at lunch every day), sea gulls, sandpipers and brown pelicans
I read 2.5 books while I was there. It was so nice to actually have time to read for a change!! Every meal was outside and we had SO much live music! And no Xmas carols!
By the second or third day everyone was greeting Dug with Senior His-Last-Name and Maddy with La Princessa. Awwww... I had so much fun practicing my Spanish that I've decided to learn more.
I can't wait to go back! There's so much more I want to see that transportation issues prevented me from seeing... The Botanical Gardens, an archelogical site, more time on the beaches, the Mercado Central in Old Town (the *real* flea market) I'm sure there's more. I'll find it. Who would have known my little Maddy would be a world traveler at 10 months old? |
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South Carribean Cruise Jan 2008
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