I went to Acapulco for 1 week by myself. It was a Christmas present from my husband and he did not want to go. I stayed at the Fiesta Americana, a Mexican owned hotel chain. The hotel is on “the strip” with all the clubs. I had a beach front apartment on the 16th floor. Talk about a fantastic view OMG! One day I will get the pictures uploaded. The hotel is laid out nicely – everything was easy access. I got there at 7:30am and check in was not until 3pm and NO earlier. No problem. I went to their breakfast buffet. It was good. Then I perused the facility. I was right on the beach but up many steps. I never did get down to the beach – I was wearing my foot brace and on a walking cane so, forget about all those stairs. The swimming pool area was great. They had lounge chairs in water with plenty of cover from the sun. The pool was warm. There is a pool side restaurant and bar that was good. All the restaurants in the hotel had great food. Room service was even great. The first day while waiting to check in I met a couple ladies from Chicago and New York (by way of Mississippi – if you get my drift). They have been going there for the last 25 years every Feb. They usually stay 3-4 weeks. They were leaving in the next couple of days. I never saw them again.
Once I got in my room I slept for nearly 14 hours. WOW so I already missed 2 whole days. But the Mexican movies are fun to watch. The clubs crank up at 10pm and go until 4AM. It was fun and exciting, at first. By night 4 I was SSSOO sick of hearing Uptown Funk I could slit my own throat. The music is SO loud I can even hear the hype man grunting. There was no night, other than the first night, that I got to sleep before 4am. Anyway, day 3 I went walking in the neighborhood. the loudest club – Mojitos – is a Cuban/Mexican club. People start lining up to get in about 8:30pm. It was 3 blocks down the street but they are so loud I first thought it was coming from the pool area. Barbajos, Paradise and My Party club are all club in the same 3 black area. There was OXXO (like our 7-11) directly across the street from the hotel, Star Bucks next door and various other neighborhood boutiques. Great area.
The US screwed me on the money exchange. I usually change my money at home. Previously, I have usually gotten a good exchange rate. Well, this time the rate was 5 pesos to 1 dollar at the bank. That was the absolute lowest I have EVER experienced. BUT, in Mexico the rate was 18 pesos to the dollar. The US keeps the difference of 13 pesos. That really SUCKS and Mexico has nothing to do with that.
By night 4 I found a cabby, Ivan, that I hired for the rest of my time there. He had lived in Atlanta, GA; thus, spoke great English. He took me on a tour of the city and neighboring communities. He took me to some street vendors to find some dvd’s of movies I had been watching while there. Always interesting to see what the “real” people are about.
I asked him about an African village and he knew of ‘them.’ He did not know anyone in the villages, tho. He had another cabby friend, Felipe, whose wife was from the African village of Cost Chica. He married her because she was the closet he could get to Serena Williams – his one true love LMAO! Anyway, he knew everybody along the way. It was a 3.4 hour drive. They have nerve to have sped bumps on the highway. Every block. And they nearly stop to go over the bumps. Here at home we call them cruiser bumps and keep on going. But most of the cars there are old. They sure know how to preserve stuff. When I asked why about the sped bumps I was told because people have to cross the road and without the bumps they were getting run over. The highway is only 2 lanes and the villages are on both sides of the highway. Makes sense. We crossed over into another state and had to go through a check point with the military. They do NOT play. Everybody out of the car and they run their dogs through the car, front back and trunk.
Our first stop was Playa Ventura – a beach resort. Talk about a FANTASTIC beach. WOW! Nothing fancy like at the hotel or a resort but totally laid back with a beach side restaurant and bar. I met Senior Ventura – the man who created the resort and his son. I never saw any hotels but when I came home and googled it there was one shown. Senior Ventura is 78 years old, shirtless with slacks and barefoot. The only thing that looked 78 on him were his eyes. They were red – not like drunk red but like sick red. He walked and talked with vigor and appeared in good health – except for those eyes. He did admit that his memory is no good – join the crowd! His son did most of the talking – So much gets lost in the interpretation. When I asked a question the answer in Spanish may take 3 minutes – the interpretation 15 seconds. Ugh. So he told us that in 1559 the king of Spain sent over 100 African men and 100 African women as slaves. Slavery there was abolished in and about 1821. Since there were no roads the Africans stayed there. There were others that ran away further into the forest; thus, more African villages further south. We stayed in Playa Ventura about 40 minutes then back on the road to Costa Chica. Costa Chica definitely reminded me of Africa. There were “stucco” looking buildings but roughly built and several patches of cement. I met the ‘griot’ who had a lot to say – so much lost in interpretation, tho. When asked about religion he kind of dummied up but said, ‘we all have different beliefs’ and let it at that. I was looking for a Santeria practitioner but he was not available. They have a yearly conference in Costa Chica where all the Afro-Mestizos come. I was told that the king of Angola comes there every 3- 5 years (if I understood correctly). The people are dark skinned. Some had straight hair, some curly and some nappy. I am told that further south there is a village with Nigerian Black Africans with bluish/green eyes. They speak some dialect of Spanish.
Talk about feeling so very ignorant. I have seen dark skinned Mexicans in Mexico and here at home. BUT I have never thought of them as being of African descent. I thought they were brown because they lived by the equator and they were just sun burnt. When I googled Afro-Mestizos, other places I have been to were named with Afro-Mestizos i.e. Costa Maya, Tamaulipas, the Yucatan cities on the gulf side of Mexico. And, yes, I saw black Mexicans and it STILL did not translate “of African descent.” They have all had straight hair, brown or black eyes, and spoke Spanish. So there was never a conversation about heritage. Amazing. I would love to go back and spend at least 4 days just discovering these other African villages south of Acapulco. However, I would prefer taking someone else whose first language is English as the interpreter.
Stayed tuned. I go to Cozumel, Mexico in May and I will seek out other African villages. I will be on a cruies sO I won’t have much time. I’ll see.
Ciao
