Acapulco & California

Haven’t updated in a while, not since the 23rd of May, when we had arrived in Puerto Escondido, so here’s what’s been happening, read Charlies take on it in the previous text post.

My travel diary goes a bit blank for the rest of our time at Puerto Excondido, we basically surfed/took photos/lay-in each morning, the swell dropped for the rest of the week and picked up a tiny bit at the end, but never got as big as the first couple of days unfortunately.

This did give me the opportunity to surf every day, whilst Charlie took to the pool, doing 30 or 40 lengths each day between cooking me lovely mexican inspired meals and reading trashy romance novels.

We both decided we’d definitely come back to Playa Zicatela and stay in the same place: Casa Dan Y Carmen, it was a perfectly relaxing atmosphere to spend a week in after rushing through Central America.

We managed to book a coach to Acapulco at a ticket bus agent at the beach, and travelled in comfortable but not luxurious style up the coast to the ex-tourist mecca.

Upon arrival you notice that around 1 in every 10 cars is a VW Beetle, most of the taxis and plenty of private vehicles are battered old V-dubs.  We asked one of our drivers why this was, I’d assumed they used to manufacture them nearby or something, but apparently it’s just because they’re cheap and there’s plenty of parts available.

We stayed at the Alba Suites, a huge hotel complex with 5 pools, a water slide, restuarant, private beach and no doubt other stuff which we didn’t have time to explore.

If you end up staying here, avoid the room-service, which was poor, but do have a go on the slide, and the views are amazing from the room we stayed in.

The weekend we arrived was a national holiday we think, so it was pretty busy with Mexican tourists, I don’t think any foriegners go to Acapulco anymore, all the touristy areas full of restuarants are looking a bit worse for wear, which is a bit of a sad sight.

Cliff diving is one of the must-see attractions, thankfully though it’s not a must-pay-for event, so we watched from a bit further away than the paying spectators and were very impressed with the climbing and diving-skills/balls of the blokes doing it.

after a few days there we headed on to Mexico City airport, we were deciding on our Mexico plans during the height of the swine flu outbreak, so we were limiting our chance of exposure by going straight to a posh hotel next to the airport and getting out as soon as possible.

The Ramada lived up to expectations, room service was excellent, beds and facilities all top-notch, and we managed to get up for the 06:30 shuttle to the airport.

Continental airlines became the first carrier of the trip to charge me for taking my bodyboard on the plane - $26 it cost me, which is about what I paid for it 2 or 3 years ago, but it now has sentimental value, and I was hoping to get some waves in California too.

The flight was fine, stopping in Houston Texas on the way to San Diego.

Upon arrival we were happy not to step into a wall of heat, the first time that’s happened since stepping onto the asphalt in St Lucia. A quick bus-ride to the hostel later and we were settled in our seperate dorm rooms.

No alcahol or camping equipment is allowed in the hostel and it’s occupied mostly by europeans with a few token older Americans who are clinically insane.

Two nights in and one of my dorm-mates - a strange old man who seemed a bit lonely and wierd but not any more mental than the others had been reported to the police after having his background checked out by one of Charlies dorm-mates after telling her he was a doctor.

“He was probably telling lies to make friends, he seemed nice, he gave me some chilli” I explained to the loopy old guy, who was searching our dorm at the crazy old wenchs request for “DNA evidence and fingerprints”.

“Evidence of what? what did he do wrong?” nothing apparently, presumably if the election had gone differently he’d be in Guantanamo bay by now, older Americans are wierd.

Other than that everythings normal in San Diego, the staff in the stores (shops) are super-duper friendly and stuff is pretty cheap compared to the UK, I’ve spent more money in the last 3 days than I did in the whole two weeks in Mexico.

I’ve been spoiling myself for my birthday, going on the flowrider at mission beach, seeing Up in 3D (excellent movie, 3D was fantastic), seeing Gunther Von Hagens Body world exhibition, eating out twice a day, hiring a car, buying a Nintendo DS on a whim and purchasing new clothes rather than washing the smelly ones in my bag.

I managed to get into the sea at Salt Creek today, which was a good laugh, but hard work being back in a wetsuit, Charlie was disgusted by the water temperature, declaring it too much like England for a swim.

Tomorrow we are driving to LA, which should be an experience, the roads are crap, everyone drives oversized cars like idiots, the sat-nav is an idiot, and I do not get on with automatic cars with backwards controls.

Still, weathers good, people friendly, and soon we’ll be jetting off for our final leg in Canada with Charlies relo’s to look after us and show us the sites.

Back to reality in 2 and a half weeks…