Richard's Travel Blog

From Palenque we went to over a little used river border crossing, Frontera Corozal, to Guatemala, with the intention of visiting the ruins of Yaxchilan. They’re described as charming, sweet and a hidden treasure, situated on a loop of the river. The pictures indicate they are nice, but when we got there it was quite hot, Myung was wilting and wanted to get out of there, and the boat ride upriver was a 30 USD rip-off, EACH! So we bagged it, took a few pictures of the river, spent the night, and went to Flores the next day. There’s nothing much at this border. There are so many boats to take people up to Yaxchilan and across to Guatemala, but I seriously doubt they ever use more than a few of them at a time. The Chol Mayan people of the area have big dollar signs in their eyes and it just isn’t really happening for them. It’s pretty nice around there, though, if you don’t mind the jungle heat. The trees are alive with howler monkeys, birds and cicadas at night.

Flores is nothing special itself, just an island tourist ghetto on Peten Lake across a causeway from Santa Elena. The ride through that part of northern Guatemala is lovely, with long stretches of pretty marsh. It’s serious mosquito country. No wonder they have malaria and dengue down here. I don’t have any pictures. We went straight to Flores on the public bus from the Guatemala side of the river, stopping only at the one-man immigration post in Bethel, an hour from the river. You might say the Mexico/Guatemala border is juuuuust a little porous.

Tikal is by far the most magnificent Mayan complex I’ve seen. It was one of the three most significant cities of it’s era. It’s heyday was 600-900 AD, after which it was quickly abandoned for reasons we don’t know. You can read about it if you want. I’ll just show you some pictures.

First off, you can see it’s in the middle of nowhere jungle about 60 km north of Flores.

But in the trees are 60 sq km of ruins. Many have been restored, many have not. You can enjoy it the way it has been for hundreds of years, or how it’s being restored and the restored places. The above picture is taken from the top of one of the temples which was the tallest structure in mesoamerica for over a thousand years. This temple is not only on high ground, but something like 68 meters high. There’s no good angle to take a good picture of it, but it looks like the temples you’ll see in a minute. Climbing up there isn’t like scaling the huge blocks of the pyramids of Giza. There’s an easy stairway. Then you just chill out at the top and take that overview photo. By the way, like many if not most Koreans, Myung wears a face mask to protect her skin from the sun.

So, map in hand, you walk through the trees and sometimes semi-suddenly come across ruins. That alone is worth the price of admission (which is 20 bucks, by the way).

This is a coati. They are very tame.

This is some kind of wild turkey.

Even the central group of structures kind of sneaks up on you after you’ve walked a half hour or so from somewhere.

I think that’s plenty of Mayan ruins pictures and all I have to say about Tikal.

From there, we spent 12 hours going all the way to Antigua. It is the original colonial capital founded in 1527. It is such an amazing place, with many restored, partially restored and unrestored buildings over many square kilometers. I am surprised how big the historical center is. It dwarfs the others I’ve been to so far. It’s the kind of place where there are many interesting routes to where you want to go, and has so many interesting things that you will almost certainly see something you didn’t notice, even if you’ve been that way several times before.

It’s the kind of place that can keep our interest for a while. So, we decided to plunk down here for at least a month and took a room in a long term hostel type place.  You’ll be hearing all about it soon. Meanwhile, you can Google “Antigua”. Likely, you will see why we think this is a good place to hang out for a while.

Be well, all of you.

Well, we didn’t waste a lot of time getting out of Mexico. We went to the Palenque ruins and checked out the falls and cascades of Misol-Ha and Agua Azul, then booked it to the border with Guatemala yesterday. Then we went to Flores, the gateway to Tikal. It’s looking like we might just find a place to rent for a month. Myung had one hot walk with her stuff in this hot, muggy area and has already had it with hot. We’ve been going pretty steady and we’re aren’t in that big a hurry, so I’m inclined to be alright with a break. After this, maybe we’ll go to Antigua. If we like it there, maybe we’ll rent a place for a while. There will surely be more on this subject in the next couple of posts.

