Mexican Madness: 2005-2006

Zihautanejo is quite a large town on a large protected bay on the Pacific coast. We stayed for a week in the beach area where the streets are lined with inviting stores and restaurants. Hotels have been built all around the bay, above several beaches, not as nice as Tulum or Puerto Morelos, but still nice. The luxury resorts of Ixtapa are just 8 Km away but most people we have talked to prefer the more laid back atmosphere of Zihautanejo. We are just taking it easy here, enjoying the beach again, consolidating our tans and sampling the many restaurants. Our favourite restaurant, right on the beach, serves great grilled fish. The catch of the day is often red snapper in a garlic sauce.

There was a good concrete boardwalk linking the town beach, lined with fishermen’s boats and quiet Playa Madero where we preferred to swim. We sat in the shade of trees along the edge of the half-Km of sand, read our books, swam and watched locals dive for oysters off the rocks. The men swam out pushing an inner tube with a bag attached by a line into which they threw their catch.

A bit farther from town was the 2 Km long Playa La Ropa where the larger, more luxurious hotels were situated. To get there we walked across Playa Madero, up a steep hill and down again to the beginning of the beach. There were small beach restaurants and lines of chairs and umbrellas for rent. It was school holiday season so families brought their picnics or ordered from the restaurants. Ropes defined several swimming areas, effectively separating the jet boats from the swimmers. Young people, especially girls, chose a brief motorboat towed parachute trip to take in the scene from far up in the air. Another favourite activity was the Banana. Five or six people straddle a long yellow tube towed by a motor boat, holding on while the motor boat driver took sharp corners attempting to dump his passengers.

We arranged with a local, Moses, to go snorkelling. We motored about 20 minutes outside Bahia de Zihuatanejo to a small bay surrounded by rocks, Playa Manzanillo. Just a few other boats were anchored in the bay so we had the fish practically to ourselves. Large schools of many varieties swam above the rocks and corals. If we stayed very still the fish would completely surround us. We stayed in the water so long we felt like prunes.

Mexicans love parades and the beginning of Spring was a good excuse for the local primary school children to get dressed up and parade through towns to the delight of their parents and the tourists. Most of the little girls were fairies or princesses while the boys were various non-scary animals. They were darling.

Deep-sea fishing is popular off Zihuatanejo. A fishing derby brought out scores of competitors, hauling their catch of giant Sailfish and Dorado in to be weighed. Weights listed on a blackboard indicated catches of over 38 Kg.

We took the public bus to visit Playa Linda, a little north past Ixtapa. Right next to the bus stop at Playa Linda was a green lagoon with several large crocodiles lazing about. A new fence was being constructed at the beach end of the lagoon to keep the crocodiles from venturing into the ocean. I guess it was needed as there were a few small crocs on the beach outside the area being fenced. We hadn’t realized it was a holiday so weren’t prepared for the crowds who descended on this popular beach. You can take a five minute boat ride to Isla Ixtapa, but it would have taken an hour in line with the number of people already there. We walked over to a less crowded section of the beach in front of two large resorts. We spent a pleasant day enjoying the water and watching the jet skis, banana boats and parachutes towed behind a motorboat.

The Hat came back! We thought it was a goner, but the Hat came back!

It was four hours bus from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco, where we took a taxi to our hotel. Half way to the hotel, while stuck in Acapulco traffic, Ray realized he had left his Panama Hat in the bus. The taxi driver asked if we wanted to go back to the bus station to find it. It was either that or write the hat off, so back we went. The taxi driver stopped first at the maintenance lot where buses are cleaned out after each trip. The driver asked us what the number of our bus was and Ray and I each came up with a different guess. Our bus was not in the maintenance lot so we continued on to the station. Our bus was no longer parked at the station and the dispatcher was less than helpful, even with me trying out my very limited Spanish. Finally a bus station employee helped. Luckily I still had my ticket stub and he was able to get the correct bus number from the dispatcher. Ray and I had both guessed incorrectly. The bus was at the maintenance lot, so back we went. Lo and behold the hat had been found and was restored to us. The taxi driver earned a big tip.

