Acapulco Day 2
Well if you are keeping track, day 2 in Acapulco was my birthday and I must say was probably one of the most fun bdays I have had. We spent the day at Isla Roqueta which is a small island off of the main drag in Acapulco, recommended to us by both the tour books we read and by the students that had gone the day previous. Our students commented on the fun ride over on the tour boat and the cute little island. So we met up early, myself, Doug, Anne, Rasa, Tania and Karen and we headed over to were we could get a ferry. As we boarded the ferry near the Zocalo (the town square in Acapulco full of fun little shops and a main church) we got a chance to see just how massive our ship is in this tiny little port.
After looking through the books we thought the ride to the island would last at most 20 minutes, in a very slow boat. However, our tour guide had a different idea as this boat was not only a $3 ride to the island, but also a tour and show of all the local sights on the 1 mile ride to the island. We were shown the houses of Mexican politicians, actors and actresses highlighted by the hous of Ricardo Montalban…yup…thrilling. The little boat then stopped near a rock were our guides jumped off and climed a rock and gave us our own little cliff diving show. As we rounded the bend and could see the island we had a few more stops at the Virgen de Guadalupe and at a place were we could see some fish through our glass bottom boat. Finally, and 1 hour and 15 minutes later we pulled up about 200 meters from the island were a smaller boat selling tacky shell ornaments and conch shells (the tackiest being a jesus on the cross surrounded by shells). Then our boat was boarded by some locals selling shrimp and sodas. At this point, we could see the island, we were hot, and just upset that we were not informed that we were going to be given a tour rather then just driven to the island that Rasa decided she was going to jump off and swim to shore. So with in seconds Rasa had jumped off of the ship and was swimming her way to the shore while the rest of us sat in the boat waiting for the painful ferry ride to end. An hour and half total we sat on the little boat for a ride that could have taken 10 minutes tops.
La Isla was way cute, but very much a local Mexican tourist spot, no white people in sight which was great! We made our way to the quietest part of the beach and realized that like usual in Acapulco it was a million degrees outside so we rented some umbrellas and chairs and just began a day of relaxation. Well, relaxation apart from the 2340832048 people trying to sell you there crap, anything from braids and massages to necklaces and water floatees. All I know is the last thing I would want in that heat was for someone to touch me. Rasa put it best, “I don’t understand how there could ever be a population issue in Mexico, I don’t know how anyone would want to have sex in this heat”.
After the Island we made it back to the ship for a quick nap and shower and then we headed off to the Cliff Divers at the Quebrada. This was one of the highlights I wanted to check out in Mexico. We made it there in time for the 7:30pm show which cost us $3.50 to get down close were we could see them jump and land in the water. I got some amazing photos, I hope that you all can see them!
From there we took a cab to El Cabrito a cool little restaurant snuggled in the most authentic part of Acapulco…basically next door to the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood J So Yes, it was it was in a touristy spot, but is known for its amazing Mole. So of course, I had the Mole! Mole is combination of like 400 ingredients that make this brown pasty sauce that is an awakening to anyone’s palette. After ordering about 8 more people showed up to help celebrate my birthday! It was so much fun, I enjoyed some Sangria, a few shots of Don Julio tequila and well just basically an amazing time with new friends. After dinner we ended up in a Mexican karaoke bar next to some great loud boisterous women who were a hoot and how recommended that we hit a bar called Salon Q. This place reminded me of the Havana club in I Love Lucy. Basically a bunch of tables in a large semi circle elevated in tiers around a dance floor and a large stage with live music. After some dancing we were removed from the dance floor for a show with some club dancers in banana and Cuban outfits. The dancers were followed by 3 female impersonators…yes…drag queens…at this random bar in Acapulco…funny to say the least. The night ended around 3AM and trust, I crashed!
Day 3 Acapulco
Today was my first SAS sponsored trip. SAS offers trips that they plan and we pay for, the only real beneft of doing trips through them is that you don’t have to do any of the planning or worrying about transportation to these sites. So my first trip was out to the local aquarium to swim with dolphins! Yup…I got to swim with dolphins, definitely something I have always wanted to do. The water park were the dolphin aquarium was located at was actually very nice, go figure it was in the touristy area of Acapulco. When we got to the park we had some free time before our swim time. The park had 4 dolphins, all looking great and totally healthy. It was so cool to be sitting in a pool with dolphins…my dolphin, whose name was Maite loved me…I was the only one that was able to get there dolphin to turn on its belly and let me pet its stomach, just call me the Dolphin Whisperer. Favorite part is when they had the dolphins pick us up with there noses and push us out of the water! I think the craziest part of this is that about 20 students did not make it to the swim because they were to hung over to get up…yup…that means they just wasted a $125 trip…
The afternoon/night of day 3 was pretty tame we headed to the mall and then to another out door market to check out the goods. I tried to get myself a Mariachi Sombrero, but I as I was looking I was reminded that I would probably have to wear the hat home on the plane, and while that may seem like a good idea, a red eye flight while wearing a huge hat is not really going to be fun. Dinner was seafood on the ocean again, I think that is something I will greatly miss from this trip, the amount of amazing seafood I have been eating!