A lot of the pictures of Palenque and the places around there are much like those in the previous posts, so I’m not going to put many here, just a few of the nice ones that are good as photography. You may remember the ruins.

I don’t remember if I posted one of this nice fall in the archaeological area.

Speaking of falls, you would hardly recognize Misol-Ha and Agua Azul from just before the rainy season and now, at the end of the rainy season. Here are some before and after pics. There was no walking behind Misol-Ha now unless you want to get drenched and maybe lose your footing.

There was definitely no swimming in about 90% of the areas you could swim before. There were some tranquil areas, though.

As I said, that was it for Mexico, at least for now. I did almost all of this post several days ago and forgot to  finish up and publish it. We’ve been to Tikal and are in Antigua now. I’m going to get the Tikal post up straight away, maybe even tonight.

Here we are with the family at that same Hostal Erni I stayed in before in San Cristobal de las Casas. Myung really likes the little girl, Wibke. I just like the place in general. Arturo and Erika are very nice.

A few days ago I blogged about Mexico City. Now I’ll get caught up far as Oaxaca City and San Cristobal.

Oaxaca was kind of blah for me, but fresh enough for Myung. She took lots of food photos. I hardly took any, as I’ve got most of the stuff worth photographing in my previous post and I just didn’t bother pulling out my camera any other times. We chilled out, not going on any of the excursions. If I had thought they were that great, we’d have gone. Myung is just going where I take her at this point, trusting that if it was worth seeing, I’d tell her. She isn’t up for seeing everything, so I’m culling the list pretty harshly. I did upload a few of the pictures she took. Here they are.

I like the random pattern the boys set up their chess pieces.

We didn’t go anywhere in Oaxaca except Oaxaca City. Myung isn’t into the beach scene and  has seen as much shoreline and surf as anybody. We went directly from Oaxaca City to San Cristobal, splitting up the long ride and sleeping in Juchitan. In San Cristobal, we saw to the usual places there. Again, you can type San Cristobal in the search box and see my photos from there. Here’s one like you may have looked at before.

One interesting different thing was going to Camula on Sunday, which is market day. I went there on a weekday before and it was dead as a doornail.

This time it was entirely different. There was even some kind of Tzotzil festival going on.

Other than that, we just hung out in relatively urbane San Cristobal. Myung was comfortable there, as was I. We could both hang out there if we had to, so it’s on out list of places we may crash at least for a while someday. I know what Myung liked. She liked that the Chedraui supermarket there has imported Korean ramen.

Right now, we are in Palenque. We went to Agua Azul and Misol Ha yesterday, and the ruins today. It’s hot again, so I haven’t minded hanging out in the air conditioned hotel room for the afternoon, getting this post up. Tomorrow, we will go to the Guatemala border town of Frontera Corozal and have a look at some ruins upriver from there, Yaxchilan. From there we will head into northern Guatemala and check out Tikal. Likely, I’ll blog about Palenque and Yaxchilan from there. Until then, be well, all of you.

I think this is going to be a short post. Myung took a bizillion photos in the Anthropology Museum, and most of the the other photos we have are near duplicates of ones I already posted in my previous Mexico City entry. You may remember Teotihuacan, above.

Besides the usual stuff, we have some photos of the skeletons in the museum store. They are kinda cute, and for sale to anyone who would like to look at this all the time. Day of the Dead is coming. They celebrate Day of the Dead in Guatemala, which is where I think we will be during the night of Nov. 1-2. It should be interesting. If we were in Mexico City, I saw where they will block off Paseo de la Reforma to auto traffic and let bicyclists have it. I assume people will be in costume, and maybe this item in the store will sell.

As long as I’m posting cute skeleton pics…

Enough of that! Still, that Anthropology Museum is loads of fun, as well as informative. It’s all about the connection between people, past and present, who make up the Mexican cultural kaleidoscope. For all the attitude non-indigenous people sometimes have toward indigenous campesinos, they are proud of them, too.

