October 23-24, 1976: A Weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah
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Steve Goldberg, my travel agent from the building, was planning on doing one of his "familiarization trips" this month to Acapulco, Mexico, to see what one of the hotels was like, so he would know whether to recommend it to his clients. He asked me if I would like to go with him, and since I had some free time I decided to go along.

We flew down on Sunday afternoon on Mexicana Airlines, the first time I'd flown that carrier before. I thought the flight was pretty cheap for the distance flown, and I also thought the service was quite good. Traveling with Steve is better than traveling on my own, for he has contacts everywhere and got us upgraded to first class, which made everything even nicer.

We landed at Acapulco International Airport, which is a ways south of Acapulco Harbor on a strip of land that separates a large coastal lake from the Pacific Ocean, and took a taxi into town and the hotel.

Arriving in Acapulco: Laguna de Tres Palos

Tres Palos is a Mexican locality located in the State of Guerrero and part of the Municipality of Acapulco; it is about ten miles south of the city of Acapulco, and it is where the international airport is located. You can see the international airport in this picture I took as the plane was turning out over the ocean for our approach and landing.

The lagoon is located a bit further south than the town, between Puerto Marqués and the International Airport. It is a popular spot for boating and water activities not suitable in the ocean itself, and there are buses than run nearby from downtown Acapulco.

This huge lagoon is famous locally because it was used as a stage to film the first Tarzan films in the 1910s, due to the fact that when those films were made, the area was essentially undeveloped and gave the appearance of a totally wild jungle. The lake has numerous species of herons and waterfowl that use the mangrove to nest, and for birders, this is the best place to go near Acapulco. The Lake is over ten miles long, and is home to a large number of fish species. Nearby is Barra Vieja beach, and here there are many restaurants that use those fish to prepare fresh local dishes.

At the airport, we got a taxi (also very reasonable) for the 9-mile drive to the Hyatt Regency Acapulco (now, 40 years later, no longer part of the Hyatt chain).

The aerial view at right is from 2017, and I want you to contrast it with this view of that same stretch of beach that I took from the hills at the south end of the harbor:

That's our hotel, just right of center, and it should be pretty apparent that there's been an awful lot of development here in Acapulco over the years. It has, for a long time, had the reputation of being a playground for the rich and famous, but in recent years, has become more of a tourist mecca for average travelers. There are new hotels planned, and we saw signs for some of them during our stay. Already, some of those "rich and famous" are moving northward to Cabo San Lucas.

The View North from the Hotel

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Acapulco, because Steve got us a special deal- only $15 a night. When he is on these familiarization trips, the places he is staying know he's a travel agent, and they try their best to make him happy in the hopes that he will send business their way, and this hotel was no exception. The accommodations on the fifth floor, oceanside, were nice, and the only thing I didn't like was that the hotel did not have any drink machines, and I had to buy my Diet Pepsi at a small corner grocery across the street.

Sunset from the Hotel

Acapulco reminded me very much of Hawaii, but I think the weather is hotter and more humid here. Hawaii almost always has a breeze that keeps things relatively cool, and that seemed to be missing here. I also thought that the sun was more intense here, although I think that Honolulu and Acapulco are at pretty much the same latitude.

The first couple of days were marred for me as I had the beginnings of what I thought would be a normal seasonal sore throat and cold, but I was fortunate in that the symptoms abated quickly and by the third day I just had a case of the sniffles.

The views from our room were very nice, and we could see most all of the harbor save for the half mile or so just north of the Hyatt. I thought this picture of the sunset that I took on our second day here was particularly nice.

So what all did we do here? Well, in some respects this was a "working trip" for Steve, and he left the hotel occasionally to visit some other properties, but he usually wasn't gone either often or for long. For my part, I spent almost the entire time at the pool, soaking up sun (and sweating in the high humidity), and drinking orange juice all day long. I had taken my backgammon set, and found a few players, but mostly I read. In the evenings, when it was cooler, we went out to see some of Acapulco.

Acapulco

Acapulco de Juárez, commonly called Acapulco, is a major seaport about 250 miles south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico's history. It is a port of call for shipping and cruise lines running between Panama and San Francisco, the largest city in Guerrero State, and Mexico's largest beach and resort city. The name "Acapulco" comes from the Nahuatl language and means "where the reeds were destroyed or washed away".

The city is one of Mexico's oldest beach resorts, which came into prominence in the 1940s through to the 1960s as a getaway for Hollywood stars and millionaires. The resort area is divided into three parts. The north end of the bay and beyond is the "traditional" area, which encompasses the area from Parque Papagayo through the Zócalo and onto the beaches of Caleta and Caletilla. The main part of the bay is known as "the golden zone", where the famous in the mid-20th century vacationed. The south end, "diamond", where we stayed, is dominated by the newer hotels.

Another similarity that I found between Honolulu and Acapulco was that in both cities there is a well-defined tourist vacation area, an actual "downtown" where local, non-tourist business is conducted, and a large residential are where the locals live and work. As in Honolulu, a sizeable percentage of local employment is based on the tourist trade.

I did a fair amount of walking around the tourist area. I was a little apprehensive about wandering too far from this area, because I don't speak Spanish and there are always stories of tourists being accosted, or worse, in Mexico, and I just didn't want to put myself in that position. But I did walk up and down the beach and along Avenida Aleman, the main, semi-circular avenue that runs along the bay from the Hyatt all the way around to the North Bay.

