Acapulco

After hours more in the car, we made it north to Acapulco. We walked the beach front near the resort hotels at sunset, as the crowds left, to see what the hype was all about. It seemed to be more of a party resort, but not as bad as Cancun. The scenery was pretty, but everyone clearing out left piles of trash all over the sand.

Pablo called family friends who had a vacation home here, and voila, we had a place to stay! We stopped at the supermarket to pick up food and were happy to have a nice, clean and airy house to stay in, instead of a cold tent with damp towels for blankets. I was feeling exhausted and went up to bed early.

We had a lazy next day, eating my baked whole papaya with coconut cream, lounging at the pool, picking up a few things at the supermarket, finding internet. Paco's friends came up in the evening and joined in, but I had to go to sleep early once again.

I was excited to have a kitchen to use, so the next morning Pablo and I headed to find some fresh fish. We went to the beach further up the road, away from the nicer resorts, and asked where the fishermen came in. We were directed further away and, had an annoying run in with a motorcycle cop claiming that Pablo ran a red light, (even though it was green), really looking for a bribe from a car with out of state plates. After sorting it out the cop did give us directions to the central market, where we would be going for some extra ingredients after finding the fish.

We made it to a spot set up at the edge of the sand where a few fishermen had tables of little fish spread out as they cleaned them. It was thrilling to see all of these new fish! I had no idea what they were, but I wanted to experience the flavors of all of them however there were too many. Even so, I picked out a lot of fish, long ones, plump ones, even a round one that was sort of like a big shiny blue and silver angelfish, and, of course, we got a small red snapper, a well known fish here. I couldn't remember the names of all of these 14 fish, but I did take their fotos.

After buying the fish we headed to the busy market to buy veggies, rice, and spices. After circling the area for a while, we double parked the car and paid someone to watch it while we raced through to find our ingredients. We came out with green beans, garlic, cilantro, banana leaves, a large bundle of laurel and other dried herbs, a bag of rice, a bag of cumin, and a bag of coriander. We made it back to the house, put everything away, and spent the day relaxing again. I was still feeling tired. Paco and his friends had left for their homes in D.F. by the time we returned.

For dinner, I made rice and spiced zucchini and squash to accompany the fish. I cleaned and dried my nine fish and divided them into two groups. Both groups were wrapped in banana leaves and steamed in the oven. One bundle got a white wine and laurel treatment with some other spices. The other had wine, ginger, and coriander. Both turned out quite well! We ate on the patio and enjoyed the evening outside, eating and eating and eating (that was a lot of fish!). Dessert was fresh fruit (mangos from the tree outside) dipped in melted chocolate and cream. I don't think I can ever tire of good mangos!

We would have been happy to stay here longer. I hadn't had a kitchen of my own since I left my cottage in Pasadena in January. But, if we wanted to make a few more stops during our trip, we needed to get back on the road, and so we did.

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Part of trip: Guanajuato México and beyond

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