Speaking of kaleidoscope, there’s a Koreatown in Mexico City. Some of the stores sell homemade kimchi and kimbap, not to mention doenjang and sesame oil. We couldn’t wait to get home before digging into that on a bench.

Everywhere you go, Mexicans celebrate their heritage, past and present. You often see modern pseudo-Aztec (or whatever) stuff being performed, even if it’s the vendors using the schtick to sell stuff.

I think this dude was actually staring at the sun. Not good.

That’s going to be it for now. We’ve actually been to Oaxaca City and are now in San Cristobal de las Casas again. A post from there will come along shortly, maybe tomorrow. Until then….

I’m getting a little behind. Myung and I are in Oaxaca now, after spending 8 days in Mexico City and maybe 8 or 9 in Michoacan. This post is to catch up as far as Michoacan, and hopefully I’ll get a post up about Mexico City in the next couple of days. Time flies when you’re having fun. I used to have a lot of time on my hands. Now, when I have had my fill of sightseeing for the day or whatever, I can play with Myung.

Okay, so, Michoacan. As you know, I was here before, so many pictures of Morelia are on my blog already. Myung took many photos of basically the same stuff. We went to just about all the same places as before. It’s been fun to share what I consider highlights from a couple of months ago. I have nothing to add about Morelia. We stayed at the same place I stayed before and, for me, it was about enjoying her company again. For her, I’m thinking she is all about the food. I didn’t think she would like it so much, but she loves eating here and takes many, many pictures. I don’t know what people might like to look at on this blog. Maybe it’s the food? Well, here are some food pictures. they aren’t all taken in Morelia, but they were all taken in Morelia, Patzcuaro, or Quiroga.

You know tacos. Squash flowers and Oaxaca cheese works well.

… and menudo (tripe). Myung really loves this. It’s expensive in Korea, here about 2 dollars with all the tortillas you can eat.

Carnitas, braised, chopped pig parts, have always been a favorite of mine, though in the US you have to go to a pretty authentic place to get snout, ears, cheeks and such. Near Patzcuaro in Quiroga is a plaza famously known for it’s carnitas stands.

Oh, there are many food pictures. I think I’ll leave it there for now.
Like I said, I don’t have much to add about Morelia, so let’s move on to around Lake Patzcuaro. Here’s a photo of a map of Michoacan. You can see the Patzcuaro area and Uruapan are southeast of Morelia. The monarch butterfly area is there, though the butterflies don’t arrive till November when the place is thick with them like around Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz, California when they go there.

Patzcuaro town is another World Heritage site and a very popular tourist destination particularly for Mexicans, particularly for people from Morelia on weekends. It’s very mellow, pretty, historical, and all that. The most well known place is this 18th century church and former convent.

Patzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan and Quiroga are all around Patzcuaro Lake. it’s a lovely walk up to the viewpoint from Patzcuaro.

Quiroga is best known for it’s big market and those carnitas. Tzintzuntzan is most famous for being the capital of the Tarascans who were a regional power from about 1000 to 1400. There are ruins there we didn’t go in. We did go in a former convent established by the much venerated Father Vasco de Quiroga. He was sent by Spain as a replacement for his particularly heinous predecessor, and by all accounts was just the opposite. Here are nice photos from in there, including the olive trees he planted himself in the 16th century. They are the oldest olive trees in the Americas.




Farther down the road from Patzcuaro is Uruapan. The best and only thing there is a fantastic urban park, right in the middle of the city. I can’t remember a park like this in the middle of a city anywhere else. It’s really special. An underground river bursts out and runs through a big ravine and on out to sea. Most places would have paved this over.

So, that’s what we did up there in Michoacan. From there we went to Mexico City. I’ll post about that soon. Meanwhile, be well, all of you.

Check out the mosquito bites on my neck. I have always been a mosquito magnet. Those ones in Morelia are brutal.

