Poking Through Acapulco

We hired a private tour guide (who claimed he was an Anthropologist, but who knows) to take us through the city. We cruised through the city center (http://www.acapulco.com/en/index.html), the hotel zone (http://www.realacapulco.com/golden-acapulco.html), and after bribing each of the guards at the security gates, he took us through a tour of the gated communities and pointed out the homes of the offensively rich, including homes to some of the world's most famous (or infamous) celebrities, world leaders or royalty. We also saw a few historic hotels, including the hotel where John Wayne, Elvis, Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller and members of the Rat Pack visited in their heyday (http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=85738).

Of course, no visit to Acapulco is complete without a cliff diving performance (http://www.acapulco.com/en/general/poi_quebrada.html). With seemingly hundreds of tourists as their captivated audience, a family (brothers, cousins, uncles, you name it) who has been cliff diving professionally for several generations took turns, one by one, climbing the mountainside, then diving off the side, carefully timing their landing for when the wave comes in. The announcer explained that if they did not time it correctly, the rocky bottom could spell disaster for the diver.

Alpaca, of course, had to have the best seat in the house, perched atop one of the rocky formations. Lucky Alpaca.