Day 4 Acapulco
Today we spent the day at a beach called Pie de la Cuesta which was located about 45 minutes north of Acapulco. The time we spent here was amazing, it was a long white sand beach with HUGE waves that knocked me around, but the most amazing part was how empty the beach was! It was pretty much our private little beach. We ate lunch at this little place on the beach which ended up paying for our rent of some hammocks and chairs…so yes, we took advantage of those. Today was also the final game in the Copa De Oro Futbol tournament…and who was playing? Mexico and the US of course! I believe the US won 2-1, so the rest of the day we were definitely Canadian J On the way back to the ship our van driver we rented took us by the local Diego Rivera mosaic (Diego was the husband of Frida Calo). Diego had one of his mistresses living here in Acapulco, what is more fitting then building one of his last works of art in front of her house!
So now we are back on the ship and back to ship life…I Am very glad that I did not get sea sick and that I was able to ease right back into the flow of life in the MV. What does a day look like for me? Well I have been getting up in the morning around 7am to work out and eat breakfast. At 9:20 is Latin America today which is a class that we all need (should) attend. From there we have a student life meeting at 11am and then lunch. The afternoon I work at the student life desk or have the time to enjoy the ship or get some work done! The night time is usually reserved for programming efforts or being on call at one of the alcohol nights. Alcohol has been pretty tame so far on the ship. In Acapulco, not gonna lie the students went a little crazy, well some of them did…most actually were totally fine!
Apart from that all is well! I hope to call people when I get to Panama on Friday! Much love…
Well if you are keeping track, day 2 in Acapulco was my birthday and I must say was probably one of the most fun bdays I have had. We spent the day at Isla Roqueta which is a small island off of the main drag in Acapulco, recommended to us by both the tour books we read and by the students that had gone the day previous. Our students commented on the fun ride over on the tour boat and the cute little island. So we met up early, myself, Doug, Anne, Rasa, Tania and Karen and we headed over to were we could get a ferry. As we boarded the ferry near the Zocalo (the town square in Acapulco full of fun little shops and a main church) we got a chance to see just how massive our ship is in this tiny little port.
After looking through the books we thought the ride to the island would last at most 20 minutes, in a very slow boat. However, our tour guide had a different idea as this boat was not only a $3 ride to the island, but also a tour and show of all the local sights on the 1 mile ride to the island. We were shown the houses of Mexican politicians, actors and actresses highlighted by the hous of Ricardo Montalban…yup…thrilling. The little boat then stopped near a rock were our guides jumped off and climed a rock and gave us our own little cliff diving show. As we rounded the bend and could see the island we had a few more stops at the Virgen de Guadalupe and at a place were we could see some fish through our glass bottom boat. Finally, and 1 hour and 15 minutes later we pulled up about 200 meters from the island were a smaller boat selling tacky shell ornaments and conch shells (the tackiest being a jesus on the cross surrounded by shells). Then our boat was boarded by some locals selling shrimp and sodas. At this point, we could see the island, we were hot, and just upset that we were not informed that we were going to be given a tour rather then just driven to the island that Rasa decided she was going to jump off and swim to shore. So with in seconds Rasa had jumped off of the ship and was swimming her way to the shore while the rest of us sat in the boat waiting for the painful ferry ride to end. An hour and half total we sat on the little boat for a ride that could have taken 10 minutes tops.
La Isla was way cute, but very much a local Mexican tourist spot, no white people in sight which was great! We made our way to the quietest part of the beach and realized that like usual in Acapulco it was a million degrees outside so we rented some umbrellas and chairs and just began a day of relaxation. Well, relaxation apart from the 2340832048 people trying to sell you there crap, anything from braids and massages to necklaces and water floatees. All I know is the last thing I would want in that heat was for someone to touch me. Rasa put it best, “I don’t understand how there could ever be a population issue in Mexico, I don’t know how anyone would want to have sex in this heat”.