Well, Myung finally got here. For a while it seemed the stars were lined up against us. It’s a long story which came down to the last day when she was at the Tokyo airport, connecting to her flight from Tokyo to Mexico City, when they told her she needed an onward ticket out of Mexico. WHAAAT! Nowhere did it say anything about that. I happened to wake up around 1 AM and checked to see if something else may have gone wrong (I told you, it’s a long story), and there was an email from her telling me about this. In short, I Skyped her and then bought a refundable ticket right then. She got on the plane, got here fine, and I got my refund.

Funny thing, it was cheaper to fly to Guanajuato than Mexico City. So, we met up in Guanajuato.
If you read my earlier post about the first time I was in Guanajuato, you know (or maybe you knew anyway) it’s a lovely, romantic city, a good place to meet up after a long dry spell and a good place to begin as a tourist in Mexico. The first day, we went to Callejon del Beso, the Walkway of the Kiss, that place (here, on the left) where two star-crossed overs could touch across a 68 cm distance between balconies. Every romantic couple in Guanajuato goes there to kiss on the steps under the balconies. It’s said that if you do that, you will have seven years of good luck. So we did that, then went up to the souvenir shop inside the left balcony where a woman took that picture at the top of this post. Here, below, is Myung reaching across to the other balcony.

You can look at what I had to say and my photos from the first time I was here by clicking on the June 2013 link or typing “Guanajuato” in the search box. This time, it was about doing all the cooklstuff with Myung. She likes to walk and Guanajuato is a great walking town, so up and down the callejons we walked. I got a kick out of taking Myung around on her first days in Mexico. We were very cute, I think, making memories. Ah, there’s nothing like a honeymoon.

As long as I’m putting photos on here, I might as well keep going. There are a few angles and viewpoints I didn’t post before, and of course Myung wasn’t in any of them.

We haven’t formulated a plan yet. It’s tentatively the same as it was, that is, to mosey around Mexico for a while, hitting the places I liked before and some new ones. Then we’ll go through Central America and on south. At some point we’ll stop. I don’t think I can afford to travel for more than a year without plunking down somewhere and lowering my travel and rent costs. Myung is the same way, so when it seems right we’ll stop at least for a while. She’d still like to make money somehow. Import/Export is what she does, so she’s already on the lookout for opportunities.

For now, we’re just beginning. We’ve been in Morelia a couple of days. Type Morelia into the search box to see last time I was here. Tomorrow, we’re going to Patzcuaro, about an hour from here. I haven’t been there before, but it’s supposed to be a nice lake area with lots of indigenous people. After that, we were thinking of Taxco, the famous old silver mining region. After that, maybe Mexico City.

I was looking though my pictures and ran across this one. I’ll caption it “Myung discovers tortilla chips and salsa”. She could become a westerner so easy!

That’s going to be it for now. Talk to you later. Be well, all of you.

Hi again. I’ve been hanging out in San Pedro since last writing, just living cheap and waiting for Myung. We’re meeting up next Thursday in Guadalajara. My flight from Tuxtla Gutierrez is on Tuesday, so I’ll leave here on Monday, as it will take a full day to get to there. I checked out taking regular buses, but it’s really better and nearly as cheap to take the tourist minivan shuttle to the southernmost major tourist destination in Mexico, San Cristobal, then take the 45 km regular bus from there to Tuxtla.

Here’s a nice view from the bus coming down toward Pana from Solala.

It’s lovely around here. Even Pana itself is not half bad except for the one main tourist street. You can eat or buy just about anything you need there. The restaurants are good. The lodging is cheap. Here’s the courtyard from my chair in front of my of my 8 dollar room in Pana.

One could hang out in Pana. I only did for three days, including the day I went to Chichi. Here are some scenes around town.

Pana sits on Lake Atitlan which, as I have said before, is lovely. There are three extinct volcanoes on the other side. It looks like two because there is another one behind the one on the left.

