Travels
from February 14 to March 1, 2001
Ahoy,
For
whatever reason, we hadn't expected to be very impressed with Acapulco. We were
in for a big surprise!
The
first signal that this stop might be special occurred on Nancy's watch, just
before sunrise. Some motion caught her eye and she looked closely at the area
to starboard to find what had attracted her attention. Suddenly she saw a
brilliantly colored sailfish leap completely out of the water, its impressive
dorsal fin back lighted by the colors of the dawn, just a boat-length away. It
returned into the sea with a splash, not repeating its display again.
Nanjo
carried us to Acapulco that morning with its engine. The trip had been only an
overnight voyage, adding 110 nm to the 5000+nm we had traveled since leaving
San Francisco. We sailed the first day, until sunset. However, we had little
wind from that time until we passed the entrance to Acapulco and entered Bahia
de Puerto Marques.
We
chose to anchor off Puerto Marques because of the foul holding ground off the
marinas in Acapulco. In addition, the depth was 50' or more there. Further, we
heard that the port fees were excessive ($50 in, $50 out). While in Zihuat, we
had heard one boat in Marques say that they didn't have to pay fees at all. We emailed
another boat anchored in Marques and they said that the Port Capitan in Marques
was unauthorized to charge the fees and directed skippers to check in with the
Port Capitan in Acapulco. However, that boat, as well as several others, just
didn't check in. That is what we chose to do. We became a "boat in transit
to Huatulco, making an intermediate stop". However,
"intermediate" turned into two weeks. In Mexico, that is mas o
menas.
We
anchored just off the old pier in front of the twin condo high-rises. This gave
us easy access to a portion of the beach where we could land our dinghy and
leave it safely. Then we could catch a bus to Acapulco a few blocks away. All
this was important because Mary and Karl-Heinz (our daughter and her hubby)
flew down from San Francisco, the same day as our arrival, to celebrate K-H's
birthday and see us in our cruising lifestyle.
Transportation
in Puerto Marques does include buses, but they are infrequent to Acapulco.
There are many more buses to and from surrounding non-tourist towns to bring
the locals to Marques, so they can enjoy the beaches there. About every half
hour, a bus (3.5 pesos per person) to Acapulco would pass through. The next
option was walking a mile to another bus stop near the main road between the
airport and Acapulco, where buses stopped every few minutes. The final option
was taking a cab.
There
are more cabs in this area than I have seen in any city, anywhere. There are
thousands! Most are old VW Bugs, a good number of compacts and finally, some
full-sized sedans. The local residents, Mexican workers, are the typical fare
in the Bugs and compacts. Because of the use of cabs by locals, it was obvious
that there was a lot of room between what we were quoted as a fare and what the
cabbies would accept. The usual fare, one-way, between Acapulco and Marques was
30 pesos, although we got one for 15 pesos. We also paid 100 pesos once, before
we learned the ropes.
All
in all, the transportation to/from Marques wasn't as easy as all the other
ports we have visited. This might lead some to consider using the two marinas
in Acapulco. There, however, boaters had to live with the lack of water at the
dock. So pick your own inconvenience . . .
Acapulco
is the most beautiful, picturesque port we've seen in Mexico, day or night. In
addition you have easy access between the hotels and "real" Mexico.
After meeting Mary and K-H at their hotel (Hyatt), we took them to lunch one
block away from where tourists could be found, at one of many street cafés and
vendors catering to Mexicans. Although we had never been there (we used the
"if the locals eat there" approach), the shop filled beyond capacity
and into the street just after we had taken a table. The food was excellent
(Nancy and I went back for more of their chicken enchiladas after Mary's
visit)! In addition, the prices were some of the best we have experienced. The
full lunch was 20 pesos each, beer was 5 pesos (Negro was 9 pesos) and Cokes
were 5 pesos.
Even
on the main camino, prices at very nice restaurants were lower than what we
paid at one of the beachfront palapas in Puerto Marques. Mary and Karl-Heinz
found a wonderful tacos-pastor spot and a restaurant with the absolutely best
tamales we've ever had in Mexico. We went there twice with them after they
found it, and once more with Matt. The owner gave us memento ashtrays on that
last visit.
The
prices rose dramatically when you used the hotel restaurants or their
beachfront services. On the day they came to see Nanjo in Pto. Marques,
Karl-Heinz had all his beer on the beach that day for the same price he paid
for a single beer in front of the Hyatt. In addition, it was hard to complete a
sentence before you would have to "No, gracias" a beach vendor trying
to sell something to us on the Hyatt's beach
Likewise,
Internet cafés were typically twice the usual big-city price, although I found
one that was 20 pesos per hour.
