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Mexico Travel Diaries - Leg 7
Acapulco, Taxco, Cuernavaca, (Toll Roads Info) and Mexico City
Acapulco
I had originally planned to board a bus from Mexico City to Acapulco, a ride that takes around four hours. It’s almost as quick to take the bus as it is to fly, once you have arrived at the airport, checked-in, waited around, taken off, landed, reclaimed your bags and taken a taxi into Acapulco from the airport there.
Juan, a friend who lives in Mexico City. He knows Acapulco well so when he asks if he can accompany me on this leg of the journey, I agree and we decide to drive to Acapulco in his car. Late Sunday night, we leave Mexico City and take the toll road south towards Cuernavaca. As the car speeds by the colonial city which we’ll return to on our way back, I look out of the window to catch glimpses of the surrounding mountainous countryside that glows silver under the light of a nearly-full moon.
It’s 2am on Monday morning when we arrive in Acapulco. I’ve watched the car’s outer air thermometer rise to 27 degrees centigrade as we travelled southwest across the mountains. As we pass through the final toll booth at the entrance to Acapulco, ahead I see a huge mountain; lit by lights of the houses and streets on its surface; at its summit, the red lights of two towers flash in a constant rhythm. Our hotel is on the other side of that mountain. “We’re going under it” says Juan, “It’s called the Maxi Tunel”. It costs $60 pesos (currency converter) one way, but saves having to go over the mountain (free) and besides, at 2am there won’t be much of a view up there. It’s quite eerie driving through the tunnel, knowing that there is a whole mountain, several neighbourhoods, roads and two communication towers above you, but it’s certainly efficient.
Acapulco is a coastal town of two halves. The old part, where in the 60’s and 70’s the movie stars and millionaires hung out is showing its age; the houses look rustic and need remodelling; the feeling is of days gone by. The other half, further north and around the corner from the main bay, is where today’s celebrities hang and buy property. It’s also home to comfortable resort hotels offering all the creature comforts that people expect from them.
The Camino Real Hotel in the area known as Acapulco Diamante where we’re staying is situated at the foot of a private road; as we drive down the hill, we see ocean-front houses and apartments on either side; they look like home rental properties for part-time visitors and holiday makers that come here to get away from things.
The heat wraps itself around me like a warm blanket as I step out of the air-conditioned car; it’s hot, humid and the sun isn’t even shining; most excellent. The lobby opens out into a bar-terrace with a white-coloured grand piano at its centre: The next morning, I can see that the whole scene is open-air and flanked by the Pacific Ocean in the background. The room at the hotel is very spacious; has every creature comfort you could hope for and a stunning view across the tops of palm trees to the ocean bay ahead.
Most hotels in Mexico offer excellent buffet breakfasts, except when they are very quiet and don’t have enough people resident to make it viable; then you choose from the menu. Whatever you like to eat for breakfast, you’ll find it. The buffet at the Camino Real hotel offers locally sourced fresh fruit sliced and ready to eat; cereals and bread, omelettes made to order as you wait with a choice of different meats and vegetables to accompany it, a row of hot plates with every Mexican breakfast favourite; a selection of fresh fruit juices, cold meats and cheeses, tea, coffee… All served at the terrace restaurant; the outside tables overlook the Pacific Ocean as we sit in the warm morning sun and enjoy the light sea breeze.
We get to La Quebrada, (The Break) by 1pm in time for the divers' display. Probably Acapulco’s most famous attraction, a small team of men dive from the rocks at La Quebrada into a pool of sea water below; the area is located just around the corner from Playa Angosta, on Acapulco’s south side. They work with the tides and always start on time (unlike many other things in Mexico!) 1pm, 730pm, 830pm and 930pm – at night the divers hold two flaming torches as they dive from the rugged stone cliff into the narrow pool of water below. They must get their timing absolutely right: if they jump out of synch with the incoming wave, they will kill themselves on the rocks below.