We had anticipated a rather jaded, unpleasant city, but Acapulco was quite nice. We stayed in the old city near the pleasant and popular Zócalo with a large Cathedral on one side and a good selection of restaurants selling inexpensive Comida Corridas, our favourite all-inclusive meal.

As we walked along a boardwalk beside the bay we kept being mistaken for passengers from the one cruise ship that was in port. We were happy to tell them we weren’t interested in buying any souvenirs. Instead we watched boys fish off the pier for baby sailfish, each with its distinctive needle nose. Apparently they make a nice meal, like a perch dinner.

Our only complaint was the amount of plastic garbage floating onto the beaches in town. It didn’t make the beaches look very inviting. For our beach day we took the public bus to the Acapulco Diamond area, a luxury hotel strip that stretches along 6 Km of sand to the east of Old Acapulco. We picked a good spot with a restaurant and rented beach chairs and an umbrella. We ordered our lunch served at our chair and swim safely in the ocean, a good way to enjoy our last day on the Pacific.

Acapulco is justly famous for the Quebrada divers. The divers, professionals who have been performing since 1934, wow visitors several times each day. We went at sunset to enjoy the colourful sinking of the sun and the diving exhibition. We paid an admission of 35 pesos that included a beer and took our places on a stone observation deck on the side of the Quebrada cliffs. Four divers appeared after sunset and climbed down the cliff from the observation deck to the water, swam the short distance across to the other side and climbed up another sheer cliff to the top. The divers all prayed at small shrines on the top before taking their places for their dives. The first man dove from a height of 25 M, two more dove together from 35 M and the last dove solo from the highest point, 45 M. Of course we all clapped and took pictures of them afterwards.

Taxco is an old silver-mining town southwest of Mexico City. It was a picturesque town of narrow streets winding up a steep hillside. I thought the streets were more like double black diamond ski trails. We were warned that it was easy to get lost in the jumble of alleyways and it was. We explored more streets than we expected but we always managed to find our way back to our hotel. The market area was especially crowded and confusing as it spread out onto the adjoining streets.

Hotel Los Arcos, a former 17th century monastery, was a splurge for us at 435 pesos ($43.50) a night, but it was coming to the end of our trip. The hotel certainly had the most character of all the places we stayed in Mexico. Taxco is also the town of 1,000 silver stores and they did have lots of well-priced silver for sale. I used up some of my pesos buying gifts.

Templo de Santa Pisca, a baroque cathedral on the main plaza, was built by silver baron Don Jose de la Borda between 1751and 1758. The local Catholic hierarchy insisted that Don Jose guarantee the cost of the church by mortgaging all his properties and it nearly bankrupt him. We were to hear more of the Borda family in Cuernavaca.

Semana Santa, the week before Easter, brings the Penitents to town. You may have seen pictures in the newspapers of flagelants parading through town with hoods over their heads, carrying a heavy cross or whipping themselves with a cat-of-nine-tails. A group of statues commemorates this annual event.

We spent our time walking the hills in and around Taxco, getting better and better views. About three years ago the town erected a huge statue of Christ on a hilltop overlooking the town, similar to Guanajuato’s El Pipilo. The walk up to El Cristo was farther than we thought, especially since there were no signs marking the way. We just kept heading up and asking directions now and then. We finally made it and enjoyed the view. We found another, easier route down but I don’t think we could ever retrace our steps again.

Cuernavaca was our last Mexican destination. It was only 1 ½ hours by bus from Taxco and had the added advantage of a direct 2 hour bus to the Mexico City airport. That eliminated the necessity of going back into Mexico City again, although there are still lots of interesting places to visit on another trip.