During
the 5 days we had with Mary, we usually just lounged on the beach, although we
did spend one day exploring along Avenida Aleman, the main camino. On Sunday,
they took a cab over to Pto. Marques and had a sourdough pancake brunch with us
aboard Nanjo. We spent the afternoon on the beach, just ashore, with the
multitudes of Mexicans who come from as far away as Mexico City for their
one-day off. It was quite an experience for us all.
After
returning from their visit, Mary said that "seeing you in your
element", now she can more easily picture us living on the boat in Mexico.
Yet she didn't get to go to some of the street produce markets or carnicerias,
as Matt did. But then, she did see more of the "real" dining
places.
The
day after Mary flew home, we visited the historic fort, Fuerto San Diego, which
dates back to the beginning of the Spanish days, when Mexico was referred to as
New Spain. It was through Acapulco that all products and trade passed on their
way from New Spain, or the Philippines and the Orient, to Spain. This was the
crown jewel of those days, the hub of all commerce, the dream of every
buccaneer. The fort was there to protect against the Pichlingue, the pirate,
the sea marauder. The tour of the well-preserved and rebuilt fort is worth the
time. We spent over two hours. Each room has multi-media presentations of items
from the fort or at least from that period; history presented in displays, as
well as video presentations, first in Spanish and then English; explaining how
the trade procedures changed and how vessels sailed between there and the
Philippines; displays of representative and actual items traded. Our visit to
the fort was a high light to our visit in Acapulco.
Matt,
a friend of ours from San Francisco, came the next day. However, he stayed at
the Mayan Palace area. This exclusive resort complex is located down the coast
from Acapulco (I put it that way because if I had said East, which it is, you
would have thought it was inland. Here, the coast basically runs east and
west). So we had to "learn" how to get to his hotel. But it was worth
it. Again, we spent some very relaxing days poolside with Matt. We were having
our second mini-vacation, a break from the hum-drum existence we live in
paradise, where the temperatures are between the high 70s and low 90s, day and
night.
One
day, Matt came and visited aboard Nanjo, had lunch with us at a beach palapa
that turned out to be quite expensive, shopped at the little street produce
shops and just discovered what there was in Puerto Marques. Another day we met
in Acapulco and walked around the non-tourista part of town. We shopped at the
Super Wal-Mart across from the Hyatt, the lowest prices in town: We shopped for
standard provisions, while Matt collected things for a dinner he was going to
make for us on our last evening together.
The
next day, Tuesday, we prepared Nanjo for our next voyage, purchased a few
produce items in Marques and phoned Grandma. Dorothy had emailed a letter from
Nancy's Mom. It described the snowstorm she had experienced in North Fork, the
loss of electricity (so no water from the well, and noTV, heaters,
refrigeration, or lighting), a tree limb falling on the front porch causing
extensive damage and not being able to drive because of the road condition. We
had to find out how she was doing currently. She told us that everything was
back to normal, the porch to be repaired in the near future. The beauty of the
snow was the memory she thought of first.
Wednesday,
we visited Matt poolside. We lay on deck furniture and watched a sailboat head
east, as we would do the next day. The wind was gentle and warm, beckoning us
to "come play" on the open ocean. We didn't recognize that it was a
siren's song, luring us to conditions unfavorable.
That
afternoon, Matt cooked us a delicious ravioli dinner in his condo, something
special for the three of us since Matt introduced us to the fresh raviolis made
at Rock Ridge (base of the Oakland hills). The dinner was wonderful, but over
too quickly. As the sun set, Nancy and I said goodbye to Matt in the
unbelievably beautiful Mayan Palace lobby.
We
had Nanjo rounding Punta Diamante and turning toward Huatulco by 1030 on
Thursday morning. The wind gradually increased until the sails could be
effective; we turned off the "clunker" around 1130, making 5 knots of
speed in 5 knots of wind. Then we had 6 knots of wind and were making 6 knots
of boat speed (according to GPS). After lunch, we had 7 knots of wind on the
port beam. Nanjo's sails were perfectly trimmed and she was making 7 knots of
boat speed (GPS), steered by Steve. This was too perfect! There had to be a
"helping" current. We sailed like that until sunset. Making almost
twice our planned speed on a "flat" sea, the 85° air temperature made
somewhat kinder by the breeze, we dashed down the coast. Our thoughts were
consumed with the good times we had enjoyed with our friend and our family in
Acapulco. Life was good, no worries . . . Nancy dozed on the cockpit cushions
in the late afternoon. I even caught myself a few times, nodding off, while
Steve kept us moving toward the Siren's realm.
Crew
of Nanjo