On the morning of Thursday 8th of November we were at last approaching Acapulco, it was easy to tell that we were getting close to thriving humanity again as the sea breeze was carrying with it the pungent smell of a large open garbage dump. I was well aware of that smell having sampled it for far too long whilst anchored on The Flats off Colon, Panama. I guess every big city has a problem with garbage, it has to go somewhere! By the time the sun was rising and blocks of flats along the shoreline were coming into view, the smell had gone away. We were now looking forward to entering what our guide books tell us is one of the world’s finest natural harbours. Fortunately the more up to date literature we have tends to indicate that this is no longer a great place to visit and given the choice one should sail on by. I guess that its somewhat is sad when one reads that about a once well loved, well respected and much advertised vacation spot. However with all that in mind, we were ready to enrich our experience by finding out for our selves; but in reality we had no choice, we had to go in as we needed more fuel! |
 |
 |
| The approach was very easy and having already decided to pick up the first decent looking mooring that was available, we went strait in and were secured to a buoy in very quick time. Now I have to add here that I don’t usually pick up moorings, especially when I don’t know what’s on the other end of the chain. However the Acapulco anchorage is very deep and the locals have put in so many moorings there are few, if any, places to drop an anchor and have swinging room. Worse still they have left a lot of their old moorings and equipment all over the bottom of the harbour so for a visiting yacht the risk of getting ones anchor foul is very high. I certainly would be stuck if I fouled my anchor in a murky seventy feet of water; borrowing a mooring seemed the least risky option!
Whilst rigging the awning a young man came over in a dinghy to say hi and told us that if we wanted the security of ‘knowing’, that no one was going to suddenly show up with a boat wanting his mooring back, he had one available for rent at just $10/day. Hini was German, had cycled here from the U.S. and was on his way (cycling) to Argentina. He had stopped off only to make a little money and was using his talents as a technician to do this. Meanwhile he was sleeping on a friends boat out in the anchorage which was free lodging so long as he did a little maintenance every day……… A nice story that could read ‘ Hini was a bit of a bum and went to the U.S. where he didn’t make the grade so was ‘moved on’ (No, you are not getting a visa extension, sir!) and somehow got across into Mexico where the thought of living in the sun on very little money was quite appealing. Now he is stuck in Acapulco as a boat bum trying to make a buck or two by handing out leaflets and offering dubious services to rich, gullible, mostly American yachties, who happen into this particular fly trap. We declined the mooring saying that we were only stopping for fuel and would be away directly. Hini went away satisfied that he’d at least made a good pitch; a nice chap, I hope he gets to cycle to Argentina one day. Having launched the dinghy I took the fuel containers over to the Pemex Dock at the Club de Yates. My book said that you had to arrange fuel a day in advance but there was no difficulty getting my containers filled and the price is the same no matter where you go in Mexico as there is only Pemex and this is Government Controlled. I noted whilst at the club that the yachts in their berths were well affected by surge, some of them were bouncing around quite heavily with much straining of their mooring lines. As this was the most protected of the Marinas in the bay, it crossed my mind that whoever said this was one of ‘the world’s finest Natural Harbours’ either worked for the Acapulco Tourist Board or didn’t know squat! I seem to remember being once (in a former life) on the Cruise Ship Dock with a larger vessel where we also encountered a lot of surge. With the fuel in the tank we decided to have a look ashore, I put all our fenders over so that should anyone show up to move the boat, we at least had a bit of protection. I rowed us in to La Marina, the number two Marina in the bay according to my book (I’m beginning to loose faith in this book!). We found a likely spot to leave the dinghy and then checked with the Marina Office and Security, it was $5/day and no, they wouldn’t like to give us a special rate for just a couple of hours…….However it was better than the Club de Yachts which charges $35 a day just to leave your dinghy! Looking around I have to say that this is a Marina in name only, in front, where once were the docks, there is now only some floating debris that makes a rough pontoon to which you could tie a dinghy. There is no way any cruising yacht is going to secure to any of this facility! To make matters worse some of the pontoons and maybe a couple of boats have sunk and now pose a threat to anyone moving in the vicinity. The way it looks there may not even be a dinghy dock in a few years time…… |
 |
 |
| Out on the main road we caught a bus headed for town, it seemed reasonably cheap. The bus driver went roaring along and clearly put a lot of effort into his work. The way he struggled with the steering you could see that ‘Power Assistance’ was not one of the vehicles features; instead he had a small towel spread over his knees which at moments of relative inactivity he would use to wipe his perspiring brow. I guess air-conditioning would have been another nice feature to have……..
We jumped off at some point down town when the bus turned off in some direction we didn’t really want to go. From here we explored what we could of the city, which I guess wasn’t very much; however we were in Acapulco and determined to see as much as we could. The Cruise ship dock and commercial wharf occupy much of the downtown waterfront, they have built one of these fancy multi-storey ‘go-downs’(Warehouse) with lots of ramps and this completely obscures the view across the bay that they no doubt once enjoyed from the old plaza of the original great city. I would guess that in no small way contributed to why the buildings in this area have not been modernized and have fallen from grace. It is however a bustling city with lots of activity everywhere. The main thrust here is towards tourism and most of those arrive aboard the large Cruise Ships that can bring four thousand passengers at a time, all looking for a good time and somewhere to spend their money. To this purpose there were some smart shops along the waterfront and a goodly amount of bars and restaurants; watching over this was an army of Police, at no point during our walk ashore could I not see at least one Policeman, I’m not to sure whether or not that gave me a feeling of security! There were a few beggars and people lying in the street for the unwary tourists to trip over, I rather thought that they would have tried to clean that image up as it’s one that the tourists take home to share with others. We managed to find an internet café but found the computer incredibly slow, probably due to being in on of those un-modernized buildings, using an old telephone line etc. etc. apart from which we found we could not save anything from the computer to any of our jump drives…… after twenty minutes we gave up. We returned to “Mr John” and had a quiet evening on board before turning in early in preparation for another offshore passage in the morning. It was certainly a good nights sleep and we had both been ready for it as coastal cruising is the most wearing of all sailing due to the added dangers of having land close at hand, coastal traffic, fishing boats, nets and pots; all of which to be avoided. Over breakfast we observed the shore through binoculars, I had been puzzled the previous night by the lack of lights in so many of the surrounding buildings; I couldn’t believe that so much of the property could be unoccupied. Inspection showed that not only were the properties unoccupied, they were also unfinished! There were literally hundreds of unfinished flats and villas, some of which had been that way so long they were becoming overgrown. The reason for this escaped me but it was obviously due to some speculation that didn’t go according to plan……. Or maybe it was planned this way, who knows, this is after all Mexico! We made our exit through the Boca Chica and noted some really up-market property, clearly there is a lot of money here in Acapulco, just a quick look at the Club de Yachts would indicate that. However we got the feeling that something wasn’t quite right, there was no balance; certainly the inequality between the ‘haves and have nots’ is glaringly obvious in Acapulco. The leg from Acapulco to Zihuatanejo turned out to be another long motoring job, I ran the motor for twenty-one hours strait; this motoring is killing me but the motor, I have to say, seems to thrive on it! John & Paula |
| Acapulco |
| 8th November 2007 |