The journey to Acapulco was longer and a lot more boring than we had anticipated. We had imagined driving into Acapulco with "Going Loco..." booming out of the stereo and happy and ready to go loco. Instead we entered smelly and unshowered, tired and in a huge traffic jam. It took ages to get into the city. And it really did feel like a city after Puerto Escondido and Chacahua, which were so peaceful. It took a while to find the hotel, but we found it and got given a room on the top floor - great for sunset watching, not so great for climbing in the hottest city in Mexico (which Acapulco was that week).
We showered in cold water which was the only option (but which felt fantastic as it was so hot!) And then collapsed onto our emperor sized bed. You could've slept 5 people in it - it was at least 3 times the size of our crappy little tent from the night before!!!
Then we headed down to the seafront, stopped for a torta in a cafe and then made it along the front to the main beach. It was nice enough but a bit grubby and we imagined that in the day it was probably pretty crowded (it was quite late when we got there.) We decided to go to a restaurant called 100% Natural for dinner - it's a chain restaurant but a pretty good one with loads of healthy and veggie options. We had a really nice meal, sitting out on a little pier over the sea, and although our excitement about Acapulco had been diminished, we were happy not to be travelling!
We stopped by the supermarket on the way back to get some drinks so we could enjoy the huge shared balcony for the evening. We had intended to do some wild partying in Acapulco, but due to money and general exhaustion that never happened and we much preferred sitting on our balcony looking at the craziness below.
The next day we wanted to hit the beach, and after a late start headed down to catch the bus to a beach (as we'd decided the day before that the main beach looked too busy.) What a shock we were in for. I have never seen such a busy beach in my life. I'm still not sure if there was even sand there as you couldn't see an inch of it. It was crammed with tables, chairs, people, sellers, food,sun umbrellas, everything you can imagine and it was horrible. the sea was like a mass of people and you would have had to ram several cbildren and grannies out of the way if you wanted to get your toes wet.
For some unknown reason, maybe we were in shock, we sat down and paid for a table and a coconut to drink. Neither of us knew what to do. After about 30 minutes we thought "sod this, we're not staying in this hell hole just because we paid for a table here!" We went to look at the aquarium, and decided to go in despite the stupidly high entry price.
Yet another disappointment. It wasn't so much an aquarium as a water park with a few fish tanks in a building next to it. And even the water park wasn't spectacular - a few pools and a couple of slides. I made the most of it and got in the water as i was sweating like a pig and it was nice to le back on the rubber ring and cool off. We got some sopes and chips at the cafe, which was quite reasonably priced to our relief.
In the end we headed back to the hotel after a bit of a strange day. We had a shower and headed to a place called Sinfonia del Mar, where there was a kind of amphitheatre for watching the sun set. It was one of the few places in Acapulco where you could see the sun set. We had a delicious ice cream and watched a very beautiful sunset. We decided it was cheap dinner night so we grabbed an elote from the plaza near our hotel and then went down to a street we'd noticed earlier in the day where we could get gorditas and tacos and sopes and stuff like that for dinner.
We came back up the hill to the hotel, got a fried banana and then went to see the famous Acapulco cliff divers. It was so busy that despite arriving 30 minutes early we didn't get a good positiona nd it was difficult to see most of the "show". Basically a groupof young men dive off a high cliff into a channel of water below, and it is quite impressive, just not that easy to see. After that it seemed like high time to sit on the balcony and have a few drinks before bed.
We'd had enough of stinky, crowded Acapulco and decided to head out to Pie de la Cuesta, a beach town 10km out of Acapulco for our final day there. The best decision we made since arriving in Acapulco for sure! It was beautiful - a stunning beach (very quiet, long, golden and sandy) and a lagoon behind it.
After not having really seen the lagoons before we decided to take a boat trip on this one. There was the cheap option and the expensive option. We plumped for the expensive option and we were really gald we did because it was one of the best days of the holiday!
We had to wait for a while to see if anyone else was coming on the trip, so we waited in the guy's restaurant on the beach, lazing in a hammock, and then set off on his rather nice boat. We saw the cheaper trips going out and they were in tiny boats which were absolutely packed with people and we felt glad to be in a big spacious one, with just the two of us! First we went to "bird island" a sort of reserve in the middle of the lagoon for birds, some of which were migrant birds from the US and Canada - we saw pelicans and lots of other birds too, but the guy told us that local fishermen often tried to burn the island or release cats onto it to kill the birds as the huge number of birds stopped them catching so many fish.
Then we went to the Ecological Park, where we got off the boat and walked though a mangrove swamp and a guide explained everything we saw. It was really interesting and we were even more glad we'd taken the expensive option as we wouldn't have got to see the park on the other trip. After the mangrove swamp we went to the iguana sanctuary. We saw huge iguanas sunbathing and jumping into the river and also a big snake in a cage and a wildcat.
After this came the highlight, we went to the crocodile sanctuary, saw big and small crocs in cages and in the river (they were apparantly all around us, but hiding and we couldn't see them) and we got to hold a baby which was a bit scary but really cool! We really enjoyed the visit, and having the guide there to explain everything to us was great.
Afterwards we got back in the boat and headed to a "private island" in the lagoon which had a beautiful beach, a very expensive restaurant, a pool, hammocks and i think there was a beauty salon where you could get massages but we didn't see it until right at the end when it was too late. Ed spent most of the time reading and working on his tan. We had a little swim in the lagoon, but it was like thick mud underfoot which felt a bit weird after swimming in the sea and feeling sand. I also splashed about in the pool with the rubber ring and just generally relaxed and enjoyed myself. It was really lovely and peaceful and we hhad a great afternoon.
Finally we headed back to Pie de la Cuesta in the boat and we decided to eat at the boat guy's restaurant which was a great choice as we had an absolutely huge plate of totopos with salad and cream and salsa and guacamole. We were absolutely stuffed.
We walked out onto the beach to enjoy the last bit of sun and watch our last spectacular sunset over the sea. It was really beautiful and we felt happy to have ended the beachy part of our trip in such a great place.
It took ages to get back to Acapulco as there was a big traffic jam. We had a light dinner again and of course, more drinks on the balcony. I don't think I'd go back to Acapulco, but I'd love to visit Pie de la Cuesta again.
The next morning we left early to head back inland to the final destination on our trip.