Along the lakefront is nice. One thing about this area, it clouds up and generally thunderstorms every evening around sundown. It gives photos character. Just stay dry, man.

Pana, though a major tourist destination by Guatemala standards, has little to offer the high-end traveler. I’m sure it’s fun for them to “slum it” along the waterfront where the cheap, good fish dinners with a view are served. Sorry about the dark pictures. It was getting dark quickly the evening I was walking along there with my camera.

At least as popular and more mellow is San Pedro, on the other side of the lake. With 14,000 people, it’s no village. The main part of town is regular Guatemala. Here’s the market street and an eatery I had lunch in several times. The proprietor here has rice, white or black beans, lake fish fillets, beef, chicken, veggies and spaghetti in those pots. The ladies behind make the tortillas. Lunch with 4 tortillas is 1-1.50 dollars, depending if you get one of the meat/fish things.

The tourist drag is along the water. Here’s looking up from the dock and down toward the dock. The main tourist street goes off mostly to the right and a little way to the left.

The place I’ve been staying for a couple of weeks is away from the water. It’s quiet up here and only 5 dollars a night. There’s even a view.

Also from my terrace, off to the left of that last one, is a popular place to climb called Indian Nose. You can see how it got that name. It looks like a profile.

And here are a few random photos.

I have a friend here, Sandra. She’s long-term resident, teaching English. Mostly, as is usually the case, I spend time alone. It’s been nice to hang out with her a few times.

One noteworthy thing occurred. One of her student’s mother was gravely ill. The family didn’t know what to expect or what to do. Sandra asked me if I would go look at her, which I did. There was nothing to be done at that stage but keep her comfortable and have friends and family come if they wanted to see her one last time. She passed away about four days later. Sandra told me the family felt like they benefited from my visit and would like it if I went to the funeral. We went. So, that all was a bit of cultural experience I got while I was here.

Traditionally in Guatemala, there is a procession to the church for the funeral, then a procession to the cemetery. I couldn’t bring myself to take but this one zoom picture of the procession as it started down the street. We joined and went the rest of the way with them to the church.

Here’s the Catholic church, by the way. The funeral was the day before yesterday, but I took this several days ago.

There are many activities for tourists here, hiking through the coffee plantations, up the peaks and volcanoes, horseback riding, kayaking and so on. I haven’t done any of it. I figure Myung and I can do that together if we want when we come here. I definitely want to show it to her. This has been a good place. There are many villages and towns around this lake. Besides the next village over, about a 15 minute walk, the only one I went to was another one popular with tourists, San Marcos. From there, you can look back toward the San Pedro side of the lake. San Pedro is down the right slope of the volcano on the right.

I thought about going to stay there or some other place, just to break it up while waiting, but decided to just bide my time here. I did, after all, travel fairly steadily for months before getting to Guatemala. Foreigners mostly go to San Marcos for self-improvement. There is a lot of meditation, yoga, massage and new age fluff. It’d be nice enough. I even checked out a couple places, but all in all, I’m fine here. San Marcos is cute, though, down in the tourist area near the water. Serene little lanes, plenty of shade, nice restaurants, massage etc, mellow people not into partying like in San Pedro

That’s about it for now. I seriously doubt anything will happen between now and when I head back to Mexico. Be well, all of you.

So far, Guatemala has a completely different feel than Mexico. After crossing over, the first place I went was Quetzaltenango. Everybody just calls it Xela. As slow as the pace is here, even they don’t have time for some of the tongue-twisting names of places. Xela is a perfectly nice place to get a taste of this country. I stayed in a really nice, friendly, family oriented hostel and had no trouble chilling out there. I figure to chill at least as much as usual, as I am basically waiting for Myung to get to Guadalajara Aug 29. Guatemala is only the size of Louisiana, so I could see most of what 95% of the tourists see in a month, but I think I’ll just save a lot of it for later.

Xela isn’t particularly interesting. The grand architecture of Mexican cities is not here. A block from my hostel is the main plaza. Here are the views from the northwest and the southeast. It’s nice enough.

