Day 06 - Trio reunited

22nd January 2009

After our last Internet session, we went for some mighty large and tasty steaks in what turned out to be the Gay district of town, a block from the Prague/London intersection. We shared massive cuts of Argentinian Angus steak and a half decent bottle of red. A treat for our first successful day in the city.

Back to our room, and a short listen to our in-room entertainment system (bizzare dial on the wall pumping Mexican radio from a speaker in the ceiling!) and then a well deserved rest.

Rocking it up with Radio-Mexicana drifting from the ceiling.

We used the tube network to access some of the other city-centers (there are 4!). A pretty efficient system by our standards, and put to good use by a lot of people. There were some incredibly inventive beggars, who carried a backpack with a car battery and speaker system hooked up to a person CD player. They would hop on, blast out 5 second snippets from their collection as a preview, and for a small fee you could have your desired song played between stops; like a personal request jukebox that gets imposed on the rest of the carriage.

Mexico city's underground system.

We arrived in San Angel, in the south of the city. A picturesque town of cobbled streets and old colonial buildings, where much of Mexico aristocracy used to have summer residences. It was pretty, although we found it little soulless; now the playground for the wealthy of the city only and populated with pretentious boutique shops selling goods only the super rich could afford. Made for an interesting walk, and we had a great 3 course lunch followed by a quick relaxing digestion break in a park.

Upon returning home to the historic centre to await Petr, we stopped off at some amazing book shops in search of some travel guides on this part of Mexico that our current guidebooks did not cover. We didn't quite find what we were looking for, but did find some interesting books on the history of Mexico that we bought as souvenirs.

The amazing bookstore

A few hours later, and Petr had made it to Mexico, and joined us at the Hotel! Was good to see him here, and he was extremely glad to have made it, despite the earlier set back! We are 3 once more, and ready to head off into the sunset.

And come celebratory beers, that exactly what we did - got ourselves on a bus south to a place 300km south on the Pacific coast called Acapulco. The journey was nice, and seeing the dramatic mountainous landscape change from arid plateau highlands of Mexico city into lush, green, tropical valleys of the coast was as much entertainment as the films they were showing. Stepping off the bus when we arrived gave us a 40 degree, humid smack in the face that we welcomed following our chilly nights at higher altitude. Visual journey map.

Beach view in the posh hotel area.

This place sure is different to the capitol, but again, very populated. We've a nice hotel on the cost, with a balcony overlooking the sea (and a main road). After a brief snint of exploration in what remained of the light after checking in we continued to fully explore the following morning. We walked for hours in the blistering heat, stopping at bars and luxury hotels for drinks as we passed along.

The Acapulco bay at night.

This morning we arose early in search of good photographic light, and set about exploring more of the coast (other direction this time). We found a few spots on the beach by climbing a fence to a members only marina and was kindly asked to leave :) After another hour or so walking through run-down residential areas and climbing steep hills, we found ourselves in an area filled with half finished and derelict, gigantic hotels. We´re guessing there was a rush to expand for growing tourism that was overestimated, and left many projects unfinished. In our hunt for the perfect photography location for the bay, we came across a very large complex that had only the concrete framework in place, built into a cliff at the corner of the bay. We had to scale a fence to get in, but it was worth it! The place was a photographers playground: architecturally interesting, deserted, and in an ideal location.

View across the bay from the abandoned hotel complex. Credit: Lukas

Following our building site playground, we continued around the peninsula in search of a beach. We found a gem just a few kilometers away.

Beach we spent most of the day sizzling like sausages.

Today we spent a large portion of our day just chilling on this beach in the sun, and we're all a little pinker for it ;) We had most of it to ourselves for a large portion of the day, but following midday it got busy fast, and it became clear this is the place where Mexican holiday makers come.

Typical Mexican character. They're all a little portly.

We've been playing a card game from Czech republic called "Prsi" (It's raining), whenever we get a some spare time, as it's a fun way to relax. It's not played with a standard deck of cards, but rather a more pictorial one using a deck of thirty-something cards. It's also a good way to decide certain things, like who gets the small bed in the hotel, and we sometimes get the looser to do silly bets, like run around the table, do push-ups, eat limes, etc... help keep us entertained :)

Prsi. Our way of making decisions fairly.

On a separate note, we've been exploring the possibility of obtaining our own transportation over here to give us more freedom... Don't want to give too much away, or jinx the plan, but once it's confirmed I'll report back here with more info.

More images from Lukas.