After Cabo, the Silver Shadow headed south and east to Night of the Iguana site, Puerto Vallarta, lovely quaint movie set like Zihuatanejo, and today in big city Acapulco. We sail in 90 minutes from now at 7 pm in the tropical thunderstorm which has managed to increase the humidity to about 112% (according to the automated ship’s system. Perhaps that’s not correct, but it’s mighty humid). A brief summary of the Mexican ports about Cabo follows:
We docked at Puerto Vallarta within easy walking distance to a Sam’s Club and WalMart. The sight from the ship was therefore of the three pirate enterprises in close proximity. The greeter at Wall-Mart did not say “Aaargh” even though Talk Like A Pirate Day was only last week. The guys on the “authentic pirate ship” were speaking Spanish; so I don’t know what they were saying. I bought batteries and retired back to the ship as I had been to PV long ago, and it wasn’t any better for the time past as I am. Relaxed and finished another book. Zihuatanejo was another matter. The anchorage was most lovely (no picture above since it looked a lot like any other tropical paradise. Write me for a pix if you don’t know what they look like.) I took a tour entitled, “Countryside”, visiting a “coconut farm” where a guy whacked coconuts upon the tour guide’s count of uno, dos, tres. He (the guide and the whacker) did that a number of times until all of us drifted away, mostly to get distant from the half coconut labeled Tips. Then we went to “an authentic fishing village” where we couldn’t see the water for the hundreds of empty tables set up for the tourists, of which our minibus was it. A few of us walked some distance up the road to what turned out to be a very nice little town. It really was a real fishing village, but all the women of town were busy circling the remainder of us offering various trinkets. Came back via a nice beach, actually a pleasant tour. Went back into Zihua after lunch and had a Dos Equis with a cardiologist and nursing professor wife from the ship. Pool barbeque for dinner was best so far on Silversea as we sailed very slowly along the Central Mexican coastline.
Today was a full day in Acapulco. I woke up rested and remarkably ambitious to beg a last minute ticket for the LEGENDARY ACAPULCO 4 hour tour from the ship. I will never get the $78 and 4 hours of my life back, but did see the world-famous cliff divers, the famous hotel that “all the movie stars have stayed at” (apparently while they were being filmed), and took the obligatory picture of the ship in the harbor. I was trying to get a picture of the pink pyramidal Princess Hotel made famous in the film “10”, the somewhat more risqué retelling of the much better Somerset Maughn, Of Human Bondage. The guide started with a long lecture on the importance of tipping in the economy of Mexico, before we even pulled out of the parking space on the dock, and then proceeded to point out every McDonalds, Starbucks, and Planet Hollywood. Then the tour and traffic get worse. The view from the gigantic cross on the hillside was nice, and it was nice to see the cliff divers even if they mostly just stood around. Most of us got lots of pictures of where they had been before they would dive without warning every 5 minutes or so. We did see them up close when THEY explained to us in person the importance of tips in the Mexican economy. I got back to the ship in time for a wonderful lunch of calamari and Pinot Grigio and then the rains came.
Beginning to find friends onboard to dine with, all of whom are leaving in Costa Rica it seems. (Story of my life.) Oh well, I’ll always have the pool barbeque and earlier the dinner with a new acquaintance a couple of nights ago in The Champagne Room. This is the only cost extra facility, a 6 table private dining room with a dedicated chef and very expensive wine. There were no other guests there, just me and him plus a head waiter, a waitress, a sommelier (to advise on choosing the most expensive wine, of course), and a busboy. My benefactor is traveling all the way from LA back to LA but his girlfriend isn't joining him until somewhere along the way. He eats almost every night by himself in the Champagne Room he said. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, the very very rich are not like you or I. So far, that evening and an anti-Semitic crack by a little old lady have added some spice to the trip.
A sea day awaits tomorrow and then a stop in Guatemala at a port where the trip excursion brochure advises that it is not recommended to visit town. All the tours are long full day excursions. The “Active Volcano Climbing” offering seems fraught with weather vagaries. Among the other choices is the 9 hour trip to Copan, “The Paris of Mayan Ruins”. Unfortunately, this trip costs $595 and involves chartered private small single engine planes to a grass strip at the Eastern border of Guatemala, a four wheel drive well into Honduras and most scary of all, “A lunch in a local restaurant.” I guess the $595 saved will go towards my lost $78 from today.
More from Central America as we sail east and set the clocks back.
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