Most of Xela is very plain. Here’s a wide boulevard near one of the so-called malls. Really, there isn’t much to take pictures of there.

With a population of about 250,000, it was small enough for me to walk around much of it. Just walking around in a normal place teaches you a lot when you first arrive. Besides observing the basics, like Guatemala’s level of development, the manners of the people, the general looks and vibe and, last but not least, the basics of how to function as a tourist, you get some surprises. I went to the most modern mall, which was actually at least half as nice as a Mexican mall, and felt like a bite to eat at the food court. Lo and behold, there was a Taco Bell. I said before that I never expected Latin Americans to go for a Taco Bell when even the street food is so much better and cheaper, but there it was. Before noon there was hardly anyone at the other establishments (which included Domino’s and Burger King), but Taco Bell had a big line. Who’da thunk it.

The Sunday I was there, An women’s organization set up some canopies in the central plaza and had local food. It was pretty good for a mass production. You could choose from about 20 things, all for less than 4 dollars. I had this. Those mild green peppers and broccoli were good, too.

It was also my first good opportunity to photograph some of the colorfully dressed women. Unlike Mexico, most of the people here are indigenous Mayans of various sorts.

Right now, I’m staying in Panajachel (Pana) on beautiful Lago Atitlan. Tomorrow, I’ll move to a village on the other side of the lake. I’ll post all about that in the next blog entry. Today, I went to the famous all over Guatemala Thursday market in Chichicastenango (Chichi). It’s billed as the biggest market in Central America. I don’t know if that’s true. It is big, especially if you measure big by crowded. I’ve posted so many market places before, but this warrants posting if only to look at the people. Lots of women in these pics, I know, but the guys just aren’t as interesting. I’m just going to put a bunch of the pics here and let them speak for themselves. As usual, I wish I was a good photographer. The first pics are of the flower sellers on the church steps. Then come some high angle shots from the steps. The rest are down in the market.

I came back from there by about 1 o’clock, bought some stuff to make in the kitchen here, and hung out with my computer. Tomorrow, as I said, I’m going to go check out a village on the other side of the lake, then the next day or so, go to another, then maybe another. Talk to you later.

Hi y’all. I continued down the coast and am in Guatemala. The only place I spent any time in while still in Mexico was Puerto Escondido, just 2-3 hours up the coast from Mazunte which I blogged about earlier when I came first to Oaxaca from Chiapas. It’s a fairly big city with several tens of thousands of people. The only thing going on there is a fairly mellow beach scene, as city beach scenes go.

A lot of people go there to surf. The surfers don’t get to ride long, but the breaks are lovely.

I mostly just walked around and chilled out in my hostel. Nothing much to say about that.

From there I took a couple of bus rides to the Guatemala border, spending the nights in a couple of forgettable cities,  Tehuantepec and Tapachula. Getting over the border was routine, and here I am. I’ll be writing soon about this current leg of my journey.

Here’s news! Myung is coming on August 29. She got someone to take over her lease and told me tonight that she sold the easy stuff to sell and sold the rest at cost to another cosmetics dealer. She’s going to Korea to visit friends and family August 11-28, and to gear up for life on the road again. Then she’s flying to Guadalajara. We’ll meet up there. I’ll likely stay here in Guatemala so I’m not far away and can get up there easily. I sprung for a plane from Tuxtla Gutierrez to Guadalajara. Turns out, like in America, it isn’t significantly cheaper to go long distances than to take the bus. Needless to say, it’l be nice to see her again.

That’s going to be it for now. Until later…

I’m basically heading toward Guatemala via the Pacific Coast road. From Guadalajara, first was Colima. Colima is the capital of the small state of the same name. LP calls it “charming”, and I must say I kind of agree. It has only about 130,000, just about right for me, at least at this time. People were nice to me all the time and I liked my hostel a lot. There isn’t much in particular to say about it. There isn’t so much to do. Here are some pictures. You will recognize the typical zocalo, cathedral and street scenes.

