Mexico - a flimsy excuse to visit the beach that appeared in Shawshank Redemption...

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My main holiday of 2011 involved beating the November blues by heading off to sunny Mexico for a few weeks. My friend from uni, Julia, had settled in Mexico City with her boyfriend Ruben, and was always keen for people to come out and visit her (and even if she wasn't I kind of invited myself!!) which meant I had friends to stay with in Mexico City as a base for my exploration. I had previously visited D.F. and the Yucatan peninsula on my travels in 2005, so I was hoping to strike out to places new to the north and west.

The general plan was to base myself in D.F. at the weeekends when Ruben and Julia were free, and head off during the week on road trips to see more of the country. By coincidence Julia and Ruben had just moved into a new apartment and so were having a housewarming on the Friday night I arrived, which was a great way to catch up, and to meet Julia and Ruben's friends – some of whom were teachers at the same school as Julia.

The first weekend was very relaxing, a mix of exploring the city and heading out for a day trip with everyone to the small market town of Tepotzlan, where we climbed a hill overlooking the town on top of which was perched a small Aztec temple with great views back over the surrounding countryside.

I also wandered the streets of Coyuacan, a lovely former village in the artistic quarter to the south of the centre that has retained its cobbled, tree lined streets and small plazas even as its been swallowed up by the ever expanding urban mass of Mexico City. Home to artists such as Frida Kahlo, unfortunately as it was a Monday all the museums were closed and so there was no other option but to keep calm, chill out and have another beer in one of the cafes by the plaza!

My first major excursion would involve an overnight trip to Zihuatanejo – beach resort, and more importantly, the location in Mexico where Red and Andy Dufrense are reunited in Shawshank Redemption!! It may sound a feeble reason for visiting a place – but believe me I've had far flimsier in my time!

Since the time of Red and Andy, Zihuatanejo seems to have got itself into a big rush of development. Far from the idyllic fishing village where Andy could work on his boat, the town is pretty well established with 4 sets of beaches around a cove – one of which was reached by boat. It was this beach I had one of my most interesting days. I set out to explore, and being a weekday in November there were very few tourists to fill the 15 or so beach bars that lined the cove. Each one had a tout to try and drum up business, and I got chatting to a guy who divided his time between the US and Mexico so his English was perfect. He explained that times were bad, with the US tourists that generally fuel this part of the world staying away more and more (most likely to do with the ongoing reports of drug and gang related violence in places like Ciudad Juarez – which are an absolute world away from places like Zihuatanejo). However, as empty as things are this season, the terrible realisation is that next year things are likely to be even worse, and the year after that worse still...

As an example I was the only customer at my bar all day. I stayed there, had a massive fresh fish for lunch, hired snorkelling gear and drank several (many!!) ice cold bottles of Pacifico. Given the prices are still so cheap my total outlay for the day was less than a tenner which isn't going to keep too many businesses afloat...

Next stage of the road trip was to move further down the coast to Acapulco, and having heard so much about the trashy glitz that seems to sum up the town I wasn't expecting to like it and so only booked one night - thinking that would be enough to hear the tine "going loco...down in acapulco" blasting out at least once (which I did!!). Actually my visit to Acapulco turned out to be a huge amount of fun for that short time.

First of all I got myself on a cruise around the bay. The wily Mexican salesman completely misjudged me when he tried to sell his 4p.m. departure as an all you can drink party cruise around the bay – something I wasn't really interested in! (I am getting old!) He did mention that it was a sunset cruise, and I do like my sunsets, so after playing hardball and haggling him way down on price as it was just about to leave, I jumped onboard. My all-you-can drink booze cruise actually turned out to be a romantic tour of the bay complete with live band, sunset viewing and there just happened to be a free bar because the beer and rum & coke (the only two options) were such cheap quality that they could easily give it away!! The middle aged Mexican couples and families that made up 95% of the guests didn't look like they were going to be breaking out rows of tequila slammers any time soon!!

For all the trashy reputation Acapulco has, you can see why it expanded into such a big resort town. The bay is absolutely beautiful with the long wide beaches giving way to rocky headlands at each extremity. The tour also takes us up close to the mansions of the rich and famous which are perched all around the headlands. I think we got to see Julio Englesias, John Wayne and most impressive of all Ricky Martin...

After watching the very pleasant sunset, the evening saw me go to the other main attraction of Acapulco – their famous cliff divers. Apparently it started in 1934 with local boys hurling themselves off the 35m (10 storey building apparently) high cliffs to earn some extra pesos. Timing their dive to coincide with the incoming huge waves that enter and crash over the rocks is said to be crucial as the waves cushion the divers’ impact when they hit the water and protect them from landing in the shallows.

