From Cliff Divers to a Nudist Beach
Photo by José Jiménez
“Fun in Acapulco!” Our newest catch-phrase.
During one of our Mexican treks, heading for the southern coastline, our daughter Isabelle, wanting to see for herself what that coast was like, booked an open-jaw flight from Colorado into Acapulco to then fly back home from Cancun. We had been able to time our travels from the West Coast to arrive at an RV Park west of Acapulco for a few nights, pick Isabelle up from the airport and have time to relax and see the sights before we got back on the road. We had two weeks to get her to Cancun to fly home.
Acapulco, although beautiful in its location and history, was a bitch to drive around. It was very difficult to figure out the right road that went anywhere we wanted to see with its glorieta system being very much like an octopus’ tentacles without road signs indicating what road went where. We often found the right road by trial and error and backtracking, but not without a lot of stress and cursing from the driver. We’d often have to go back around the glorieta circle several times to find the right road, or, with luck on our side, we’d find it accidentally. That experience was frustrating, stressful, and a big pain-in-the-butt, but worth the hassle when we finally found our destinations.
El Centro was colorful, musical and active with sight-seers, lovers, and workers in downtown Acapulco, where we would dine afuera, outdoors amongst the hustle and bustle of the zocalo. There were many vendors selling a multitude of things from balloons to dolls, and creative animated wooden toys and handcrafted flowers that we would succumb to buy.
After dinner, and after drinking a few bottles of the craft beer available, we didn’t feel as frustrated when trying to find our way back to the RV Park. In fact, our pickled minds made it seem a lot easier than when totally sober. Or maybe we just remembered better, because we weren’t as stressed out.
We did the tourist routine locating and touring the old fort on the coastline at the edge of the city, as well as making a point to dine at the well-known La Perla Restaurant to watch the famed cliff-divers.
Album cover from Elvis’ soundtrack to the movie “Fun In Acapulco”, which he also starred in
When we arrived at the restaurant, I felt like we had stepped back in time to the ’50s. It was very kitschy, keeping up the pretense of the past in the ever-changing present with too much new yet old-appearing stuff, but it was fun being there. We were reminded of the movie Fun in Acapulco and half expected Elvis Presley to show up at any moment. We even imagined ourselves seeing him dive off the cliffs as we sat amongst the movie stars also watching him. In reality, there were only tourists on this occasion, but watching the unknown divers was thrilling as they made their swan dives headfirst into the water from that great height.
Were they exceptionally brave, stupid, or did they just want to stay with tradition while making money from such a stunt? I couldn’t decide. But the whole evening was memorable, sitting in a booth where some famous person once sat, I was certain, and being able to look out onto the spot-lighted cliffs.
In the mornings, Isabelle and I wandered the beach near our RV Park, and I realized how much that experience was like being on a treasure hunt. The beaches were littered with sea-glass of every color imaginable and produced other kinds of small ocean-washed ‘treasures’. And I was able to gather a bucket full of prizes for jewelry or other memorabilia. Acapulco was an interesting place. It would be worth another visit if the road system was not so ridiculous.
That whole Southern trip was breathtakingly beautiful as we traveled along the winding roads on top of cliff edges with scary and awe-inspiring overlooks of the sea far below. We drove from mountain ledges to valleys and back up to more cliff views; it was a photographer’s dream-come-true.
En route, another place we stopped to visit was Puerto Angel. It was known for its tortugas, their egg-laying, and the hatching holes they’d dug. The museum there showed the variety of sea turtles that could be seen nearby in the sea. There was also a quaint but lively hub for dining and drinking on the beach, which had pink Adirondack chairs scattered around the sand under umbrellas from which to lounge. This was only a short trek to some gigantic house-sized rocks at the beach’s edge with a path that led around the huge rounded walls to yet another beach. We were told that this beach was ‘clothing optional’ on that far side of the mountainous boulders.
“Let’s go look!” Isabelle exclaimed while we waited for my husband to return from putting our dog in the trailer at the RV Park across the road from the beach.
“But how will your dad find us?” I queried.
“No worries, Mom, he’ll know where to find us,” Isabelle reassured me. So off we went, following the path to nudists.
When my daring daughter started to strip off her clothes to be one with the crowd of naked people, I put my foot down. “You are not going to sit here without any clothes on!” I commanded.
“Why not? Everyone else is nude; we’d just stand out if we sat here with clothes on. Don’t be such a prude, Mom!” she chided. “Come on and join in!”
“What the hell!” So I did, at least topless. I couldn’t bring myself to go the ‘Full Monty’ as Isabelle was doing.
What an interesting experience, I thought, as I sat in the sun with hardly anything on. It was rather ‘freeing’ I had to admit. And as I looked around at the two dozen other people who were completely nude, watching them dance or just stand and talk to each other, they, too seemed to feel that being one with nature was, indeed liberating.
My husband never did show up. Wondering where he was and why he hadn’t found us, we decided to dress and go look for him.
“Where have you been?” he asked us when we found him at the bar, imbibing without us.
“We were behind those giant boulders at the nude beach,” I told him. “Why didn’t you come and join us?“
“I didn’t know where you were, and couldn’t imagine that either of you would dream of going to that nude side! So I just waited here until you came and found me. What were you doing over there?”
I gave Isabelle a look with raised eyebrows and we both laughed. “What do you think?” I said with a wink. How little he knew us, especially a fearless daughter that seemed to be willing to do anything!
We only stayed a couple of days in Puerto Angel, since we had a schedule to stick with. On this trip, we were on a time restriction, so we couldn’t dally too long anywhere, or divert from our schedule to see new interests. But this stop would definitely stick in our minds as one of the boldest, at least on my part.
Photo by Daria Gordova