Acapulco and a birthday!

For Ian's birthday, we headed to Acapulco! It's a great beach town that hit its prime in the 1940s - 1960s. Now it's an odd mix of old Acapulco hotels and beach houses and modern luxury bayside hotels and luxury homes and condos. We took a boat ride around the bay and out into the ocean and then went snorkeling. There were loads of cool fish and eels and rays, and Ian is now considering scuba certification. We'll go back in a heartbeat if anybody wants to come visit!


La Roqueta Island in the sun. What a wonderful weekend!


Our hotel - the Mirador - from the boat. It was just about the perfect balance of funky and nice, and the view from our room was amazing. You can see in the lower right side a stone viewing area that the cliff divers use to get into the water. There are more photos of them below.


The Acarey boat trip. It was a great introduction to Acapulco. They showed us all the houses and hotel belonging to famous people now and famous people from Acapulco's heyday: John Wayne, Mariyln Monroe, Elvis Presley, Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan for those of you, like me, who hadn't ever heard of him).


Out on a boat in the sun. It was so nice to be in fresh air!


Sunset on our first night. It was a little too cloudy, but it was so nice to see the Pacific! Huzzah for the left coast!


Birthday boy with a cigar and a view. I think the beard makes him look younger!


Birthday sunset from our little hotel balcony.


This is a side view of an Acapulco tourist landmark. Everyday young men (age 15+) jump off the cliff from right in front of the little blue chapels into the ocean below. This photo is meant to give a sense of scale for the jump; there are more photos below. The viewing platform is just below center on the right side of the photo. The boys jump from there into the water and then clamber out the other side to scale the cliff. The first jump is maybe 30 feet; the water is about 12 feet deep. Then with nothing but their fingers and toes, they climb the 105 feet to a little stone platform in front of the chapels and dive off into the ocean. It's breathtaking to see but it's also a little terrifying. The little ocean channel s narrow and shallow, and the waves are constantly roiling the water. This started as a native tradition and evolved into what it is today.


The last jump of the evening is done with torches for dramatic effect.


Clavidistas preparing for the 105 foot climb up the rock wall. They jump into the ocean from about 30 feet (est), swim across the very narrow channel, and scale the cliff face to jump from the top.


The clavidistas climbing the cliff. It's about 105 feet (30 meters), and they jump into about 12 feet of ocean, give or take depending on the surge and the tide.


A clavidista in action. Next time we'll use the bigger lens for a sharper photo!