My 'Acapulco Experience' began yesterday, with the bus driver: only five of us got on the bus, two of us with items that needed to be put underneath. The guy in front of me waited by the bus door, the driver was sitting in the driver's seat; most of the time, there is someone there to load and unload. Not this time. And the driver didn't budge. So we both loaded our things ourselves (don't remember who closed the door; it wasn't us).  

Then the driver goes around town like he's a local bus, picking up and dropping off people. I thought this was a long haul bus! This went on for a little while. When we got on the highway (not a thru-way), there were a lot of stops at villages along the way (that's okay: I hadn't paid for direct - about twice as much), and the driver sometimes stopped just to take care of his own business (no idea what he was doing, but he was empty handed); no one got off or on. After one stop, he rolls over to the other corner where two women were, and he chats them up for about two minutes. Definitely, this guy's mind is not on his job! He seemed shady to me, and I guess to the military and police at a checkpoint: we got stopped, several guards got on one at a time, one with a dog, one looked in the baggage area, one checked under the bus; all the while they waved through five other buses! Nevertheless, he got us there in about 6 hours, which is the estimated time (he was flying along the stretches with no stops, no speed bumps (usually at villages), and no construction).  


Coming into Acapulco, I noticed all the hills: Acapulco is not just uphill like Puerto Vallarta, it's a series of ridges that run perpendicular to the sea, so that even when you're going from one end of town to the other, you go up then down then up again, etc. And these are long steep hills.  
 
 

So I get in just as the sun is setting. I grabbed a cab: the price he quoted me was a rip, but there weren't any others at the moment. I got to the hotel, paid, went to my room, tried the internet: the guy lied - the internet sucks. Okay I'll just move in the morning.  

Went walking around a little bit. I was right on the Marina: no big deal, not pretty or anything. There was a square half a dozen blocks down where people were hanging out, musicians playing, some restaurants, but it was too hot: no air movement. Walked a few blocks more, saw a Woolworth - didn't think there were anymore of those around. Came back toward my hotel, found a little open restaurant a few blocks away: there were four tables with diners; that can't be bad. So I sat down, received a menu right away, ordered a beer and received it shortly. This heavyset woman, taller than most Mexicans, was the only one waiting on tables. Three women arrived and sat next to me. Then a single guy came in and sat a couple tables away. This waitress was taking care of 7 tables and about 17 people, serving drinks, chips and salsa, entrees, and checks. She didn't miss a beat, and she paid attention (unlike most of the wait people in this country). I saw her observe me to see where I was with my beer, and when I was ready she was right there. Food doesn't come out all at the same time here: when the cook has an order ready, it's served. So the waitress is also bringing entrees to one table, then to another, then back to the first one. Like I said, this woman never missed a beat! Oh, and most people were ordering one of the specials, which came with a soup (that wasn't on the menu), so she really stayed busy. And there was just one cook. At one point, this old guy comes in with a large covered basket, and he grabs a tray of pastries and goes in the back; then he comes back and apparently took inventory of what had been sold, refreshed the pastries, and then collected from the waitress (maybe she owns the place). And she took care of him in between taking care of customers. No one was ever kept waiting.  

Anyway, the soup was just a tomato consommé with macaroni shells in it served with rice on the side. I put some of the rice in, but liked it better before the rice. I got two thin pieces of fish filet, with a little bit of lettuce, tomato and onion, and a little refried beans. Along with the rice I'd saved, it was a pretty good meal for under $3 (the beers were $1.25 ea). I strolled around some more, had an overpriced ice cream, then went back to my room.  

I had a/c, but it was either off or high: so you're either hot or cold. The bed wasn't very comfortable. And I think the electricity was messed up: my phone didn't charge right, and hasn't since: I think it's the charger (or it could have messed up the battery).  

I went walking around in the morning, checking on other accommodations: none looked good from the outside, so I decided to get out of the area. While walking around, I got slightly turned around and was going east when I wanted to go south; try going south or southwest from where I was: can't be done without going all the way back down to the main hwy. I even took stairs at a couple places: one of them just kept going up and up, zigzagging, changing directions, but always up, and then through some kind of multilevel park, and then down to another street. The other set of (narrow) stairs took me thru some kind of apartment area, and then down a four foot wide path in between 20 and 30 foot high buildings, with other cement paths leading off of it, all with multiple levels of housing. Ran across a couple of wandering vendors, making sales. These people are really jammed in.  

Made it back to my room. Got out. Grabbed a cab to another place (slight overcharge) that I had looked at on the net. No vacancy until tomorrow. So I got another cab (he charged the right price) to the last place I had checked out. They wanted to overcharge me, but I finally got them down to a fair price: $36 for a suite. Changed rooms twice trying to get decent internet. Still wasn't very good, but fair. I'm so tired and disgusted with Acapulco that I don't even want to go out or work on the blog. Everything here is 25 - 50% higher than in Puerto Vallarta, a much nicer and more elegant city. Remember me mentioning how drivers in Mexico rarely blow their horns? Plenty of impatient horn blowing drivers here, with absolutely no consideration for pedestrians.  

So I went to the local 'quick stop' and just grabbed some munchies. Then I just watched a couple movies and went to bed. AC was only in the bedroom, but I kept the door open and it helped keep the rest okay temperature wise.