Drat, thought we only had to tender in Cabo San Lucas but it turned out the NCL ship the Pearl was docked in Acapulco for the morning so those of us with early morning tours had to tender in before the Infinity would dock later at noon. Beautiful weather starting out, thought we might get lucky and not swelter, but as the day went on it did get hot, though not as bad as Cabo.
Today we had a private tour that I had planned online with a group of 8 (Al, Marilyn, Linda, Tom, Peggy and Mike) from our roll call. Rosie(who always dresses in pink) was the guide and she came highly recommended from other cruise critic members who had previously used her services. We didn't have to wait long for a tender since all of us had VIP priority passes for that, though Randy's and mine came courtesy of the Penthouse Butler George who gave us a couple during last night's dinner there. We found Rosie quickly and had our own private air-conditioned van for the 8 of us. My original plans called for us to be completely on our own with Rosie, but for most of the day we ended up being with two other groups of 8 or 9 each in their own vans run by Rosie's husband Arturo and another guide. Since Rosie and I had exchanged a lot of emails about us not wanting to be with a larger group then our 8 in order to see and hear things better, this was annoying to me at first. We liked the people in the other two vans but it did mean we were crowded into a group of about 24 in our first stop at the Fort of San Diego while Arturo lectured and led us around the exhibits.
As we took in the view at the top of the Fort, I did something very stupid and put down my movie camera while taking a photo of some others in our group with their camera. After taking their photo I thought I saw Randy put the Sony in his bag not realizing it was not the movie but the digital photo camera he was putting away.
After leaving the Fort we had a brief walk to the Mask Museum that I had requested be included on our tour.
It was here that I discovered that I had left the movie camera behind at the Fort. Rosie had stayed behind with the Vans and a lady from one of the other groups who couldn't walk much, so Randy and I left the group and ran back and told Rosie about the problem. Rosie came through as a hero as she led us back to the Fort where about 300 local school children were taking the tour and almost all of them spoke up and pointed out one woman's family as the ones who had picked up my camera. The lady's husband had gone off to get food for them, taking my camera with him for some reason, but after a few cell phone calls from Rosie and about 20 minutes later he returned the camera without accepting the reward I offered. In the meantime everyone but our group went on to the next stop and I was feeling very bad that the others in my tour were delayed by my mistake. Then we learned that the other groups had gone shopping and Rosie had forgotten that I had told her that none of us wanted to shop, so we didn't actually miss seeing anything and instead went on to the Cathedral of El Zocalo stop that the other two groups missed seeing due to their shopping.
After that it was the Hotel Flamingo made famous because it was owned by a group of Hollywood movie stars let by John Wayne and Johnny Weissmuller (5 Olympic swimming gold medals and famous for being Tarzan). At this hotel you can rent the Tarzan round house, Johnny's old residence when he stayed there. The hotel has a lovely view, beautiful pool, and there are numerous photos of various movie stars scattered around. Here's a short clip of Rosie explaining the early days of the Hotel Flamingo
We then went to the House of Artist Diego Rivera to see his mural on the outside wall and to Mirador of Puerto Marques (look out point) before heading to see the famous Divers (Clavadistas) of Acapulco.
We entered a large air-conditioned shop after Randy bought a straw hat from a outside vendor, to wait while Rosie bought the three groups tickets to the divers.
During our wait for our tickets to the divers, Stephanie and Gary who were with one of the other Rosie tours had Arturo tell them they would have to join one of the other vans and guides because he had to clear up a problem with one of their guides. During the drive to the divers one van had gotten stopped by the local police and they had found a problem with his guide paperwork. While Stephanie and Gary were disappointed to lose Arturo who was a wonderful guide they had a great attitude and took the change in stride, much better then I would have if Rosie had been the one instead to decide to leave us to deal with the problem. Rosie came back then with the tickets which included your choice of beer or soft drink, so off we went to collect our drinks and take up our positions on the terraces of the small cliff across from La Quebrada where the Clavadistas dive 130 feet into the water below. The divers first scale the cliff face, then pray at a small shrine before leaping over the edge. We saw about 8 I think dive into the waters. The youngest start from halfway up the cliff, while their more experienced peers start from still higher. Finally, the last 3 divers leap together from the very highest edge of the cliff. It was very impressive and I'm glad we got to view it.
After that it was time for the long drive to Senor Frog's for lunch. The film clip above shows you what the restaurant is like. Senor Frog's is a small chain of fun restaurants that had been recommended to me. While the restaurant was not air-conditioned the bathrooms were, and no I didn't eat lunch in the bathroom, (grin). Fortunately the restaurant had a beautiful view of Acapulco bay and was open to the air so it was quite enjoyable for lunch. During our lunch of grilled shrimp and tacos, a man came around and took photos. We ended up buying ours which he then put on a bottle of Corona Beer!
It was during lunch we became glad that Rosie had the other group with us, one group had gone back to the ship for lunch. Four of my party wanted to return to the ship before the end of our tour and Rosie was able to bring 5 from the other group into our van while taking the 4 from ours and joining them with a couple others that also wanted to return to the ship. Stephanie and Gary were part of the group that joined us and it made them the only couple to have traveled in all 3 vans that day!
The final stop before the end of our tour was the Chapel of Las Brisas and the Cross of Peace. Las Brisas is not only the name of a famous pink hotel in Acapulco but a gated community of very expensive homes. Our van took us to the top of this community where the Chapel of Las Brisas and Cross of Peace is located. It was built by a wealthy family that had lost their 2 sons to a plane crash and the parents also died shortly after they started building this lovely Chapel in memory of their sons. The film clip below is us walking to the Chapel. In the background you will see a sculpture of two clasped hands, symbolizing the brothers.
We didn't have time as originally planned to finish our tour at Rosie's family home but we had a nice time in Acapulco and were able to see a lot more on our tour then if we had taken one of the ship's tours.
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