0
0
July 7. I walked down to the local OXXO (Stop n’ Go, Seven/Eleven type place) and grabbed 3 coffees for our exit from Patzcuaro. We decided to go back towards Quiroga and see if we could help with the protest. You know, use some of that supposed “White Power”. Ok, not really. But we did go that direction to Tzintzuntzan,(yeah, have fun with that one) one of the 3 principal ruins around Lake Patzcuaro. Very unique because of the the round edifices of the main structure.
We also walked around a bit in the village, introduced Shawn to some savory street tacos (literally) for breakfast, then off to Zihuatanejo.
The road to Zihuatanejo starts with a 6000 foot drop in altitude. An ear popin’, brake burnin’, emergency lane takin’ ride that was equally as exciting as it was terrifying. All went well except for one wrong turn. Yeah, I thought that we were to go into an itty bitty village to catch another highway. Turns out we should have never gotten off the highway we were on which resulted in a 45 minute detour through a number of rutted villages. C’Est la vie.
We entered Zihautinejo with ease, found a quick parking spot, then quickly realized the temperature change from 6000 feet above. But with the bad comes the good; a nice little bungalow on the bay. We took a quick dip, had seaside botanas then hunkered down in our room with a struggling AC unit.
July 8. On the surprisingly sleepy streets of Zihuatanejo, we found a great breakfast and quickly took off for Acapulco. This is a straight shot (sort of) down the coastline on Mexico highway 200. Seems simple enough and, besides the dozens of speed bumps, overloaded dump trucks and variety of “free range” livestock, the ride was still picturesque. Then we entered Acapulco…
***SPECIAL ACTIVITY SECTION***
For this special activity you’ll need:
- approximately 1 foot of twine
- 1 large paper grocery bag
- 2 pennies
- 1 brick
Lay the twine on the table in a slightly curved line, like a sad smile. We’ll call this “La Costera”. La Costera is an 8 lane boulevard along the curved bay coastline in Acapulco. Place one penny on the left-hand side of the twine, like about two inches from the end. That’s us. We want to be on La Costera. Now, about 4 inches to the right of that penny, place the other penny. That’s our condo for the next week or so, right there on La Costera. Now, crumple up that large paper bag and somewhat make it into the shape of a banana. Don’t squeeze it down too much. Make it a BIG, wrinkly banana and place it right above the twine and pennies following that sad curve. That is the rest of Acapulco; steep, wrinkly, confusing, congested mountains, each wrinkle a road to who knows where.
You’re probably wondering where this is going, right? Well, remember the protests in Quiroga? The train blockade in Patzcuaro? Take that brick and place it between the two pennies. This represents the two 18 wheelers the protesters used to block La Costera, sending 8 lanes of traffic into the paper bag, er, mountains.
We could see the condo. We could almost touch it. My “Apoyo la gente” line meant nothing to the protesters this time. 3 hours later we got to park after passing through the gauntlet of the traffic packed, every man for himself, Acapulco mountains.
