Home at Last!

We’ve made it – The end of our adventure. Sorry about the delay, but we had to concentrate on our business for a few days.

Huatulco, Mexico

Huatalco is a government planned resort area that has not made it to the big time yet. The mountains and water are wonderful, and the crowds haven’t found it yet. We moored on a modern concrete dock in the center of this beautiful harbor that looks like it has been transplanted from the Mediterranean. I guess the theme is intended to make you ask yourself “Why fly 8 hours and spend Euros, when you can just slip down here and enjoy a 10 to one exchange rate in the same kind of setting?”.

We thought that a water tour of the 5 bays that make up this area would give us a good overview of what you’ll encounter if you come here. One of the hawkers on the pier offered us a 2-hour tour for only $10 each, so the 4 of us set out in our private launch with Carlos at the helm. We motored out of the harbor past the rusty shipwreck, and past nesting pelicans to the Blowhole, and toured up and down the coast past the lighthouse to see all five of the bays that will eventually be developed. They are all breathtakingly beautiful.

Our overall impression is that this is what Cabo St Lucas must have looked like 15 or 20 years ago. We’ll have to do an airfare comparison to see if this is a secret place for those tired of crowds and hubbub in Cancun and Cabo. I enjoyed a couple of Modelo beers while Patti did her best to keep the local economy alive by buying trinkets, and we then boarded the ship for our final stop in Acapulco.

Acapulco, Mexico

This stop is a great example of why we have to visit ports of call for our customers. You could never get the character and feel of this vibrant Mexican city from a brochure. After picking us up from the ship for a $10 per person taxi ride to the Hyatt Regency, he stopped at a convenient place to take photos of our ship for the last time. While we were stopped he suggested that we had several hours until check-in time. What a great marketer! We had already committed to give him $40 to get us all to the hotel. For only $100 more, we could tour the entire city until our hotel was ready for us. Our new friend and driver Alfonso Jaramillo Catete. (ajaramillocatete@yahoo.com.mx) then showed us how the hotels and attractions successively moved up scale as we rounded the bay. There was a neighborhood and price range for every type of traveler sharing the same beautiful bay. Over the hill in the next bay, new development was cranking out a new shopping mall to serve the exploding array of new condos. Alfonso was quick to point out that most of the condos were not time-shares. With this resort only 4 hours from polluted Mexico City, many families have purchased condos for weekend getaways. Time-shares are there, but do not dominate.

While we traveled back through the city, we happened upon Alfonso’s wife and kids out on break from running their internet café. Arriving at the Flamingo hotel where Johnny Weissmuller, John Wayne, and friends congregated in the 30’s we had a cool drink on the veranda overlooking the bay hundreds of feet below. While this hotel has some signs of it’s age, It seems like a great place to try out on a future trip. The neighborhood is not high class, but very pretty and very Mexican. Alfonso then drove us over see the cliff divers at just the right time to get the best seats. While downing a cool beer, and snapping shots of the daring divers scaling and jumping from the cliff, we could see those without guidance had climbed way down the cliff to watch while standing in the direct sunlight. We got some great shots of the divers, and continued to a Mercado for shopping. Along the way, we discussed Mexican beers. Alfonso jumped out of the van, ran across the street and purchased us each a beer for tasting. The best beer was Noche Buena, (Christmas Eve). One must take care because these beers are all on the high alcohol range, and can lead to “unexpected adventures”.

The Hyatt Regency is in the center of the crescent beach, and our 18th story suite had a walk-in closet, a dressing room, and a balcony that gave us a great view of the entire harbor. Alfonso had recommended a fish restaurant directly Across from the Hyatt, so we dined in style on the second floor veranda. The food was spectacular, and cost about ¼ of what you’d pay in South Beach. With the busy day of debarkation, touring, and dining, we turned in early. After about an hour’s sleep with conga drums and brass drifting up from the pool area, we experienced our first Mexican fireworks. It was sort of a 33 second drive-by exhibition of explosive bursts set for just about the 18th floor level. We got to the balcony about 5 second before the show suddenly stopped. It was almost like they didn’t have a permit, and had to move on before the police arrived. We grumbled, returned to bed, and just got to sleep in time for another fireworks show across the bay. After that, the fine linens and air conditioners did their job all night.

Our second day in Acapulco was laid back. After seeing so many things the first day, we were free to laze around the pool or walk the avenue along the beach. We found a natural food restaurant, where we found that natural and carbon-neutral can be really tasty. With a big day of travel the next day, we retired early for a “battery charge”. What we got was more like a cavalry charge, as another fireworks skirmish erupted at the far end of our hotel. As veterans, we raced to the window to see the last few bursts explode literally 100 feet from the rooms on our floor.

Hyatt’s shuttle got us to the airport with no problems, and we entered the twilight zone of air travel knowing that seeing our home was improbable that day. The flight to Houston was smooth and uneventful. Continental’s snack was actually a meal.

Then, the tentacles of the snowstorm in the east reached all the way to Texas, and our flight to Laguardia was delayed so that if the NY to BTV flight did take off we would still be in Houston. Based on prior experience in New York, we decided to overnight in Houston rather than go through another “No room at the inn” scenario at LAG. They say that good luck happens to those who are prepared for it, and it was our turn!
The desk set up for emergency hotel rooms sent us to the Humble Texas Hampton Inn. After getting in their van we almost felt like we were back on a cruise ship. For a fee of $59, we had a free happy hour with beer and wine, free transportation to Joe’s Crab House for Shrimp and crab cakes, and free pick-up from the shopping center where we bought clothing for the next day. It was like a little oasis in the desert of air travel.
The Hampton Inn fed us a great breakfast, and got us to the airport.

When we arrived in Burlington after almost 2 days in transit, we were glad to see that our baggage had arrived before we did. One of our bags had been damaged, and was replaced on the spot by Continental. After picking up our pre-warmed car at the long term parking facility, we made our way through the snow to our home on Lake Champlain.