Day Forty Four - February 18

Today's port of call - Acapulco

Our ship arrived at 08:00 and departed from here at 17:00.

The first thing you notice when you leave the cruise port terminal is the heavy presence of armed police as well as army personnel. Their presence was to make the visitors feel safer. Since we were only the 5th cruise ship to visit in 2 years, it was important to make sure that we were not hounded.

The terminal was in an older part of town and to me it looked like Acapulco had passed its prime and places like Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan have become more popular. There did seem to be a modern part of the city which we noticed while crusing away but we did not visit that area.

What do most people do when they visit Acapulco? If you guessed cliff diving then you are correct. With our new friends, Ilona and Keith we visited EL Mirador Acapulco Hotel for a meal of chicken fajitas,margaritas and then watched five divers jump into the Pacific Ocean.

Several boats arrived for the diving and it looked like the divers swam out to the boats to ask for donations. We were asked for donations from the divers when we left the restaurant. US dollars are widely accepted here. It is certainly a hard way to make a living and very dangereous as well.

Once back on board we were treated to an excellent seven man Marriachi band. All band members were required to be double vaccinated and then were retested before boarding the vessel. Our cruise director dressed for the occasion in his Mexican garb.

We are now off to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, 1,029 nautical miles away. Two sea days in a row.