DAY 6: Acapulco

Acapulco, Mexico: I have learned to spell Acapulco now. The Norwegian Bliss docked in Acapulco before dawn this morning, and is scheduled to depart at 5p.

After our usual morning routine, we disembarked and hired a car and driver for the day. Christian was a young guy with two children. He has a real job at a beach-front hotel as their reservation tech (?), but always works as a guide if there is a ship in town. He feels it helps him with his English (which isn’t very good). Between his bad English and my bad Spanish, we had a fine day.

First, he drove us all along the shore line, stopping for photo ops. Acapulco is a bustling city, very tropical and lush. 88 degrees today, with only 60% humidity. Honestly, it reminded me of Manila, except with hills.

We saw the pretty Las Brisas Hotel, made famous by Elizabeth Taylor, and Christian snapped our photo at one high point over the bay:

After our driving tour of the city, we asked to visit a market. It was just the same old stuff for sale in every Mexican market in every Mexican tourist town, but I must say, the vendors were not as aggressive as they can be in other towns. Alas, nothing these two down-sized-already people want/need, or anything the grandchildren would covet.

The main event of the day was to watch the famed Acapulco Cliff Divers. The high-divers perform daily at 1p and again after dark, using lit torches in the evening performance. (Dang, our ship was leaving before dark!) However, when there is a cruise ship in town, the divers perform on the hour. I knew there was a restaurant above the cliffs, so I asked Christian to take us there. La Perla is very large, with perhaps 7 layers of balconies to seat people watching the diving show. Today they were offering a set menu (due to bus loads of cruisers arriving hourly). Our table was situated ideally to watch the show, it was in the shade, and there was a light breeze.

The show started with the divers (9 today) walking down to the red area in the center of the above photo, then diving into the water, swimming across the little inlet and then scaling the taller cliff (on the right) to dive from the high rocks. Dave thought this was more of a feat than just jumping off a cliff. They just free climb! So scary.

For $22 per person, we could have one drink, beer, or cocktail, plus lunch (cheeseburger, fish tacos, chicken enchiladas, turkey sandwich, or fish fillet in garlic sauce. We went with the fish fillet and Victoria beer, and finished our lunch as the divers climbed to their perches.

Really yummy - the rice was loaded with fried garlic as well… good thing we wear masks in the ship elevators.

Then the show began. It was so frightening, I could hardly watch. So dangerous!

After the show, the divers wait for tips as patrons left the restaurant. Our guide told us they work only for tips… I find this shocking as the restaurant makes a fortune from their performance. La Perla has walls of boards decorated with signatures of famous people who have visited the restaurant. Roy Rogers signed the wall… but so did Trigger… not sure about that one.

I will lose Wi-Fi as we hit the high seas, so will post this early tonight. No doubt, there will be another meal this evening and maybe a show or an evening of comedy? This will be reported during my next update… which may be a while as we have another at-sea day before reaching Guatemala.

Until my next update, I remain, your thrilled correspondent.

LINKS:
Norwegian Bliss
Real-time ship tracking

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