Damn Tourists

Acapulco is a delight, as is this traveling deal in general. I'm having a blast and the experience is defiantly helping my Spanish and photography. It's a phenomenal change of pace from the school year and provides a lot of perspective on life back in the States and the cycles I find myself caught up in. The world seems a lot more interesting, being outside the borders of familiarity and interacting with everything around me. I'm afraid I've been relaxing too much and don't have any new photos (sorry!). I'm planning on setting a day aside for photography soon though, so stay tuned.

Acapulco's much different than Mexico City. Mexico City feels very much like the heart of the country--it's the center of just about everything and is bustling with activity. It feels very much like a city in the States, though not really as clean and new. There are also obvious cultural differences. Acapulco is a five hour bus ride south of the city. It's situated on a gorgeous bay on the Pacific. Steep green hills rise around us spotted with large house. Those hills meet the water at the beaches (which are decent, though they're a little dirty and the surf isn't great for body surfing) where more of the development is. Mexico City is centered around industry. Acapulco is very a tourist spot--for both Mexicans and foreigners. I get the sense it's a great place to be for Spring Break. We're out of peak season, so things are a little more mellow, there aren't many tourists. I'm staying in a hostel, K3 Acapulco, that's working out very well despite my initial hesitation. I've met some awesome foreigners, mostly from Europe and Austraila and had some good times with them.

The thing that's surprised me most is the differences in how people approach me trying to sell stuff. In Mexico City, I spent a lot of time in the markets and ran into a number of vendors on the streets. Despite being obviously out of place, people were generally very polite and I was rarely hassled. I thought the people trying to sell CDs on public transportation were pretty interesting. You'd run into a few of them whenever you tried to go somewhere. They have speakers in their backpacks, which are hooked up to a CD player and have the mix CD they're playing blasting. They'll walk through a subway car sampling the tracks and selling to interested parties. It was a nice relief from the silence and blank stares I feel like I encounter on the same transport in the States.

The vendors here in Acapulco are pretty obnoxious. Whenever I walk down the streets here, I'm hit by a wall of offers for various things, services. "Taxi...You want some food? It's very good...What are you looking for?...Come with me, I know where the best party." On the beaches, there's a constant stream of people. Jewelry, fruit, shirts, hats, massages, food, cheap sunglasses, drinks--half of which I'd be willing to bet is made in China--just about anything you could possibly want. Young kids, probably not much older than five or six will accost you too. At times it felt like there were more vendors on the beach than everyone else.

I have a number of favorite people so far. The first is a guy that I ran into on the street a couple blocks from the hostel. As I approached him he was holding a few silver bracelets. He didn't even bother to offer me the bracelets, instead listing off a number drugs--probably the only words he knows in English. I did my usual "No gracias" while shaking my hand. I returned half an hour later and he pulled the same routine on me, probably without remembering he'd approached me earlier. There was a kid on the beach that sang a song did a ridiculous dance. I can't really describe it beyond that. Another older guy came by the beach with a Yankees cap on and called us "Homeboys". Way out of place. One other person seemed innocently enough to be selling tacos. He offered the food and when we weren't interested, he leaned in and transitioned from cheese to weed. The British guys I was with at the beach that day actually had some fun with some of the vendors, which was pretty funny.

If I want something, I will seek it out on my own terms. Unfortunately it gets worse at night outside of the clubs and bars. I'm pretty sure I've been offered drugs that don't even exist. "Hey Buddy, I've got whatever you want...Weed? Cocaine?" I've been offered sex and various other acts by prostitutes. "You name it, it's yours." At a price of course (don't worry, Mom, I refuse any and all). Some people will follow you for a block or two. This isn't exactly humanity at it's best. The worst part is that they hover around the entrances of these clubs. I'm sure many a drunk tourist has fallen into these traps. As easy as it may be to point a finger at everyone trying to sell me their services, I'm not sure how much they can be blamed. Sure, they're trying to take advantage of me, but they're also trying to survive and be able to put food on the table. The sex, the drugs, the rudeness--they all seem to be more a reflection of and response to the people that visit here than anything else. I won't exempt myself here (as I was puking my brains out on the streets of Mexico City a few nights ago) but thanks, assholes. Damn tourists.

Proximo, Acapulco

I was on a bus all day, so no photos. Lucha Libre didn't work out either--the next fight isn't until tomorrow. So I'll try to inform/(entertain?) with some writing.

Andrew and I parted ways this morning. He's somewhere in between Mexico City and Oregon...or Claremont, Phoenix, or Houston, but definitely in the States by now. And I'm in beautiful Acapulco. I took a bus this morning and the five hours past with ease--it was refreshing to see green landscape after being surrounded by cement's gray for the past two weeks or so. I'm staying in a hostel at the moment. It's hostelly--small and stuffy, but it's clean, there's a bar with cheap beer ($1.30), free breakfast and the rooms with AC that make it much better at night. I have a backup for when I decide I need personal space. My dorm has four beds; one of them is occupied by a Swede my age here learning Spanish and looking for American girls. My newest best friend is across the street--a Starbucks that's open late with great AC and free fast wireless.

I wandered around a little this evening to get a sense of things. Took the bus into the zocalo--the main square--to get dinner. Acapulco definitely has character. It's buses are named and have great ones, like "Poison", "Caliente", and "Hollywood." They're even more exciting on the inside. Reggae-tone was blasting so loud in the bus I boarded, that I had difficulty communicating with the driver--I hope I paid enough. Though, to be fair, he turned down the music to answer his cell at one point. His seat looked more like a beach chair then a where a bus driver sits. The bus has eyes on the inside, a bikini bottom covering half of the rear view mirror and plenty of stuffed animals cluttering the rest of the windshield. I made it to the zocalo, though, and had some great tacos and horchata (much better than yours, Frary...sorry!).

The zocalo was a sight too. It's in the old part of town and away from much of the touristy stuff--I was fairly out of place. On one of its ends, a rap performance was starting up. On the other end, there was mass in session at a open-doored cathedral. I think the rapper had a better turn out. The beauty of the bay and sunset were in the background. I walked back to hostel after dinner. At an hour, it took twice as long as my hostel's receptionist had quoted. I got a sense of the lay of the land, ran across some cool beaches and great looking restaurants. That's all I have for now--hopefully more in a day or too (and maybe photos?).

Pyrmide Del Sol

We took a bus an hour outside of the city today to visit the ancient city of Teotihuacan. The city was built by a civilization that predates the Aztecs and it contains the Pyrmide Del Sol. The Pyrmide Del Sol rises 246 feet and is the third tallest pyramid in the world. To my knowledge it is the tallest pyramid that has been fully excavated and which you can climb to the top of. We're planning on going to a lucha libre fight tomorrow and hopefully will be able to bring cameras and have photos to show.

Here's some shots from today:

Done with the Workshop

The workshop finished a couple nights ago and was altogether good and very helpful. We closed it out with a party and a slide show of everyone's work. It was very cool to see the city through each photographer's own perspective. They're already talking about doing next year's workshop in either Morocco or Asia, which would be equally as awesome.

Andrew and I are going to explore parts of the city that we haven't seen yet for the next couple days until he flies out on Thursday--at which point I'll take a bus to Acapulco for a more relaxing couple of days. I can't promise the same frequency of photos and entries from here out, but I'll do my best to keep whoever reads this informed.

Here's a few photos from around the city:




Here are a couple links to more broad selections of photos that I've taken:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074129&l=c0a12&id=13308767
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074560&l=4aed1&id=13308767
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074669&l=3fcc1&id=13308767