Acapulco with cliff divers

Day 5  Tuesday, February 6, 2018  Acapulco

Overlooking Acapulco Bay near the end of our excursion. We loved all the history, the cliff divers, our hilarious tour guide, the Los Flamingos Hotel with its "Hollywood history", and the artisan market.

 We departed the ship at 8:45, but had to wait in a long line until 9:15 to walk toward the buses. This large band was on the dock to entertain us, and they were great. We were so far back in line, we lamented that we would have to be at the back of the tour bus. We made jokes that maybe we would be the first ones on a second bus. Viola! That's exactly what happened!

 Here we are crossing a pedestrian bridge across the main road to Fort San Diego. What was funny was that the fort was directly across the street from our dock, yet the bus had to drive a short distance down the street, make what Carmen called  a "Mexican U-turn", then pass in front of the fort and make another Mexican U-turn, and park only about 50 yards from where we boarded the bus! We all disembarked and crossed this bridge back over the same street.

 I just had to feature a photo of Carmen because we cracked up all morning with her humor. Here she is singing to us.

 The fort, rebuilt in 1610, is now an historical museum.

Look at this impressive moat surrounding the fort. Our ship is a short distance away, behind that structure in the background.

Another view of the moat, and the drawbridge we walked across to enter the fort.

Once inside the fort/museum, Carmen showed us all kinds of stuff and explained lots of history. This was a display of what the fort looked like a few centuries ago before the shoreline was much farther away. And the little village of Acapulco is shown at the top of the display.

 Here's a replica of a galleon that traded from the Far East to Acapulco.

 I can compete in physique with this native Mayan soldier, but I decided to leave my shirt on.

As Carmen explained, Acapulco was a trading center, and ships would arrive from the Philippines and China with spices and fruits and various treasures, starting in the 17th century. The cup and saucer above is one of many treasures in the museum.

A Chinese platter that was purchased by a Mexican aristocrat back in the 18th century.

Another treasure on display at the museum.

We then drove to the cliff-diver spot, La Quebrada, and Janet posed at a touristy sign.

At La Quebrada, not only a cannon, but the statue of a diver. You can see Hotel Mirador behind, and it was the hotel's owner in the 1930s who turned this into a world-famous attraction. He actually turned the boys, who were diving from the cliffs there, into stars.

Janet and most from our tour stayed up there at the top, but we were allowed to descend these stairs if we wanted a closer view.

One of the professional divers (they all belong to a union) getting ready at the very top of the 135-foot cliff.

The divers begin on our side of the ravine, then climb down a bit and dive into the water below us. They would swim the short distance across the ravine and then ascend the cliff.

There's the 4th of our four divers climbing up to the take-off point, to join the other three already at the top. See those two blue shrines? The divers would say prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe before diving.

I took videos of our four divers, so I had to steal this picture from the Internet. The divers must calculate the right moment to jump to catch an incoming wave and avoid serious injury or death. The proper water depth is only 16 feet, but far less if the surge is out.

The divers climb back up to our side of the ravine to accept tips from the spectators. It was all quite impressive to view the entire process of these famous performers.

From the bus, I took this shot of the coast looking north. La Quebrada is there, not too far up, tucked into one of the cliffs.

On the bus ride to the Los Flamingos Hotel, we drove around this little bay where Carmen told us that the hotel on the far right is where all the rich and famous would stay. Below it and a bit to its left was Elizabeth Taylor's home.

We then had a lengthy tour of Los Flamingos. We learned that the current proprietor was originally on the maintenance crew starting as early as when he was only 6 yrs old. He worked his way up the ladder until he bought the place. Now he's very old but still works there and visits with the tourists.

It's famous for its pink color. That pink was everywhere. John Wayne bought the hotel as a private hideaway in 1954, but it later went back to being a hotel.

So many famous celebrities have stayed there over the years that they added to its touristy attraction by having a "Hollywood Hall of Fame." Dozens and dozens of photos on the walls.

The main dude was Johnny Weismuller, who was THEE most frequent guest there over the decades. He played Tarzan in the 1930s-40s movies, but he also won many Olympic Golds in swimming in 1928 and 1932.

 The only other celebrity I cared to photo was David Janssen, because The Fugitive was one of my favorite TV shows in the 60s.

Janet and Cheetah. In the background you can see the celebrity photos on one of the many walls in the Hollywood Hall of Fame.

Our bus then went to an Artisan Market, where they gave us free margaritas to sip while we shopped. Janet and I did buy a souvenir carving of the full-size Aztec Sun God carving hanging outside the store (see photo below). 

 It was an impressive carving. And, I see that they also served free beer to us shoppers!

Our final stop was the Capilla de la Paz (Peace Chapel), with its 130-ft-tall cross. It was high on the hill overlooking the bay. The story was sad, however: The Trouyet Family built it in the 50s as a peaceful refuge, but the two sons, Jorge and Carlos, died in a plane crash in 1967. Two years later, their grieving mother committed suicide, and two years later the father died.

The views were spectacular! There's our ship way off in the distance.

Another view to the east side of the bay. Our bus traveled back down the mountain and then from right to left along the coastline below to get back to the ship. A few people on the bus complained that our tour had lasted 6½ hours instead of the advertised 4½ hours (we had never had a lunch, so they were starving). Janet and I thought it was a benefit to get the extra time for free!

Once back to the ship, we did have a nice lunch on the pool deck. We had planned to watch a Mariachi show in the theater, but my watch was an hour off, so we missed it. The show that night was a hypnotist, and he had the audience participants singing as if they were Cher and Frank Sinatra. (He also told those under hypnosis that whenever he said the words "buffet" or "Acapulco", they would smell the farts of the person sitting next to them. That made for some funny viewing.)

We had a late dinner in the Aqua, and then enjoyed the outdoor warmth lounging on the 7th promenade deck.