Christmas Cruise Part II-The day trips

We had three ports of call during the cruise, and we made a point of getting off the boat all three times. Our first stop was Acapulco. Armed with our guide book, we turned down the cruise set excursion for the cliff divers ( I had watched them on sunday sports channel as a young girl with my brother, and we had always been fascinated by the daring feat of the high dive). Our book information was incorrect, so set off to see part of the city. We started with the fort. Inside it is a museum that covered the early colonial period in Mexico. It was very busy; the workers were busily setting up the chairs, stage, tables and sound system for the Placido Domingo concert later that evening (oh what a missed opportunity- no matter the cost- the illuminated fort at night- we saw it from the ship- would have been magical.

We followed up the fort with a very small museum of masks, a stop at a coffee shop, and a wander through the traffic choked streets. We found a panaderia for the pastries I craved (not enough goodies on the ship apparently) a quaint church and walked the boardwalk near the beach. It was filled with people, but honestly, the water was so frightful I'm still not sure how people could bear to be in it. After a couple of hours of wandering around, we all went back to the ship. My brother and I then left them to their own devices at dinner, and wandered back to a taco place that was highly recommended ( and may have been the source of the reason why I did not gain any weight over the cruise!). The tacos and beer were delicious. Acapulco at night is enchanting. During the day, it is just one more trraffic clogged, noisy, super busy Mexican tourist destination. The day ended with a superb Mexican Folkloric performance back on board, and it was all good.

Our second stop was as Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo. From first view in the early morning as we anchored in the bay, this was more to my liking and expectations. The town of Zihuatenejo is small and compact. We took a small boat from the ship and landed in the middle of town where we quickly jumped in a taxi and headed out for the beach recommended by the tour book. Ten minutes later, we were settled in chaird under an umbrella and drinking coke out of a glass bottle and eyeing the waves. We spent the day body surfing with the boy- i forgot to reapply sunscreen and had a little sunbunr to prove it, but I caught some bitchin' waves, dude. Too soon, we headed back to the town, bought a few trinkets and boarded the ship again. This day trip was too short. Sadly, I have no photos of this day- I literally spent the entire time in the water

Our third and last trip was in Manzanillo. When I read about the ship docking here for the day, I was a bit puzzled. Corey and I had been there about 6 or 7 years back, and thought it to be a really large industrial port city with not much to recommend it. However, we were there and it seemed the thing to do. So we took a bus into town where we walked around for a bit. It is set on the hill, so we walked up as far as we thought we could without walking into people's personal spaces. I found a number of creches ( a small photo sample for you), and it reminded me of our previous trip. On that occasion, we had walked up the hill as far as we could (understand that this means stairs that bisect apartments or other dwellings), and we heard someone who was beckoning us up the hill futher. He invited us into his house, to the upper part of it, where he showed us a spectacular view of the city. And as nice as it was, it was his hospitality that I remembered. The rest of the day was really not that memorable; we loaded up into two taxis, drove 30 minutes to a beach that in no way compared with the last one, there was no food and no washrooms. I for one, was pleased to be back on the ship. The best part of that day was the taxi race back to the ship-I was able to convey to my driver that I was intent on being the first one back to the ship, and he obliged.