After the Island we made it back to the ship for a quick nap and shower and then we headed off to the Cliff Divers at the Quebrada. This was one of the highlights I wanted to check out in Mexico. We made it there in time for the 7:30pm show which cost us $3.50 to get down close were we could see them jump and land in the water. I got some amazing photos, I hope that you all can see them!
From there we took a cab to El Cabrito a cool little restaurant snuggled in the most authentic part of Acapulco…basically next door to the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood J So Yes, it was it was in a touristy spot, but is known for its amazing Mole. So of course, I had the Mole! Mole is combination of like 400 ingredients that make this brown pasty sauce that is an awakening to anyone’s palette. After ordering about 8 more people showed up to help celebrate my birthday! It was so much fun, I enjoyed some Sangria, a few shots of Don Julio tequila and well just basically an amazing time with new friends. After dinner we ended up in a Mexican karaoke bar next to some great loud boisterous women who were a hoot and how recommended that we hit a bar called Salon Q. This place reminded me of the Havana club in I Love Lucy. Basically a bunch of tables in a large semi circle elevated in tiers around a dance floor and a large stage with live music. After some dancing we were removed from the dance floor for a show with some club dancers in banana and Cuban outfits. The dancers were followed by 3 female impersonators…yes…drag queens…at this random bar in Acapulco…funny to say the least. The night ended around 3AM and trust, I crashed!
Day 3 Acapulco
Today was my first SAS sponsored trip. SAS offers trips that they plan and we pay for, the only real beneft of doing trips through them is that you don’t have to do any of the planning or worrying about transportation to these sites. So my first trip was out to the local aquarium to swim with dolphins! Yup…I got to swim with dolphins, definitely something I have always wanted to do. The water park were the dolphin aquarium was located at was actually very nice, go figure it was in the touristy area of Acapulco. When we got to the park we had some free time before our swim time. The park had 4 dolphins, all looking great and totally healthy. It was so cool to be sitting in a pool with dolphins…my dolphin, whose name was Maite loved me…I was the only one that was able to get there dolphin to turn on its belly and let me pet its stomach, just call me the Dolphin Whisperer. Favorite part is when they had the dolphins pick us up with there noses and push us out of the water! I think the craziest part of this is that about 20 students did not make it to the swim because they were to hung over to get up…yup…that means they just wasted a $125 trip…
The afternoon/night of day 3 was pretty tame we headed to the mall and then to another out door market to check out the goods. I tried to get myself a Mariachi Sombrero, but I as I was looking I was reminded that I would probably have to wear the hat home on the plane, and while that may seem like a good idea, a red eye flight while wearing a huge hat is not really going to be fun. Dinner was seafood on the ocean again, I think that is something I will greatly miss from this trip, the amount of amazing seafood I have been eating!
Day 4 Acapulco
Today we spent the day at a beach called Pie de la Cuesta which was located about 45 minutes north of Acapulco. The time we spent here was amazing, it was a long white sand beach with HUGE waves that knocked me around, but the most amazing part was how empty the beach was! It was pretty much our private little beach. We ate lunch at this little place on the beach which ended up paying for our rent of some hammocks and chairs…so yes, we took advantage of those. Today was also the final game in the Copa De Oro Futbol tournament…and who was playing? Mexico and the US of course! I believe the US won 2-1, so the rest of the day we were definitely Canadian J On the way back to the ship our van driver we rented took us by the local Diego Rivera mosaic (Diego was the husband of Frida Calo). Diego had one of his mistresses living here in Acapulco, what is more fitting then building one of his last works of art in front of her house!
So now we are back on the ship and back to ship life…I Am very glad that I did not get sea sick and that I was able to ease right back into the flow of life in the MV. What does a day look like for me? Well I have been getting up in the morning around 7am to work out and eat breakfast. At 9:20 is Latin America today which is a class that we all need (should) attend. From there we have a student life meeting at 11am and then lunch. The afternoon I work at the student life desk or have the time to enjoy the ship or get some work done! The night time is usually reserved for programming efforts or being on call at one of the alcohol nights. Alcohol has been pretty tame so far on the ship. In Acapulco, not gonna lie the students went a little crazy, well some of them did…most actually were totally fine!
Apart from that all is well! I hope to call people when I get to Panama on Friday! Much love…
2 comments:
i was behind on the reading for a while.
Hapy belated birthday!! I miss you tons and I'm so glad you are taking great pictures and havinga great time! remember - don't drink the water or you will die.
love
brandon
Exactly WHAT part of this is work again? ;-)
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