Five divers psyche themselves up for the event, as two – maybe – three hundred spectators watch from the viewing platform which has an access fee of $25 pesos (currency converter). Some people arrive in boats, without doubt the best view, which anchor a perhaps 20 metres away from the cliffs. As the spectacle begins, the divers raise their arms to draw support and applause from the crowds. They scale the edge of the cliff to a flat pinnacle they use as a makeshift diving board. There is a tense wait; the silence is awkward. Suddenly the diver jumps, and the sound of hundreds of camera apertures, like night crickets, fills the air for a split instant. There is the sound of a splash as the diver's body catches the cusp of the wave below; the crowds cheer and clap; the next of the five divers is waiting for his jump, as the one in the water below swims furiously away from the tide that would otherwise throw him against the cliff wall.
After the event, the crowds disperse, and three of the divers are waiting at the top the hill ready to take cash tips from the entertained crowds of mainly foreign tourists. The divers will be back after dark to repeat the spectacle again. As I walk past and pay my tip, a series of thoughts flash through my mind about what it would be like to make a living every day by chancing death.
On the way back to town, the old town of Acapulco shows off its lack of upkeep and underdevelopment; everywhere hawkers are trying to get us to pull over and park near their cafe or market; the sun’s heat is intense as we crawl down the hill in a car that’s quickly becoming an oven along with the rest of the crowd that has just left the diving spectacle.
For all of its contrasts, it’s ups and downs, lovers and critics – Acapulco still has two things going for it: Like Heaven, everyone has heard of Acapulco (even if they don’t know where it is) and Acapulco still has, in my view, one of the most stunning bays of any coastal resort. There’s a perfect view of the bay at sea level and we park to look around and pick up some downtown Acapulco atmosphere and walk around tanning for a while.
Juan points to the right, to a unique looking property overlooking the bay. “That’s Sylvester Stallone’s house” he remarks as we drive back up the hill towards Acapulco Diamante. Up above the road is today’s exclusive neighbourhood of plush houses; on the road below are signs telling motorists not to sound their horn.
As we drive back past the ocean-front houses, we see a sign offering an apartment for sale, so we decide to stop and ask for information. The apartment is small, just 80 square metres total. The bathroom and kitchen are tiny and the hot water boiler protrudes from the corner in the kitchen. There are three small bedrooms, a small lounge and a view across the bay. There’s a communal plunge pool at the front that everyone at the apartment block can use. The asking price is US$270,000 (currency converter).
The hotel has three pools on multi-levels; the children’s pool, and an upper pool which spills over in three places to the lower one, which is an infinity effect pool which looks directly out onto the bay ahead. This isn’t Acapulco’s main bay; it’s the more secluded Playa Pilchingue around the corner. The pool isn’t heated; when I jumped in my whole body was engulfed by a refreshing tingle. It’s not chilly, it’s not warm – it’s perfect. Juan has wandered down to the beach which is small in comparison with the beach at the Camino Real's hotel in Puerto Vallarta, but great for swimming from and relaxing on – and very exclusive and secluded.
I spend a couple of hours sitting in the sun, watching the world go by. Two couples lounge in the sun as their children play in the pools; their ball keeps getting stuck in the cascade shelves between the upper and lower pools; there are several retired couples here, and I’ve seen one group which looks like a corporate team-building event. The atmosphere is relaxed and resort-like: everything you need is around you; waiters bring you cold drinks and snacks to the poolside; there is a perfect blue sky surrounding me as the sun swings slowly around to the west and begins to set behind the headland.
Acapulco’s main drag is called Costera Miguel Aleman and its host to the big (and smaller) hotels that front Acapulco’s famous main bay as well as a cornucopia of bars, cafes, restaurants and night clubs. Every flavour is catered for, and if it’s Acapulco’s night life you’ve come to taste, this is where most of it is dished up. It’s the place where open-air bars overlook the bay, restaurants serve every type of food going and night clubs, some with beaches for the dance-floor, attract people from late until the sun comes up again.
