Me gusta la playa

Our last day in Acapulco was overcast and slightly rainy. If you know Wade well, or if you’ve been to Del Rio or Possum Kingdom with him, you know this is the ideal beach day as far as he’s concerned. Thus, we lathered up, grabbed our snorkeling gear and hopped on a local bus for Playa Caleta, described in our guide book as the most “kid friendly” beach in Acapulco. The bus is great. It costs 4 pesos per person (less than a dollar as they don’t charge for Emma). A cab would be five bucks. Sure there’s no a/c and some of the passengers are less than savory, but overall it’s safe transportation. We arrived at Playa Caleta and spent just a few minutes there before catching a boat to Isla Roqueta, where our guide book said the best snorkeling can be found. Emma’s initial encounter with snorkeling didn’t go so well. She had all her gear on and was just about ready to put her head in the water when a giant wave overtook us. Spitting out salt water and running to the shore she announced, “This wasn’t such a good idea Mommy.” A couple of hours later though, she was ready to try again and really enjoyed herself. When she described the fish she’d seen, one of our shipmates told her they were Sergeant Majors. THIS NEXT SECTION IS NOT FOR THE WEAK-STOMACHED -- SCAN UNTIL YOU RETURN TO ALL CAPS. (Aunt Sharla, you’d better not still be reading this!!) We had lunch on the beach. First we had quesadillas from a vendor who was walking up and down the beach. Wade and I had fish y queso and Emma had solo queso. Yummy! Next, Wade and I ordered fish. We were all set to have shrimp because the fish was too expensive and then the waiter came down on his price considerably so we switched. Or, we thought we did. Instead, we ended up with both and got totally hosed in the price of our meal. Must learn to speak Spanish. The guy even admitted we were paying gringo prices! Looking my food in the eye isn’t one of my favorite moments, but I was hungry. I started with the shrimp and moved to the fish, telling Wade this was our best meal in Mexico even if we were paying too much for it. Thirty seconds later I was reaching for Emma’s sand bucket and throwing up all over her new collection of shells and coral. At this point Wade is trying to hold onto his own lunch while Emma’s crying “my treasures! Mom’s puking all over my treasures!” After what seemed to be the sixth or seventh round of this, I paused to drink some water and said to Wade “I’d like to resend my last remark concerning this meal.” Then, being the incredibly loving supermom that I am, I walked over to an area of the beach behind some rocks and began to dig through my vomit to find and wash Emma’s treasures. She was quite pleased when I returned with a clean bucket, treasures intact. WEAK STOMACHS RESUME HERE: We spent about another ½ hour on the beach before taking the boat back to Playa Caleta and the bus back to the marine terminal. To end the day on a bright note, the High School Musical Concert Series was in Mexcio this week and they were playing it on the television terminal so we ended our stay in Acapulco listening to “We’re All in This Together.”