One afternoon, I walked all the way to the north end of the bay, trying to find the place where the Acapulco cliff divers do their thing, but I could never get good directions. I did pass a marina and the long dock where cruise ships dock, and found a very pleasant Spanish-style plaza and market. To the north side of that plaza was Our Lady of Solitude Cathedral (a "cathedral" is a Catholic church that is also the seat of a bishopric, and a city or town will almost always have only one (if it is big enough to have one at all).

The Our Lady of Solitude Cathedral is the city's main church, located in what used to be the center of Acapulco, but which is now just the North Bay area. It is just north of Alvarez Square. The cathedral has been the seat of the Archdiocese of Acapulco since 1958. It combines architecturally styles that were amalgamated during and after the construction, since you can admire details of both the neocolonial architecture and the Moorish and Byzantine style, the latter in the dome and the towers. The interior of the church is decorated with gold tiles and mosaics. The space occupied by the building has been used for public worship since the creation of the Parish in 1555, although the current building only dates back some 150 years. The building we see today is the result of a reconstruction that was carried out between 1940 and the early part of the 1950s.

It was late in the day when I arrived here, so my pictures are a little dark, but the lateness meant that Alvarez Square was becoming very crowded with locals patronizing the sidewalk cafes and restaurants, feeding the birds, and generally congregating in the cooling night air.

Boats Tied Up in the North Bay

Alvarez Square and Our Lady of Solitude Cathedral

The square was really neat, and the food smelled delicious, but I have to admit that I was a wuss, thinking that if I ate something that wasn't washed well, or cooked well, that I might ruin my vacation with "Montezuma's revenge" or something similar. Looking back on it, I probably would have been quite safe with anything cooked, but, like I say, I was overly-cautious.

Acapulco Bay

When I started walking back to the Hyatt along the bayshore, I could see that the lights were coming on down the coast, and the scene presented a good photo opportunity. I'm not sure which of the highrises is the Hyatt, but in any event it's about three miles away across the water.

It was past 5PM this afternoon, so I thought I should head back to Steve didn't think I was going to leave him alone for dinner. It was very interesting, walking along the beach avenue as all the lights were coming on and the evening activity of Acapulco was getting started. I can only imagine that now, in 2019, there is a great deal more activity than before, as there has been so much development.

That said, I did some investigation just now about just how much Acapulco has grown since 1976, and while it has grown a great deal, what is disturbing is that the city is actually losing tourist business because of its reputation for violence, much of it connected to the drug trade that has ruined so much of Latin America. Sadly, here is what Wikipedia has to say in the article on the city of Acapulco:

"Acapulco was once a popular tourist resort, but due to a massive upsurge in gang violence and murder since 2014 it no longer attracts many foreign tourists, and most now only come from Mexico itself. It is the deadliest city in Mexico and the third-deadliest city in the world, and the US government has warned its citizens not to travel there. In 2016 there were 918 murders, and the homicide rate was one of the highest in the world: 103 in every 100,000."

One thing I did do was to try parasailing (where you are essentially hanging underneath a kite that is being flown by a boat zipping around the bay). It was a lot of fun, requiring that one take a running start from the beach as the boat pulls away. The ride lasts about five minutes, and the landing is surprisingly gentle. If the ride didn't cost $10 a shot, I would have gone over and over again.

Looking North at Dusk from Our Hotel

A Parasailer (not me, of course)

In the hills up above the Hyatt to the south is an area called Las Brisas, and it is one of the more exclusive areas of Acapulco, with lots of private homes owned by foreigners. I had seen it mentioned in magazines and in a novel or two, so I thought I would take a walk up there and just have a look around.

Acapulco Bay from Las Brisas

I found a place along one of the streets that offered good views of the bay, so I walked around trying to get the best view I could, looking down and northeast across the harbor to the row of hotels on the harbor's eastern shore. Apparently, there are some vessels that are either ours, on a visit to Acapulco or, more likely, part of the Mexican Navy, docked at the south end of the bay.

It was fun walking around up here today. I think some weather front must have come through, for the humidity is much less and the air seems much clearer. Another reason for walking up into Las Brisas is that when I get to the crest of the hills, I'll be able to look south at the bay of Puerto Marques. To get to a viewpoint is relatively easy, but to walk down to the water would be a bit further than I'd want to go. Indeed, when I got to the crest of the hill, a beautiful vista opened up. Puerto Marques is relatively undeveloped (although comparing the pictures I took to the aerial views available today indicates that there has, unsurprisingly, been a good deal more construction here in the years since my visit.

I also discovered that the area right around here is where the oldest known pottery found in Mesoamerica was uncovered. This “Pox” pottery has been dated back to as far as 2400 BC. At that time, sedentary lifestyles were yet to blossom so people mostly roamed the land as hunters and foragers, setting up camps and continuously migrating based on the seasons.

When I got to a good viewpoint, I had to take two pictures to get most of Puerto Marques into view. At the time, I had no way to take panoramic pictures, but at the time I am creating this page, I do have the ability to take the two pictures I took and merge them together into a single panoramic view of Puerto Marques:

Puerto Marques from Las Brisas

Steve and I were here for five days, and it was very enjoyable. It might be a place to return to.

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	October 23-24, 1976: A Weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah
	Return to Index for 1976