Most young people arrive in Acapulco to sleep in the day and live in the night, especially over weekends. Conversely, people arriving to enjoy Acapulco’s attractive climate, its great beaches, famed attractions and surrounds and who want a place to get away from the nightlife (either afterwards or permanently) are more likely to accommodate themselves in the newer, more cultured Acapulco Diamante area; if you’re looking for a wild week or weekend, then you’ll be closer to the night action further south closer to the old town, but if you're looking for more culture and style then head to Acapulco Diamante.
Taxco
11am Tuesday morning we pack up and head back out of Acapulco towards the colonial city of Taxco on the same road that brought us here. As the sun begins to rise to its highest point, the sky above is clear and fresh. The mountain landscape which the road has been built through is amazing; there are several bridges to cross but the most impressive and dramatic is the one crossing Rio Balsas. I pull off the main road to the viewing area so that we can stop, stretch our legs and see the view. The ravine is spectacular; four huge pillars support the bridge below; wire ropes climb up to the towers above the bridge to give it stability and strength. Some local children appear from a nearby settlement to ask for small change; they speak to each other in a local indigenous dialect we don’t understand.
There is a free road to Taxco leading off of the main Acapulco – Mexico City road, but to save time, we take another toll road onwards to Taxco; its single lane literary winds around the mountains we are climbing to get to Taxco. Like many of Mexico’s colonial cities, it was silver that attracted people to settle here; although nowhere near as much silver was mined in Taxco as in the “Silver Cities” to the north. Today, Taxco is still renowned for its silver: although, as before, most of Taxco’s silver is imported from other parts of the country to be crafted here by the artisans that have developed their craft through generations.
The climb up to Hotel Monte Taxco is a steep one off the main road leading in and out of Taxco. The initial incline is close to 60-degrees, with many others not much less than 45; the views as you climb are dazzling.
The hotel is, its name suggests, built on top of a mountain. There’s also a golf course up here and a couple of colonial-style residential developments where you can buy a house or parcelled land to build your own. The hotel has a Swiss-built cable-car that stretches from the hotel to the edge of town below: a five minute taxi ride or a fifteen minute walk from there will leave you in the centre of Taxco.
Most rooms have a view across the mountains and the city “below” – the city isn’t in the valley, it’s built into the edge of the adjacent mountain. The hotel’s pool area offers spectacular aerial views of the city; you can see the rooftops, the white walls and shapes of colonial streets, alleyways and courtyards: the Cathedral takes centre stage with its two spires climbing majestically into the skyline.
We head into town on the first evening and discover that Taxco is alive with activity. The streets are packed with people, the markets and shops are open, the bars are full and the restaurants are filled with the noise of lively conversation. Juan and I wander around as I look for opportunities to take a few night time pictures. Children play safely in the streets without their parents needing to worry; tourists bargain with local traders for silver crafts and jewellery; local teens walk past in groups, on their café or bar crawls; couples sit on benches under trees lit softly by colonial style lampposts on Taxco’s main plaza, whispering, hugging, kissing in the night’s warm air. There is a never-ending flow of white VW beetle taxis dropping off even more people who have come to join the great atmosphere.
It’s getting late and it’s time to eat, so we find a restaurant with a balcony overlooking the square, where we watch the world go by; put it to rights; talk about the day's events... “Do you feel that movement?” says Juan abruptly; “What movement?” I reply as I feel a very gentle sway, and look up inside the restaurant where a huge iron chandelier hangs from the rafters. It’s swaying like a pendulum; but in seconds everything is calm again. Mexico is an earthquake zone; its most memorable is the 1985 earthquake that claimed thousands of lives, most of them in Mexico City. We learned later that this latest one measured around 7.2 on the Richter scale; its epicentre was just off the coast of Manzanillo, where I was staying a couple of weeks ago. Across from the balcony we can see the Cathedral, which is normally lit up at night, but its famous façade is currently undergoing maintenance and a cleanup so as a result, it’s covered with scaffolding and the not lit.
