Going loco on our way to Acapulco!
Leaving Mexico City by a combination of walking, train, bus and coach was fantastic. While in Oz, New Zealand and the USA we had been driving ourselves around and to be once again back travelling properly was amazing (well I thought so, not sure if Ellie thought the same after carrying her bag for 50 minutes it started to cut into her shoulders and stopped the circulation to her arms!).
So we headed away from Mexico City and the crazed sprawl and towards a small town called Taxco. Arriving and being dumped by the coach in the middle of its tiny backstreets we immediately realised what an amazing place it was. It reminded me of a mixture of Venice (tiny labyrinth of back streets. No canals though) and Prague (Gothic style architecture and imposing churches) and finding a hotel was a challenge. When we finally set off to peruse the town we found hundreds of little, cobbled streets with fantastic little bars, quaint shops and a magical zocolo (town square) with restaurants, traditional Mexican singers and one of the most amazing Churches I have ever seen (and believe me I have seen quite a few while we have been travelling). 
However the thing that was the most interesting about this town was the locals use of retro style VWs. Every taxi (and there were hundreds buzzing about) was an old white VW beetle and every bus was a converted VW camper van. Seeing the little white beetles bouncing around the steep and narrow streets bought back memories of Herby goes.......... something or another (it should be Taxco I suppose!).
After a couple of days wandering around the streets and people watching from little bars we decided that it was time to head to the coast. It shouldn´t be that hard; we get up, pack, get on a bus and arrive 8 hours later in Acapulco. This however was not the case! The getting up and packing bit went fine and for once we were in plenty of time. When we came to leave our little hotel we realised for the first time that Mexicans don´t get up very early. It was almost 8:00 and the front gates were well and truly locked with no sign of the owners. 15 minutes of banging, shouting and cursing managed to wake the sleepy amigos and we just made our bus.
We had heard that Acapulco was a little shabby and we were not expecting much. In fact the only reason we were going there was to see the famous "Cliff divers" (again no sound, I shouted that in a kind of ring master, roll up, roll up style!) and so that I could sing "Going Loco down in Acapulco" over and over again, annoying Ellie. However we really enjoyed Acapulco. We stayed in the old town that is built around the harbour (i.e. not the beach fronted neon signed new part of town with night clubs and strip joints. I wanted to stay there but Ells insisted that the old town would be better) where we watched the locals hauling in their catches and selling them on the dock, ate in small restaurants with the locals and listened to the Mexican singers in the local bars. When we wanted to go to the beach though we headed up to the new part of town with its perfect white sandy beaches (unfortunately this was always during the day and there were no strippers!).
What we had come for though was still the highlight of our stay in Acapulco. On our last night we walked up a hill for several kilometres (no point in getting a taxi, we´re on a budget. Again don´t think Ells thought the budget was so important when we arrived at the top hot and sweaty) to the edge of town and a view point to see these speedo clad lunatics. Now as you may have guessed from their name, the "Cliff Divers" dive off the cliffs, into a small deep gully that is about 10 feet wide. Oh I forgot to say that they dive from about 100ft. Just getting to their dive platforms is an ordeal as they have to jump into the gully from the viewing area, swim across the stupidly turbulent water and then climb up the cliff to their spots. We were transfixed with the spectacle of the whole thing, from the climbing, to the praying at the shrine at the top (and I don´t blame them!), to the final magnificent death defying dive (again in my ring masters voice). In fact we loved it so much we were there for over 3 hours and watched 3 shows.
So we headed away from Mexico City and the crazed sprawl and towards a small town called Taxco. Arriving and being dumped by the coach in the middle of its tiny backstreets we immediately realised what an amazing place it was. It reminded me of a mixture of Venice (tiny labyrinth of back streets. No canals though) and Prague (Gothic style architecture and imposing churches) and finding a hotel was a challenge. When we finally set off to peruse the town we found hundreds of little, cobbled streets with fantastic little bars, quaint shops and a magical zocolo (town square) with restaurants, traditional Mexican singers and one of the most amazing Churches I have ever seen (and believe me I have seen quite a few while we have been travelling). 
However the thing that was the most interesting about this town was the locals use of retro style VWs. Every taxi (and there were hundreds buzzing about) was an old white VW beetle and every bus was a converted VW camper van. Seeing the little white beetles bouncing around the steep and narrow streets bought back memories of Herby goes.......... something or another (it should be Taxco I suppose!).After a couple of days wandering around the streets and people watching from little bars we decided that it was time to head to the coast. It shouldn´t be that hard; we get up, pack, get on a bus and arrive 8 hours later in Acapulco. This however was not the case! The getting up and packing bit went fine and for once we were in plenty of time. When we came to leave our little hotel we realised for the first time that Mexicans don´t get up very early. It was almost 8:00 and the front gates were well and truly locked with no sign of the owners. 15 minutes of banging, shouting and cursing managed to wake the sleepy amigos and we just made our bus.
We had heard that Acapulco was a little shabby and we were not expecting much. In fact the only reason we were going there was to see the famous "Cliff divers" (again no sound, I shouted that in a kind of ring master, roll up, roll up style!) and so that I could sing "Going Loco down in Acapulco" over and over again, annoying Ellie. However we really enjoyed Acapulco. We stayed in the old town that is built around the harbour (i.e. not the beach fronted neon signed new part of town with night clubs and strip joints. I wanted to stay there but Ells insisted that the old town would be better) where we watched the locals hauling in their catches and selling them on the dock, ate in small restaurants with the locals and listened to the Mexican singers in the local bars. When we wanted to go to the beach though we headed up to the new part of town with its perfect white sandy beaches (unfortunately this was always during the day and there were no strippers!).
What we had come for though was still the highlight of our stay in Acapulco. On our last night we walked up a hill for several kilometres (no point in getting a taxi, we´re on a budget. Again don´t think Ells thought the budget was so important when we arrived at the top hot and sweaty) to the edge of town and a view point to see these speedo clad lunatics. Now as you may have guessed from their name, the "Cliff Divers" dive off the cliffs, into a small deep gully that is about 10 feet wide. Oh I forgot to say that they dive from about 100ft. Just getting to their dive platforms is an ordeal as they have to jump into the gully from the viewing area, swim across the stupidly turbulent water and then climb up the cliff to their spots. We were transfixed with the spectacle of the whole thing, from the climbing, to the praying at the shrine at the top (and I don´t blame them!), to the final magnificent death defying dive (again in my ring masters voice). In fact we loved it so much we were there for over 3 hours and watched 3 shows. Overall Acapulco was a fantastic place and we were glad that we had made the journey.
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