The "Fun In Acapulco" Story

It was an ordinary day. 6:58 AM and I’m sitting on our balcony with the lifeboat #11 right below me watching the water go by as I type. Waves with swells of about three feet. Trying to keep my fingers on the keys. Off in the distance is the horizon with a single ship. The “Infinity”, which is the sister ship of the Celebrity “Millennium” which we are on. We are headed to Huatulco, Mexico. This is pronounced wa-tul-co. Yesterday we visited Acapulco, Mexico. Carol was thrilled to hear that we would be making a stop in Acapulco, since one of her all time favorite movies was “Fun In Acapulco” with Elvis. And then, two nights ago we were watching a lecture on our stateroom TV about the history of the island and the professor spoiled the trip for her. Told us that Elvis was never on the island. He filmed all the scenes in Hollywood. I told her the guy was full of crap and there was no way he wasn’t on location. Well one way or another, it was exciting yesterday morning as we docked at the pier in Acapulco. We were going on the “Acapulco City Tour and Cliff Divers” tour with about eight other bus loads of tourists. Had my camera and my telephoto lens along for the tour. We waited in line to get on the bus and as they were counting people for each bus they stopped Carol and I and Jerry and Just Sue, our traveling companions. Seems we were going to be the first people on the last bus of the day. Great! We could sit in the front seat. When the bus pulled up and the door opened, we were told not to sit in the front seats on either side, since they were reserved for handicapped. I told Carol I need to buy a cane somewhere in town today so we can have front row seats on our next tour we take. Our tour guide was Ezy and he was a native Acapulcian (I think that is how you spell it). Toured the city first with a few stops for “Kodak Moments”. The city is huge and the population is over 2 million! I had pictured this city on the coast of the Pacific Ocean as a quaint little town. Boy was I wrong, and disappointed. Traffic was terrible. One neat thing was all the VW Bug taxicabs. All painted blue and white. Seems they made VWs in Mexico until a few years ago so they were relatively inexpensive for the taxi drivers to purchase. And their small size made it easy to maneuver around in the traffic. Well, we have just finished our last stop at another jewelry store featuring Mexican silver pieces. We were all offered drinks while at this stop. Complimentary drinks. Seems when they hand them to you they tell you they are $5. Complimentary? Yea, they compliment the tour stop. They didn’t say they were free I guess. Our final stop is up in the hills of Acapulco at the “Mirador Hotel” which is where the world famous cliff divers perform. Remember, Elvis was a cliff diver in his movie. We were not disappointed!! We got to sit in the front row of the restaurant and watch the divers climb the walls of the cliffs and eventually dive into the waters which were 80 to 100 feet below. They had to time their dive to catch the swells of water in the canyon below at it’s highest point, since the water below wasn’t very deep. Spectacular performance. Then we were herded, or I should say ushered to the entrance of the restaurant to meet with the divers and give them tips for their dives. Most were very young. I guess the older they got, the wiser they got and stopped the diving. My disappointment throughout the day was taken away by these young daredevils of the sea. It was really “Fun in Acapulco.” And .... It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: skyline of Acapulco, VW Bug taxi, some of the unusual items the taxi can carry, armed officer showing some of the hand carved items for sale at his favorite store, duo of cliff divers and two of the divers posing with me for a pix.