Our arrival in Cuernavaca didn’t start well as we arrived to find we had no reservation and the hotel was full. I wasn’t pleased as the hotel, owned by our favourite Hostal Moneda in Mexico City, had been heavily advertised there and I had actually gone to the trouble of phoning the 800 number provided for a reservation. The problem was it was the same number for both the hostals in Mexico City and Cuernavaca and the reservation had been made for Mexico City by mistake. The manager in Cuernavaca was kind enough to phone another hotel in town for us that turned out to be quite nice and convenient to the center of town.

The Zócalo in Cuernavaca didn’t have a cathedral, as nearly all Zócalos do, but it did have the best Smoothie bars in Mexico. Several vendors had small booths under the gazebo in Jardin Juarez, part of the Zócalo. We chose from about twenty different combinations of fresh fruit and orange juice, milk or yogurt for a delicious healthy lunch. At 15 pesos it was a bargain.

We walked through one of biggest markets in Mexico, on our way to visit Piramide de Teopanzolco. The market entirely covered a bridge crossing busy streets and spilled over surrounding streets for ½ km in all directions. There were more products for sale there than several of our department stores combined.

Piramide de Teopanzolco, meaning “Place of the Ancient Temple”, is actually two pyramids, one built over the other. The inner temple was built by the Tlahuicas over 800 years ago, next to the site of an even earlier temple. The outer temple was started by the Aztecs but never finished before Cortés and the Spanish arrived. It was a small but interesting archaeological site. A small rectangular platform on the site was a tomb where the remains of 92 bodies all ages were found, indicating this was a human sacrifice site.

We spent a day visiting several of the colonial sites in Cuernavaca. Manual De la Borda built Jardin Borda in 1783 as an addition to the summer home of his father Don Jose, of Taxco fame. The gardens were built in a series of terraces, with hundreds of varieties of fruit trees and ornamental plants. The many fountain were gravity fed, in the same way that the Spanish Moors designed their gardens. Water shortages have stopped the flow of water but they were still attractive. Watchtowers were built into the walls of the garden at two corners. In the afternoon, the ladies would retire to the watchtowers to enjoy the view and drink a cup of chocolate, hence they became known as “choclateros”. When we were there a school group was enjoying the gardens and riding in rowboats over a large man-made lake.

The Recinto de la Catedral complex was just across the street from the Gardens. There are three churches on the site. The largest, the cathedral, had interesting murals painted on the walls depicting Franciscan exploits in Japan and the Phillipines. Cuernavaca was on the important trade route from Asia to Spain. Ships from Asia docked in Acapulco then transported their goods overland via Cuernavaca to Veracruz on the Caribbean coast where they continued their journey by ship to Spain.

Palacio de Cortés was built from rubble of an earlier pyramid, as was the Cathedral. Parts of the original pyramid are visible inside the Palacio de Cortés. The Palacio started out in 1522 as a fortress and was gradually renovated by 1532 for Cortés family, who lived in it until the 18th century. It is now a museum with exhibits highlighting the history of Morelos state and the cultures of people. In the mid-1920s, Dwight Morrow, the US ambassador to Mexico commissioned a mural by Diego Rivera to be painted on the upper balcony. Scenes of the Spanish conquest up to the 1910 revolution emphasize the cruelty of the Spanish towards the indigenous people. This was a theme we saw over and over again in many of the cities.

Our favourite restaurant in Cuernavaca became La India Bonita, named for the native mistress of Maximillian, who reigned briefly as Emporer of Mexico in the 1860s. Maximilian made his summer home in the Jardin Borda, accompanied by La India Bonita. The restaurant was in the renovated home of by US Ambassador Dwight Morrow, who was the father of Ann, wife of Charles Lindberg . The house was named Casa Manana for the slow building practices of the Mexican workers. We enjoyed our meals in the inner courtyard gardens; a treat.

But all trips must end and it was time for us to return to Ottawa. We took the bus direct to the airport and flew home on March 30.