It has developed into a hugely popular tourist show with hourly viewings to meet the high levels of demand. The first viewing of the night featured all the tourist tour buses and so people were crammed 10 deep at the barriers. Luckily with time on my side I could afford to hang around, have a beer and wait for further showings during the night of which there were about 10-20 spectators in total!

It was massively impressive to watch, the cove in which the divers were landing seemed worryingly small compared to the huge height they were leaping from!! All ended well and the divers were definitely worth the tips they were given as they made their way through the crowd afterwards!!

After the highly enjoyable time in Acapulco the weekend had come around again and by complete luck it was a bank holiday in Mexico so everyone had the Monday off. Julia, Ruben and their friends were taking an overnight bus to Playa Paraiso, a strip of beach paradise (as the name suggests!) to spend the weekend.

I met them there and was chuffed with what we found. Basically, each of the beach front cafe/restaurants let you pitch your tent for free in their “palapa” (shaded area at the front of the cafe, made up of a wooden frame and thatched roof made of dried palm leaves), on the proviso that you spend your time eating and drinking in their restaurant. With prices as cheap as they were offering this was not going to be a problem!!

Some of the highlights were definitely the seafood, which was exceptional throughout. The host recommended a type of fish that he was able to “unfold” and slow cook while heavily marinated in spices and the end result was absolutely sublime!! The girls also liked the “coco locos” (coconut milk and spirits served in the coconut), but I decided to stick to the trusty beer and the rum and coke in the evening.

Like most places I've encountered that have no electricity, they still have an amazing ability to keep the beer ice cold. A delivery of blocks of ice in the morning is probably the most important delivery of the day, and us thirsty punters certainly couldn't ask for any more.

By day we chilled, read, wandered the beach and sipped beer. At night a bonfire of coconut husks was made, guitars were brought out and we had ourselves a fiesta. Not a bad way to spend a bank holiday and certainly the highlight of the trip!!

My final week I made some excursions out to the towns of Puebla (just a day trip) and Guanajuato (a 3 day trip – but I crammed everything into my day sack so was unencumbered by my bigger bag!!). Guanajuato was a pleasant town, famed for its coloured churches and being the birthplace of “Diego Rivera”, husband of Frida Kahlo, and most famous for his murals which adorn locations like the National Palace and fine arts museum in Mexico City. A highlight for me was the day hike I did up to a high viewpoint overlooking the town. It was great to get out and about for the day and the views were superb.

Coming back to the city I timed my arrival for a Friday night “Lucha Libre” (mexican masked wrestling!!) event in a big arena in the centre. Having never been a fan of wrestling I was going more for the comedy value, but I have to admit that when I arrived and took my seat I was bowled over by the athleticism of the wrestlers. The acrobatics and stunts that they performed were hugely impressive (and surely massively dangerous!) so for the first hour or so I was absolutely on the edge of my seat. However, as the evening wore on it became a bit repetitive for a non-fan like me and so I had definitely had my fill by then (a view echoed by Julia, who couldn't take going to see it again!!)

Aside from striking out to places new, one of the reasons I had wanted to go back to Mexico was also to practice my Spanish, which I knew had continued to decline since the heights reached in Bolivia and when completing my AS level soon after. Again, I was at the level where I had no great problem getting around – food, drink, transport and accommodation didn't present me with too many challenges, but as soon as I wanted to embark on a more meaningful conversation my knowledge and confidence dried up and I started to flounder. Just before I left Mexico, Ruben's parents came to visit and given that their English was virtually zero we switched to Spanish as the default language. Suddenly I was able to string more sentences together and felt some sort of confidence returning – however I left the day after and again back in England my level would retreat back to just “getting by”. It was a vicious cycle that I knew I was going to have to do something about if I was ever going achieve my dream of mastering the language....

As a final thank you to Julia and Ruben I took them out to a restaurant, and they recommended a traditional cantina that was part owned by Gael Garcia Bernal (bit of name dropping there!!). It was a small token from me to say how much I appreciated them opening up their house to me and inviting me to stay, when they had such busy lives of their own. Thanks for making it such a fun holiday!!

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Photos

Playa Paraiso
Sunset on what was the undoubted highlight of the trip

Acapulco...
...not really going loco as promised by the wily salesman!!

Playa Paraiso
Enjoying the incredible fish that was cooked up for us and washing it down with ice cold beer and coco locos...

View over Guanajuato
The walk up was really rewarding and it was good to get out and about outside the city.

Julia, Reuben and I
Our meal together on the eve of my departure