The following day, we take the cable-car from the hotel down to the edge of town and walk into Taxco’s centre from there. The authorities in this city are so picky about their building regulations that even the PEMEX (service station) sign, forecourt and shop look genuinely colonial. The walk from the edge of town to the centre is well worth the effort; the roads and alleyways that lead us there are fun to explore, and we see some authentic and eye-catching colonial architecture with loads of opportunities to take some great pictures along the way.
All over Taxco, there is an opportunity to buy fine silver craftwork. Much of the silver artwork sold throughout Mexico is crafted here; it’s exported nation-wide and across the world. Prices are more expensive the closer you are to the centre of town; the bargains, like everywhere else, are off the beaten track; down an alleyway; beside a little known courtyard. Taxco is fun to explore so looking for the little shop that has just what you like is all part of the entertainment here.
Taxco is packed full with good restaurants and eateries serving traditional Mexican dishes and international cuisine. Many places have courtyards and gardens to sit in; some have terraces and balconies with splendid views and which offer a great atmosphere to enjoy with your meal. We could have taken a recommendation from someone to eat somewhere, but in doing so, we’d have missed out on something else equally as good. Taxco is a place to walk, sight-see and explore and this is also true when you’re looking for a place to feed in this city.
Monte Taxco’s rooms are bright, clean and very functional. They’re equipped with the usual creature comforts, have telephones and TVs, and most offer a great view from the balcony or terrace, which can also be used as a sun lounge. Breakfast is served at the restaurant which also has a terrace overlooking Taxco; it’s usually a buffet offering a handsome selection of breakfast foods and, according to someone I know who has stayed here and lived in Mexico a long time, Monte Taxco serves up the best Quesadillas in Mexico (cheese melted into a folded corn tortilla with a choice of fresh ingredients added). There’s also a discothèque and a terrace bar that offers some night life for residents who don’t want to go into town, although these really only get going at weekends when the visitors from Mexico City and surrounds get away for the weekend.
Taxco is one of Mexico’s friendly and vibrant colonial cities. It’s a great place to spend time relaxing and enjoying a genuine colonial atmosphere with your friends, with your partner or with your family. The people are friendly, and it’s a lot of fun to explore and experience. It’s worth staying for a couple of nights at least; the atmosphere of the town – especially at weekends when the day-trippers come to town – changes dramatically at night; walking though the streets and alleyways when they are lit up is a completely different experience to seeing the city during the day.
Cuernavaca
We take the same mountainous road that brought us to Taxco back to the main Mexico City – Acapulco highway, at which point we turn northwards towards Cuernavaca. We’re going there for an afternoon; to look around, take some pictures and eat lunch before returning to Mexico City tonight.
Cuernavaca has grown enormously in recent years. It has been a get-away for Mexico-City folk since Cortez arrived; its most famous feature is its climate; spring-like all year-round, although over lunch, Juan argues that the title is ill-deserved as he said it got hot here in the summers! “Come back in a month, see how spring-like you feel then!” he snaps jokingly. Every time I’ve been here the weather has been temperate, perhaps we needed to argue over the definition of “hot”!
We find a good place to park in an attended car park, just a couple of hundred metres from the centre. Walking up the hill and past the Palacio de Cortez, we head west toward the Cathedral. The Cathedral grounds are surrounded by a high wall; on the outside are market stalls and on the inside a well kept garden separates the Cathedral from a couple of other churches in the grounds. The walls and colonial area around the Cathedral are sadly in disrepair; but the inside of the Cathedral has been refurbished; it’s very simple and minimalist now.
We dodge the relatively heavy traffic to cross the road from the Cathedral to the entrance of Jardin Borda; a large formal garden originally planned and designed by the silver magnate from Taxco, Jose de la Borda. Pathways open up into small courtyards with fountains; there is also a lake where you can rent a row-boat for a small hourly fee. Walking through the gardens is tranquil and you can almost imagine how Cuernavaca was in the days before it grew to its current size.