As in most cities, there is music and dancing in the evening. The band is in the gazebo. It does remind me of China, but the Mexicans do it with way more flair.

There’s a big park which is a real getaway. It’s about the size of Shapingba Park but not crowded, even though it’s wooded and shady, hence a good way to avoid the heat. There are even some bird and animal exhibits, including a couple of male lions. The lions were sleeping in their not photoworthy houses. I am happy to report they do have a fairly big outdoors area to walk around.

As I said, there isn’t much to say about Colima. I just liked it there and stayed several days.

Moving on, this place called Palma Sola on the coast toward Zihuatanejo was recommended to me by the hostel owner. He knows people there. I figured I’d do the deserted beach thing again, so I went. It was indeed a good choice. There are some towns and villages along the road, but this is only a hamlet. Down by the beach, there seems to be some activity during the tourist season, but it will not be tourist season for another couple of months at least. Now, there are a couple of families who live there. The people the hostel guy knows, Margarita and Adolfo, are the heads of one of the households. They were definitely not in tourist mode, but welcomed me and I felt right at home. I stayed in one of their two cabanas and basically walked the beaches around there and hung out. No internet this time, so I just read. Here are some pics.

During the tourist season, I suppose some number of folks kick back under these coverings.

No footprints in the sand except mine right now.

Chill out in the hammock or sit at your table for one and watch the sunset. That’s three liters of lemonade there. It sure goes down easy in the heat.

By the way, Margarita cooked up the best fish one night and octopus the next. Yum! She’s also a good brink maker. The family is upgrading there wood and palm frond buildings. Here she is stomping the mixture into the molds. Even the kids have jobs.

Three days was just about right there, so moved on.

I actually was in Zihuatenejo once. In 1984, I took a cruise ship down the Mexican coast, stopping at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatenejo and Acapulco. Many of us got off the cruise liner for day excursions. I can’t say I remember it much from then, but I do remember Zihua was not nearly as developed as it is now. Now, there is about a square kilometer of touristy area. All the sidewalks (which there were none of last time) are covered and it’s pretty nice to stroll around and look at the stuff or get a cappuccino. I wouldn’t say it’s photoworthy, but it was pleasant for the three days I was there. The beach and shoreline area is built up, but still nice enough. There’s a walkway part of the way around the bay. Young couples love this in he evening, I noticed.

Here’s a look at the boats.

The rest of town is unremarkable. It’s gotta be a hoot when a couple hundred people from a liner descend on the place. I should know. I was one of them that time. There’s a high end resort area a few kilometers away, Ixtapa. It had just started being developed in ’84, only to have been destroyed in an earthquake in ’84 just before we arrived at that time. I guess now it’s like a mini Cancun. I didn’t go over there this time.

So, today I came to Acapulco. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said it’s crime ridden dump. I was advised not to even leave the bus station, but hey, how bad can it be if you stay right along the tourist strand by the water. My next stop is Puerto Escondido which is 7-8 hours down the road. After four hours on the bus today, I was in no mood to spend 7-8 more just to avoid Acapulco. Taking the safe bet, I got a hotel room right on the strand and am luxuriating in a proper air conditioned room, writing this. Ahhhh, it’s nice to be out of the heat!

I walked along the strand for a couple of hours when I got here. IT’s as I remember it from ’84, busy and crowded.

For any of the nervous Nellies who think Acapulco is unsafe at any speed, for what it’s worth here’s my hotel, that seven story white building in the middle behind the white boat. I can go out on this street fine, under the watchful eyes of about ten thousand people.

My agenda for the evening is to Skype Myung in about an hour when she gets up (China is 13 hours ahead), get a bite to eat and watch the Giants game on the internet. Tomorrow at noon, I head for Puerto Escodido. (I have no idea why this is in italics. I’m not going back to change it. I have my principles. One take. The Reagan end-run and publish.)

So, that’s it for now. Talk to you later. Be well, all of you.