Acapulco, Mexico - Segundo Poste

Here's the second post from Acapulco. Some new pictures and a few stories. First the photos. We've got some beauty of course, night sky, a few beach and city shots, and then the view from the terrace area where I've eaten dinner every night trying both some of the local Mexican food, their version of Italian food, and then some American food (a burger). I've had the same waiter every night, and he's been very patient with my attempts to speak entirely in Spanish with him, helping me along when I get stuck. I know about as much Spanish as he knows English so it works well.. most importantly, he knows the menu in English so he's able to correct a word if I mess up and verify what I'm trying to say.

So far I've managed to speak Spanish in all my conversations, only using English when people seem to prefer that or if it's something complicated and I don't know enough words. I just got back from the front desk trying to recover my laundry from a girl who spoke zero English and manged to get it all straightened out, in Spanish. Yay! :D

Some of the not so nice pics are taken off the main strip, which is the only sort of "nice" slice of town. An old water fountain is now a trash can. Even some of the beaches are nasty - with floating trash all along the shoreline and stinky trash all over the beach. Not to mention if you sit on the beach, every 3-4 minutes someone is in your face trying to sell you a hat, a water ski ride, a beer, a massage, a prostitute, or marijuana. You could probably even combine all of them and get a water ski ride wearing a hat, with a prostitute on the back while she massages you and you drink a beer and smoke a joint. I stopped sitting on the beach and instead sit by the pool because the hotel here has security guards.

Anyway, the other crazy thing I've actually enjoyed in Mexico is the bus system. You can go anywhere for 6 pesos, or about 40 cents. The bus never has shocks, there's loud Spanish rap or techno blaring, and the windows are down because there's no air conditioning. I will try to get a little video I made posted here too. Even crazier than that is the fact that the system has been privatized, that is, each bus is independently owned by one dude. There's 70-80 buses driving around at any given time on either side of the street and they're all competing for the same passengers at the same bus stop, so it's a constant drag race between two buses to the next stop followed by loud honking, cutting off, and screeching brakes. I'm surprised I haven't seen any pedestrians killed yet but I have seen 2 or 3 fender benders with buses involved.

There's also a couple pictures of rediculous american imperialism thrown in for good measure. It's one thing to destroy a culture and local merchants by bringing all our tourista baggage, but now Wal-Mart, Hooters, KFC, Subway, Bennigans, Baskin Robins, McDonalds, Old Navy, Tommy Hillfigger, etc etc are all on the main strip here. Worst, it seems mostly Americans shop at the American clothes stores. Why go shopping at a place like that when you could do it at home? On to the pictures...