Acapulco or Bust

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If Cuernevaca is the city of the Eternal Spring, and as many down here claim "the most beautiful and most forgotten city in all of Mexico", they must never have been to Acapulco. After a week of intense (and I say that with no exaggeration whatsoever) spanish classes, we all could use a break. Although the appeal of the sand and the sun would later turn out not as relaxing as expected, our itinerary had us headed to Acapulco, Mexico for the weekend.

After a day of daunting and what seemed like never ending classes, we all got ready to get on the bus at 2:45. Unfortunatley Mexicans really have no concept of time. The buses showed up somewhere around 3 and after loading all the luggage, getting everyone settled and signed in, we probably left somewhere around 4:45. From that point on, it made our itinerary pretty much pointless and instead of worrying about it, I fell asleep in the most uncomfortable bus position. Somewhere around half way (I lost track on behalf of my neck stiffening bus sleeping) we stopped at this podunk Mexican gas station, where I had to pay 3 pesos (like 30 cents) for 2 squares of toilet paper and a toilet with no seat, and another 10 for a bag of half melted peanut butter m&m's...it was here that we were informed that we still had another 2 hours, somehow putting us another 2 hours behind schedule, so we boarded back onto the bus and i resumed my uncomfortable sleeping position, while the more alert people on the bus watched a new (and obviously pirated) action dvd starring al pachino.

We finaly arrived in Acapulco somewhere around 9. The hotel was beautiful. Every one of us had beachfront rooms with huge queen sized beds and balconies. Considering all I'd eaten since 12:30 was a bag of peanut m&m's my roommate and I quickly got ready for a night on the town and hit up the within walking distance burger for a classy, authentic Mexican dinner of chicken fingers and french fries.

Now, I knew Acapulco was famous for it's nightlife, but I could never have predicted what I ended up encountering in Acapulco. The streets next to our hotel were lined with every type of bar imaginable. Kareoke bars, Pirate bars, Salsa Clubs...The choices were endless. We finally ended up running into some American comrades at a bar called Paradise, which had a tropical island theme as well as a 50 foot fake clif you could jump off of into freezing cold water and a bunjee jump. After a few hours at the tropical club, we got bored and decided to hit up the pirate bar instead. After somehow convincing the bouncers to give us free cover, we were welcomed by more pirate themed decor than you'd find on the set of a Pirate's of the Carribean movie. Swords, burried treasure, and of course bartenders dressed up in pirate attire with nametags pronouncing them to be schwashbuckling Suarez and Buccaneer Morales, this bar turned out to be quite hilarious, corny, but definetley fun. Even the music had sort of a pirate theme, mixed in with an uncanny amount of remixed American rap. We finally made our way home somewhere between 5 and 6 am, and made a failed attempt to swim in the hotel pool (it closes at 8 and doesnt open again til 7 am) so we made our way to bed instead.

The next morning we set our alarms for super early so we'd be sure not to miss out on the beautiful beach. Well...at least from the balcony it looked beautiful. In reality it was kinda gross smelling, and the beaches on either side of our private hotel one, were actually quite dirty. This made the idea of swimming and laying out on the beach slightly less appealing, but we decided to do it anyway. At one point I even shelled out 10 bucks for a ride through the water on a banana boat. Although in hindsight it wasnt worth the money for a ride through the less-than-clean water, it was an experience all the same. After an hour nap that somehow turned into a 3 hour one, my roommate and I were rushed to get ready to go to club Piladium, apparently world renowned for being the #3 nightclub in the world. Although the cover fee was pretty hefty (300 pesos or 30 dollars) it was all you can drink (including bottled water, which in Mexico is a rare find...) once you get in, and as we'd soon discover it was well worth the money. Due to our oversleeping, we woke up somewhere around 11:30 at night (still early however for Acapulco considering most bars don't close til 6 or 7 am) and of course couldn't find anywhere to eat except the 24 hour convience store. So after a dinner of convience store pizza and lemon gatorade, we hailed a cab to the club.

Piladium really did live up to the hype. There were 3 levels, a bunch of VIP couches and a huge dance floor. There were also tons of massive video screens, and they played a wide variety of music from rap to latin to pop to hip hop to salsa to techno. The pride and joy of the club is the show performed by a silver painted Indian who eats fire. I personally found it to be overrated, especially considering the knock off at club mambo was almost as good (and the cover there is free besides) but enjoyable at the same time.

No one left the club til around 5:30 and we of course couldn't go back to the hotel without another helping of the convience store pizza. Thanks to 2 late (or should I say early?) nights though, barely any of us woke up in time to enjoy a last few seconds on the beach before we had to check out at 1. That being said, it was a very quiet and sleepy busride home. So much so that no one hardly noticed that we were once again nearly 2 hours behind schedule.

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Photos

NIght View
The nightime view from our balcony in Acapulco

Poolside
The most insanley beautiful pool I have ever seen

Streets of Acapulco
The view of the streets from outside our room

Silly Faces
Me and a few of the girls before going out our first night

Serious
Much more serious but obviously excited before going out

Beach
Acapulco's beautiful beach during the day

Beautiful Beds
One of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in....

Night View 2
Once again

One Last Look
One last look at the beautiful scenery in Acapulco from the balcony in our hotel room