Welcome all, to my first adventure of 2011 being back in Mexico! Knowing that this is my last semester here in Mexico, I want to make sure that I get the most out of it and travel as much as my fund permit. In light of this fact, a friend and I decided to start to the fun early in the semester by taking the fullest advantage of our first academic holiday (Mexicans love celebrating holidays) which commemorated the signing of the Mexican constitution which meant that we had a Monday off, plus I don't have classes on Friday either, so BINGO, four-day weekend!!! My friend Lily and I decided to visit the beach resort city of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, which actually has a reallllyyyyy bad reputation when it comes to narcotics-related violence and decapitations. In fact, so tidbits of information that I pulled from the State Department (fortunately after I had already come back from Acapulco) state that in early January of this year 31 bodies (many decapitated) were found within a 48 hour period in the city and two police officers were shot to death in front of tourists on the main boulevard where all of the resorts are located (and where we stayed).
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| A little macabre fun on the beach... |
Yes, the city is dependent on tourism just like my town Las Vegas, but also like Vegas, there is a city there and cultural things to do. I didn't find this type of atmosphere in the surpassingly beautiful Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca. Cool fact: Acapulco was founded as a port city and was used to transfer the riches the Spanish found in China and the Philippines to Spain via Mexico during the Colonial era, and one of the cool things we got the chance to do was visit the San Diego fort that protected the bay from pirates during Colonial times. The government has converted the fort into a museum of the city and had lots of cool artifacts from the Chinese riches that passed through the city. I also found out that the ever-popular-in-Mexico mango is from the Philippines. It's cool how cultures fuse into one another. Here are a few pictures:
Oh look, there's Pascual popping up again! The museum was nice and I got to try the soda drink exclusive to the state of Guerrero known as Yoli; it's like Squirt but better, not as sweet and syrupy, its actually really refreshing and tried it a few more times during my stay there. So after the museum we headed up, WAY UP, to the ancient petroglyphic site of Palma Sola, named so after the neighborhood it borders. Another cool fact: The city of Acapulco is situated in the basin of a mountain range, thus, much of the city climbs up the side of the mountains. We wisely decided to take taxi up to the site because didn't know exactly where it was, and good thing we did, because to say that it was a climb is an understatement. Lily and I were half anxious half dumbfounded as the Taxi careened up the side of the mountain, blowing by neighborhood after neighborhood, and at times, I swear our vehicle was complete vertical. Let's just say that it would suck majorly to live on that side of town hike up / drive to your house everyday. We finally made it to the site and I was amazed by what I saw:
Most of these petroglyphs represent different spiritual ceremonies where the indigenous people of the Acapulco area, the Yope, danced and sang to please the gods so that the rainy season would come. Believe it or not, many of the petroglyphs also depict individual people, like elder tribesman and others who held power. I was taken aback by the smiley faces and the strange jellyfish-pokemon looking thing. Haha. Most of them were created around 850 - 200 BC, and I get super excited when I see things that are so old!
Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll update you all with a second part in a few days. Today is my birthday, holler!
wow who would have ever known the smiley faces were that old! thank you for sharing this, I love living vicariously through your photos :)
ReplyDeleteI've never visited Acapulco but funny enough, it is where my parents went on their honeymoon!