Sorry that was a tangent, back to Acapulco.
After boarding a midnight bus we arrived to the hotel at around 8 in the morning a bit on the tired side but ready to go.
After a day at the beach and pool we headed to some restaurant next door to our hotel which had lots of waitresses dressed like this
Can't say much for the service but the buffalo wings were phenomenal.
Afterwards everyone showered up and we all hopped in the bus.
The first stop was the La Quebrada cliff diver show which was pretty cool. The divers are a group of professionals that have been doing shows since 1934. They take off from a platform that is 148 feet (child's play as we will soon see) above the water. Unbeknownst to us at the time jumping off really tall things would become a very prevalent theme throughout the weekend.
After the show the bus took us to a bar called Paradise. Right on the beach, two outdoor levels with a huge swimming pool, various spring break-esque activities (where some people just flat out dispose of all their dignity), and wouldn't you know it, a bungy tower.
Though it would seem logical to have done the bungy at this point, I was talked out of it by Dan and instead watched as 2 of my other friends went and both survived while I met a 27 year old friend named Claudia (after years of searching finally found a woman who could relate to me on a maturity level).
Though we had fun, the decision not to bungy jump would bother me for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday started off with a great walk down the waterfront of Acapulco. The city is pretty cool in that it is built around a large bay with the mountains less than half a mile from the water. You wind up with a big circle of blue water, good beach, huge hotels, and then beautiful mountains.
Around mid afternoon I was hit with some troubling information. The place we were planning to go to that night called Palladium (apparently a world famous night club) had a no short no tennis shoe policy. Fortunately coming from Chapel Hill and Charleston where I have been taught you can go anywhere and do anything in khaki shorts and a button down I had only packed shorts and tennis shoes for that night.
Refusing to let this get me down I cruised across the street to Wal Mart Supercenter for an early birthday present, 8 dollar George jeans (actually pretty decent looking), and a slick pair of white Miami Vice loafers.
After a beautiful sunset on the beach we got ready and headed out to Palladium.
We arrived about 30 minutes before the doors opened but were delighted to find one of my absolute favorite establishments in the whole world, Señor Frogs, was located next door.
Both Señor Frogs and Palladium are situated on the side of one of the mountains so they overlook the entire Bay of Acapulco which made for an incredible view the whole night.
A great time was had by all and as I laid down that night I thought I was satisfied with the weekend and could go home in peace...wrong.
I woke up Sunday with an ardent desire to bungy jump (at less than 30$ I didn't think I would find a better deal in the world nor a safer set up than Acapulco Mexico) before I left. After grabbing Dominique from Germany as my photographer we hopped in a cab at 12:30 knowing that we needed to be back on the bus for departure by 1:30.
We pulled up at the Paradise bar just in time for the 1:00 opening which fortunately from a time stand point allowed me to go first (I am fairly confident they had been testing the ropes out all morning and being the guinea pig first jumper for the day was a good idea).
After a brief glance at best over the policies and precautions I signed the line that said I assume responsibility for all the horrible things that could happen to me and put down the home address and phone number in the box that read "In the event of an accident who should be contacted" and hopped on the elevator.
At the top I was strapped in and somehow managed to form the sentence "How high am I right now?" despite my clattering teeth. The answer of 161 feet did nothing to help the nerves but time was of the essence so I hopped up out of my seat, hobbled over to the edge with my feet all wrapped up, told the guy to tell the fam I love them, looked over the edge, muttered some choice words, and took the plunge.
Holy mackerel I got from the top of the tower to the end of the bungy cord really really fast.
It was all over in what seemed like a split second, but was awesome feeling both during and after. After being hauled down onto firm ground we got this picture, cleaned out my shorts, and hopped back in a taxi to get on the bus.
After checking the Bengals score in Hooters and consequently wondering why I had ever developed such an unhealthy obsession with such a horrific excuse for a team we drove over to a different beach which was a turtle preservation site.
We spent a relaxing afternoon at the beach and at the end all got to release one of the little guy's into the water. After having read that 1 in 1,000 of them would survive (what an inefficient species that is, what the heck Darwin?), I was a bit discouraged to let mine go, but much like bungy jumping, decided the matter was best left to chance.
After watching them scurry off into the water in what became a very intense race for the observers, we all scurried back on the bus and headed home with another great weekend logged in the books.
No comments:
Post a Comment