Sunrise in Acapulco

Thursday morning Emma woke bright and early so we were all able to head up to the 7th deck and watch the ship come in to the port. The pilot boat came alongside at 7:30 and we were dockside about 8:00. I’ll try to post a picture of the sunrise coming up over the hills. Around 9:15 the U.S. Consular addressed the shipboard community and Emma graciously drew pictures and sat quietly for his entire talk. The ship was cleared for disembarkation around 9:45. Wade sent a few trips on their way and by 10:30 we were off the ship. The Watki being on land 45 minutes after the ship being cleared is an absolute record! We walked into Acapulco with Liz and Jeremy for a while and then we each went our own ways, agreeing to meet in “Purser’s Rhombus” at 5:00 to head out for dinner. Lunchtime found the Watki eating Italian food in Old Acapulco (yes, thank you, we’ve been chastised for the Italian food in Mexico bit plenty, especially since Max Brandt, professor of ethnomusicology and the Exec. Dean on our Spring ’04 voyage got wind of that). Then we walked with “super fast feet” back to the ship so Wade could send off some afternoon trips. Our trio joined a walking tour and spent the early afternoon at Feurte San Diego. This pentagonal maze of massive walls was built by engineer Miguel Costanzo in 1783. We were able to go inside and see original fort storerooms, barracks, the chapel, and the kitchen. The entire fort museum illustrates the local pre-Columbian, conquest, and colonial history. We learned much about pirates, including Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and John Hawkins. Exiting the Fuerte, we walked down a narrow lane and entered Casa de la Mascara. The house of masks contains six rooms with masks from floor to ceiling. These indigenous handcrafted pieces were a sight to behold. Some were beautiful, some scary, some downright hideous. While in most of Mexican society these masks now serve only theatrical and celebratory functions, there are still parts of rural Mexico where people believe donning a mask allows them to soak up the supernatural power of the god that the masks depict. One grouping of masks was dedicated to the Day of the Dead. Our guide explained that in Mexican tradition many families celebrate this day by cooking the favorite foods of loved ones who are no longer on earth and then taking this food to their graves. When the family members leave the cemeteries, the homeless communities move in and have quite a feast. Some family members return to pay their respects later in the day, quite pleased to have had their food consumed by their lost loved ones! The mask museum was the final stop for the Watki on this tour. After a couple of hours walking and three bottles of water, Emma requested a trip back to the ship, which we were happy to grant! We stopped only to buy a large container of water for our cabin and then returned for showers and a brief rest before joining Liz and Jeremy. The five of us had dinner at El Amigo Miguel, where Emma endured some cultural differences. First of all, when we ordered auga mineral, it came out fizzy. Oops. Wade then asked for auga natural and the waitress brought some still water for Emma and me. We didn’t want Emma to have the carbonation and even after squeezing in a couple of limes, I couldn’t take the fizzy stuff. The next snafu came when they didn’t tell us until they brought out all of our meals that they did not have the calamari Emma had ordered. We asked if they could just bring her some tortillas and rice and they said they could. The rice was fine, but the tortillas were tostadas and Emma was none too pleased with this. While visibly disappointed, she refrained from big complaints as Jeremy pointed out this was all part of the adventure of travel. Liz and I also received surprises as our shrimp tacos came in fried tortillas. Okay, so I didn’t really mind this too much but Liz and Jeremy are very health conscious so Liz just cut hers open and ate the insides. We’re hoping their personal choices rub off on us a bit! Long after our food was consumed, we sat at the table and visited, played several games of tic-tac-toe (knots and crosses for you Brits reading this!), and watched the U.S. vs. Canada football game on a TV at the restaurant across the street. Walking back to the ship we stopped on several occasions. Once, we bought some bread from a street vendor (YUMMY!); once, Wade and Emma watched a fisherman fillet a flounder – man was he fast!; and once, we sent a quick email home because the internet on the ship had been down for several days. During this stop, Emma spotted several tropical fish including “a puffer box fish, a black fish, a skinny butterfly fish, and a blue one with polka dots”. Very cool! She also saw some “really skinny cats, some of them babies” and exercised some serious restraint as she wanted to pet them badly. She didn’t though, because she’s learned that many animals we love back home carry diseases in other countries.