Southern Exposure

Wednesday and Thursday, December 3 and 4

We got up early, had a morning swim in the ocean to compensate for the short-lived beach experience the day before, and were on the road by 10:30 am. We didn’t have a long way to go to Acapulco, but we knew we had to stop somewhere to find a town with an Internet cafe to make a hotel reservation for the night.

We stopped at a town called Tecpan De Galeana, which is where Matt had his five minutes of fame. Having made the hotel reservation at an Internet cafe on the main plaza after, we were suiting up to hit the road when we were approached by a TV reporter and his camera man from the local TV station. They were curious about what in the world we were doing riding our bikes all the way from Seattle. Matt agreed to be on camera for the local nightly news report and seemed like he did pretty well explaining the motives and details of our adventure. I guess “worthy news” spread fast in this small town, so while Matt was giving the interview, I was approached by a local newspaper reporter who was getting on the action by taking notes and trying to ask me follow up questions. Unfortunately, my Spanish is non-existent, so Matt had to take over for me after he was done with the TV crew. They rounded us up for a few more pictures, we exchanged business cards and were on our way to Acapulco, feeling somewhat self-congratulatory and bashful to be a local news celebrity. The article, in Spanish, here: An American and a Russian tour the continent by motorcycle.

Navigating through Acapulco’s traffic was a bit challenging but we found our way to the hotel relatively fast. At first we were a bit displeased with the location as it was quite far from the main center. That normally suits us just fine, but we knew we needed to go to a WalMart and were set on eating dinner at one of the American restaurant chains (we are so tired of tacos by now!) which were located along the main hotel strip downtown, about a 20 minute taxi ride from out hotel. After we got to our room however and saw the amenities of the hotel, including three pools, a private beach, and modern spacious decor; we knew we ended up in our own private paradise. Our hotel, Camino Real, can be considered a real splurge for us, but it was only about $30 more expensive than a Motel 6 back home, so we decided to live it up. We spent the afternoon lying by the pool and enjoying a piña colada while watching the sun set behind gorgeous cliffs that surrounded our lagoon. In the evening we got a taxi ride downtown that cost us more than our romantic dinner at Burger King, but it all hit the spot just right.

The next day we had a fancy breakfast buffet on the terrace of the restaurant overlooking the ocean and decided that there was no way we could leave this place without staying for one more day and reveling in Acapulco’s luxury living. We savored every minute of the sunshine by the pool that afternoon and in the evening we decided to go into town to watch the famous Acapulco clavadistas (cliff divers) for the 8:30 pm show. We had another splendid dinner, this time at Pizza Hut. I know, it sounds shameful, but at that point we craved anything but Mexican food, and pizza sounded delicious, though it did not meet our even our low expectations. It was so bland that it almost prompted me to sprinkle salt over it just to get some kind of flavor. We joked that it must have been shipped frozen from US.

The divers show was entertaining, if a bit built up. There were six of them diving from different points on the La Quebrada cliff. They came out on the spectators’ side, jumped in the water, swam across the narrow channel, and miraculously climbed the high steep cliff, each taking his own spot assigned spot. Then in the next 15 minutes they each plunged 35 miters into a rocky channel timing their leap to coincide with an incoming wave, as otherwise there is not enough water to stop them from hitting the bottom. They had to get out fast, as another danger they face is being dashed against the rocks.

After the show we got a cab to the hotel and reveled in the last hours of our deluxe getaway, knowing that extravagant days like these would be few on this trip.

High resolution videos we recorded of the clavadistas can be found here.