Back near the Zocalo (main plaza), we go inside the Palacio de Cortez. Shortly after the conquest, Cortez settled in Cuernavaca and although the building has undergone modifications as it was passed from generation to generation, parts of the original structure remain. Now called the Museo Regional Cuauhnauhuac (Cuauhnahuac means “place of the trees” and was Cuernavaca’s original name before the Spanish corrupted it to Cuernavaca (horn of the cow), apparently because they had a spot of bother pronouncing the former). For me, the highlight of the museum was seeing Diego Rivera’s astonishingly brilliant murals which here depict images of the conquest, enslavement of the indigenous people by the Spanish, and the revolutionary period. You could sit for hours and admire the murals; benches are provided if you have the time.
We wandered into the main square, where market traders were busily earning their living selling everything from sweets and newspapers to arts and crafts. The Government Palace was obscured by some kind of tent erected for a local event.
We headed back to the car and drove into a colonial house which had a restaurant advertised; it’s also a hotel. We lunch at the Maria Christina restaurant/hotel and discover that the food is excellent; the prices are extremely good for the quality and ambience. The restaurant is set around the area of the house that looks out onto landscaped gardens and a fountain in front; it is an excellent setting and a popular accommodation option for people who want a tranquil place to stay while exploring Cuernavaca and the surrounding area.
Back on the road to Mexico City, some road works hold us up for about 15 minutes before the highway loosens again. Within 40 minutes we’re back in the Federal District of Mexico City. A car cuts us up and Juan has to break sharply. “We’re back” he says, with a grin.
On Toll Roads
The road we took from Mexico City to Cuernavaca is one of the most famous toll roads in the country. However, the tolls from the Capital to Acapulco also make the route one of the most expensive: it costs around $600 Pesos each way (currency converter) to drive a car the whole distance. As a result, many people, especially locals, choose to take the free road and this has upset the spreadsheet calculations of the people who created the financial mathematics for the road project. It’s therefore a very quiet road, except weekends from Mexico City to Cuernavaca and Public Holidays when it’s one of the most congested. Drive on this road from Acapulco back to Mexico City on a Sunday night, and you’ll be in for a long wait at the end. If it’s a public holiday, a very long wait.
In Mexico, toll roads are fast, well maintained and the fee includes insurance in case you have an accident. At night, you really notice the difference between free roads and toll roads: the lines are clear and well painted; nasty bends are well signposted and there are plenty of reflectors to guide your way ahead.
This is not to say that free roads (known as Caminos Federales) are bad: When I drove Highway 200 from Puerto Vallarta to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo I found it was an excellent road, although I did notice that road markings were scarce in places, which would have made it tricky to drive on at night.
Ultimately, the gain of using toll roads is one of time. Many toll roads are two-lane affairs, so you can overtake slow vehicles easily, and because they are tolled, the traffic levels on “Caminos de Cuota” (Tolled Roads) are more limited than those of the free “Caminos Federales” (Federal Routes). If you want efficiency and safety, stick to the toll roads where possible, although sometimes there is no choice. There is one other consideration: scenery. Like freeways in the US or motorways in Europe, toll roads can be a bit soulless; the free alternatives often offer better scenery and pass through settlements and hamlets that you may find interesting.
A final note about night driving: Tourists are often warned-off driving at night in Mexico. Taken literally, I think that this is an exaggeration; Juan and I drove from Mexico City to Acapulco in the wee hours with no trouble at all – albeit on a well-established toll road. I would certainly follow the advice and keep off fringe roads and free roads at night in sparsely populated and rural areas. Driving in Mexico can be safe and rewarding way of exploring this interesting country and extensive advice is available on Mexperience to help you get the most out of a rewarding fly-drive experience in Mexico by clicking the link in green (above).